Under the category of “No Rest for the Wicked” we dragged our tired bodies out of bed at 8:00AM this morning to once more address the issues around our rental contract. We have learned the hard way that, after staying up to midnight (or 2:00AM for the Cremá) too many nights in a row, requires more than a single night’s rest to catch back up.
La Cremà, the cream on top, the cherry on your ice cream, the pièce de résistance. Whatever you call it, this event certainly lives up to its name. La Cremà brings to an end the festival of Las Fallas and is the time when they burn all the fallas in the city; all 350+ of them.
During the festival of Las Fallas many of the communities of Valencia build small (fallas Infantil), medium (fallas Premios) and massive (fallas Especial) Fallas or Monuments. The Fallas Especial are amazing fallas which can reach heights of 70 feet or more. They are stunning to say the least.
Las Fallas is a 3-week festival. For days and days we enjoyed spotting many lovely falleras and chicas (ladies and children) walking around in full costume. It was difficult not to want to take a picture every time we saw one of them. The richly patterned dresses are beautiful, as are the shoes, combs in the braided hair and jewelry. The falleras are out in public during Las Fallas to draw attention to their community falla.
Today we walked more than 8 miles. Our day began with a visit to Museu Fallera de Valencia. We wanted to visit the historical ninots.
So you may ask, “What is a ninot?” Well, a ninot (from the Valencian language “doll”) is a figure with human representation. We have seen ninots that are relatively small to ones that are life size. Like the “monuments” or “fallas” they were once part of, they are made of combustible materials (cardboard, wood, paper, fabrics, or wax to papier-mâché and expanded polystyrene today) and are set ablaze on the last day of Las Fallas.
Our Airbnb host generously invited us to watch a Mascletà from a balcony on one of the beautiful buildings right on the government center (Plaça de l’Ajuntament). The Plaça de l’Ajuntament, which is directly in front of the City Hall of Valencia in the old part of the city, is where the largest of the mascletàs are held. This was quite an opportunity for us given that the crowds are usually so thick anywhere close to the mascletà that we wouldn’t normally have a chance to actually see much of the mascletà. Now, perched on our fifth floor balcony, we had a tremendous view of the whole plaza and most importantly the mascletà.
There is so much going on its hard to catch it all. As the days of Las Fallas progress, crowds are growing, streets are closing and it is more challenging to get around.
During Las Fallas there are many competitions going on between communities. These competitions are not just about the fallas. There are paella cooking competitions, sports tournaments (as in bull fights), fallera pageants and the decoration and lighting of the streets. We had heard that there were a few ‘Lighting of the Streets’ shows that had to be seen so off we went.
It’s not quite spring but we awoke to what promises to be an unusually warm day. (72 F or 22 … Continue reading Malvarrosa Beach
This morning we visited the “Ninot” exhibition at the Valencia City of Arts and Sciences. We hoped to arrive early to avoid crowds, but that was not to be. This is an important exhibition and it was crowded. For all of us that love cartoons and caricatures, this is an amazing exhibit. Although we had to limit the number of photos we could publish, there were hundreds of ninots exhibited. I think we were smiling throughout the entire exhibit.
Our Tapestry 