This week we visited the Lladro Boutique and Factory. Wow! Their figurines are simply beautiful. We walked another 25 miles or so trying to catch the last few sites of Valencia before we head off on new adventures. With our anniversary coming up (special plans), a trip to Bordeaux, France and then more cities in Spain, we will surely have more new adventures to share.
It seems we walked the entire city from east to west and, since we are usually out walking and exploring midday, we often have a midday meal at one of the numerous cafes. After all, discovering the foods and beverages of a city can be as memorable as visiting the historical sites.
Regardless of what we order we have found the food to be fresh, delicious and wonderful. Manchego cheese paired with Ibérico ham, so delicious! Often accompanied with any number of varieties and flavors of olives. One of our favorite olive preparations is actually slightly orange in color with a tiny bit of heat; another is a mixture of green olives in olive oil, rosemary, thyme, lemon and more. The olives here are delicious, and for the most part, taste so different than anything we previously tried in North America. We often enjoy a glass of rosado (rose) wine with our meal and find this to be the ideal accompaniment for these savory and salty Spanish flavors.
Another new flavor we recently tried was a ‘tomate mermelada’ served with goat cheese on a tapa. Wow! A sweet tomato jam. Why haven’t we heard of this deliciousness before? And, of course, Paella. Valencia is the undisputed home of paella which is the perfect hearty comfort food that gives us the energy to walk and walk and walk and explore.
There are so many dining options yet to be discovered and we are wondering if we should somehow incorporate the occasional dining choice in to our Blog. What do you think?
In the meantime, here are lots of pictures from our recent wanderings across Valencia.
Lladro Boutique and Factory
We visited the wonderful, 65-year old, Lladro Boutique and Factory. The beautiful porcelain figurines created here can be found worldwide today and are like rich desserts, so tempting and delicious. An enjoyable visit indeed and we returned home just in time to attend our Spanish language class.
For more information and photos click here.
Almudin Granero de Arte
The Almudin Granero de Arte building was originally built as a granary at the beginning of the 15th century and used by the city government for storage, distribution and quality control of wheat. There are wonderful inscriptions and frescoes related to the trade still clearly visible today.
Today, this old building has found a new life hosting temporary art exhibits. On this visit we skipped the art exhibit as we were more interested in the original architecture and frescoes on the interior walls. Here is one of the few photos we took.
University of Valencia Botanical Gardens
Later in the week we found the University of Valencia Botanical Gardens. These gardens have been in existence for more than 450 years and continue to be used for research today. They are part of the University of Valencia so we felt lucky to have the chance to wander around. For those of you that know us you will also know that no photo blog would ever be complete without one of us sneaking in pictures of flowers somewhere.
For more information and photos click here.
Last but not least, we visited a few more interesting museums.
Click here to go to the Museums of Valencia page where new additions have been added at the bottom or click on the titles/links below to go to the individual page to view our photos.
The Museum of Toy Soldiers
We were pleasantly surprised with our visit to this museum. There are thousands of toy soldiers set up in various scenarios and divided into different collections throughout the museum. Many specialists and collectors have on display pieces manufactured as far back as the 1800’s.
Center Arqueològic L’Almoina
This was a walk through a thousand years of Valencian history. This enthralling underground museum has archaeological remains from the Roman, Visigoth and Arabic occupations. The museum has done a wonderful job in creating the building and displaying these ruins.
Baños del Almirante (The Admirals Baths)
These medieval baths were built in 1313. They continuously operated as public baths for more than 600 years. A quick and interesting stop.
Salut from these valencianos,
Ted & Julia
Our Tapestry 