Valencia Pride / Italy Caution

We visited Valencia partly on the recommendation of a restaurant server of ours in Copenhagen last spring who was from there. She insisted that it was one of the best places to visits and “like Barcelona, without the tourists.” When we arrived at the train station, the man at the information office gave us a map after marking what he said were not be missed and then folded it with a flourish. Our host met us at the apartment and proceeded to tell us of a church that had ceiling frescoes to rival those of the Sistine chapel, a park that was the biggest in all of Europe, and the best beach in Spain. It was wonderful to visit, though predictably it was hard to live up to the hype.

We had great paella at Case Carmela. Saw beautiful buildings . Walked along the beach . Saw good art . Including street art that seemed appropriate for International Women’s Day. We also saw a banner for an exhibit that seemed to predict the future: La Grip was about the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic that killed nearly 17-50 million people worldwide.

Our current flu scare of coronavirus has already bumped one of our stops off of the itinerary. We had to postpone going to Asti in Italy because it is under a travel ban. So look to hear about Chambery, France instead at the end of this month.