Western Mediterranean - Valencia
After the lightning tour of major cities, we managed to take some time off. The ship spent a day at sea, so we managed to spend a lot of time reading and writing. I spent some time helping my mom with a jigsaw puzzle that we eventually determined was missing a significant number of pieces.
That evening we ate at the Murano restaurant, which is the onboard alternate dining room. The Murano restaurant offered a very impressive selection of French influenced cuisine, and were particularly proud of their wine selection. With that in mind my father and I ordered the wine tasting menu, which was absolutely wonderful. A set of six courses of extremely high quality wines paired with wonderfully delicious food. Not surprised that I ended up a little tipsy by nights end, I don't exactly have a head for wine.
We docked in Valencia fairly early the following morning. Surprisingly, I did not have much of hangover. The tour was mostly a walking tour, with the occasional stops along the way.
They have done a good job preserving the architecture. Wandering through the city and looking at a lot of the old and restored architecture was quite a treat, crowded as it sometimes became.
No surprise that the churches are in wonderful shape, and a lot of the detail work is still very well preserved. Of course, stone is a rather good material to build with if you want it to last a long time.
This little pool of water covers the discovery of Roman ruins in this area. Taking a picture of them through the water and glass was impossible.
We visited the City of Art and Science on the way back to the cruise ship. This is an ongoing renovation project in the downtown area of Valencia. All new buildings, and open air areas. It's beautiful, modern, and utterly soulless.
We also visited a Falles museum. Falles is a Valencian festival celebrating St. Joseph's day. This is a museum where they preserve paper mache effigies. The effigies are built each year for the festival, and there is a voting as to which is the most beautiful, that one is preserved, and the rest are burned at the end of the festival. No photography allowed in there, which I understood, as flash photography would probably gradually ruin the paints on the "statues".
Getting back onto the cruise ship was a pain. All the tours got back at the same time, and they insisted on putting everyone through security multiple times before allowing us to leave. To make up time, the captain increased the speed of the ship for several hours, so we had a very bumpy ride on our way to our final tourist stop.
That evening we ate at the Murano restaurant, which is the onboard alternate dining room. The Murano restaurant offered a very impressive selection of French influenced cuisine, and were particularly proud of their wine selection. With that in mind my father and I ordered the wine tasting menu, which was absolutely wonderful. A set of six courses of extremely high quality wines paired with wonderfully delicious food. Not surprised that I ended up a little tipsy by nights end, I don't exactly have a head for wine.
We docked in Valencia fairly early the following morning. Surprisingly, I did not have much of hangover. The tour was mostly a walking tour, with the occasional stops along the way.
They have done a good job preserving the architecture. Wandering through the city and looking at a lot of the old and restored architecture was quite a treat, crowded as it sometimes became.
No surprise that the churches are in wonderful shape, and a lot of the detail work is still very well preserved. Of course, stone is a rather good material to build with if you want it to last a long time.
This little pool of water covers the discovery of Roman ruins in this area. Taking a picture of them through the water and glass was impossible.
We visited the City of Art and Science on the way back to the cruise ship. This is an ongoing renovation project in the downtown area of Valencia. All new buildings, and open air areas. It's beautiful, modern, and utterly soulless.
We also visited a Falles museum. Falles is a Valencian festival celebrating St. Joseph's day. This is a museum where they preserve paper mache effigies. The effigies are built each year for the festival, and there is a voting as to which is the most beautiful, that one is preserved, and the rest are burned at the end of the festival. No photography allowed in there, which I understood, as flash photography would probably gradually ruin the paints on the "statues".
Getting back onto the cruise ship was a pain. All the tours got back at the same time, and they insisted on putting everyone through security multiple times before allowing us to leave. To make up time, the captain increased the speed of the ship for several hours, so we had a very bumpy ride on our way to our final tourist stop.