Valencia – very pretty, but pretty hot.

We had a slight internet problem last night, so this is the blog that should have been published yesterday (Tuesday) evening local time.

Our seven hour train trip from Seville to Valencia was uneventful, except for an old Spanish gent in the seat in front of us who leapt to his feet every eight minutes for the entire journey, to look out of another window or give other passengers unwanted advice as to how to stow their luggage. He would then fling himself back into his seat so that everything on our small table attached to his chair flew into the air in all directions. We think he might be a creation of Miguel de Cervantes (come to think of it, when we passed a bank of windmills on a hill he did seem to look at them wistfully, while standing at a slight angle).

Our Valencia apartment is delightful; on the eighth and top floor of block of apartments, within walking distance of the old town, with its own large terrace for surveying the surrounding neighbourhood, and for eating our meals in the cool of the evening. Our first venture out was to the nearby supermarket to stock up; we had Spaghetti Valencia (Bolognese with a local twist) last night -after all it was Monday night! - and are having a paella tonight.

Today, after breakfast on the terrace, we headed into the old town and visited the majestic Conjunto Cathedral, which holds what is claimed to be the Holy Grail, the chalice from which Christ drank during the Last Supper. One of the chapels displays two magnificent Goya paintings. Incidentally, for over one thousand years the “Water Court” has met every Thursday at noon outside the cathedral’s Doors of the Apostles to hear and settle disputes over the distribution of irrigation water. It is the only non-secular court still allowed to operate. Then to the UNESCO heritage site, La Lonja, constructed at the end of the fifteenth century as the Valencia silks and commodities exchange. We also visited the Mercado Centrale, the meat, seafood and produce market with its nine hundred stalls. Before lunch we visited the Basilica Virgen de los Desamparados and listened to the boys’ choir during the lunch-time mass. Then a few more amazing churches with the usual skulls, bones and embalmed limbs on display.

By this time it had reached thirty-nine degrees and after John made an unsuccessful attempt to hijack the local police car we escaped onto the Hop-on Hop-off bus and did a ninety minute circuit of the city, including a cooling visit to Valencia port and a glimpse of the Mediterranean. We were delivered back to the heart of the old town and trudged back to our apartment with limon and mandarina gelato in hand, hot and tired, but content – and looking forward to paella on the terrace.

Tomorrow: more of the old town, including a couple of must-see museums.