Lost in Translation...

If you can't say the word "lost," are you? You might be surprised to learn that it is actually possible to get lost at the beach. Of course, beyond the obvious that you know that you're at the beach and what direction you're traveling, you might not actually know where you are. Case in point--we took the train about an hour south of Valencia to what we thought was a beach resort area. When we didn't see any resorts, we started walking north. By the time we stopped for lunch all we could find open was a Chinese restaurant. Then we kept walking, beachcombing along the way. Although we knew we were paralleling the train tracks, we didn't know how to cut across the fields to get to a station. Eventually we made it to another town in time to see the sunset. At this point we went into a grocery store and attempted to ask for help. Luckily there was a nice couple who spoke English and helped us find a bus to a station about 3 miles away. Amazingly, after we returned and geeky Jimmy plotted our GPS path on Google Earth, we discovered we'd walked 8 miles barefoot along the edge of the Mediterranean. More amazing was that our adventure girls never complained once.

Valuable Lessons Learned in Spain...

* I should have paid more attention to Senor Flores in middle school Spanish class. While I was shocked how many basic words came back to me (una mas cervaza, por favor), it would have been nice to have been able to converse in Spanish.

* It's OK to have chocolate for dinner when in a country famous for its chocolate. What's better than dark chocolate fondue with fruit along with hot dark chocolate milk so thick you have to eat it with a spoon?

* When you happen upon a smoke-free restaurant, you're so thrilled that you don't really care about the food. Granted, the tapas restaurant that we found was very affordable and tasty, but didn't serve tapas as we expected. Basically they were all mini sandwiches, including the dessert shown which was a chocolate bar served on a warm baguette.

A Glimpse of the Future?

Valencia has quite a mix of architectural styles, but most of what we saw was fairly conservative. When we caught our first glimpse of the City of Arts and Sciences, we were quite shocked by the contrast. Five buildings have been built since 1996 on a dry river bed in a very futuristic style. This photo shows the performing arts center. L'Oceanografic, an open-air oceanographic park, was amazing with much of the aquarium actually underground. There was the best observation tunnel that we've ever walked through; it was quite eerie when the sharks went overhead. There was also a great dolphin show featuring 11 dolphins performing at once, although the music playing from "Oklahoma" and other Broadway plays seemed a strange choice.

A Shopper's Delight...

When we travel, we often find ourselves drawn to the local markets and Valencia was no exception. The street markets were mostly jewelry, scarves, knick-knacks and paella pans (when you visit, we'll use our new massive pan that Jimmy somehow crammed in his backpack). The Mercado Central, one of the largest markets in Europe, was in a huge modernist building. Jimmy loved the smells, while I wasn't crazy about the aroma from the huge variety of meats. I especially felt guilty walking past the fish stalls knowing that we were going to an aquarium later in the day. Since most of the foods were raw, we were stuck eating warm pastries heaped with chocolate for breakfast for several days. Luckily, some sacrifices are worth it.

Cutting School Again!

As much as we value education, sometimes it's hard to resist cutting school to go on holiday. In early November we pulled the girls out for 3 days to tag along on a business trip to Valencia, Spain. If you're not familiar with Valencia, don't feel bad because we weren't either. It may be Spain's 3rd largest city (population 900,000), but it doesn't draw tourists like Barcelona or Madrid. It's famous for the Valencia orange (also grown in Valencias in California and Florida) and paella (the original recipe is made with rice, chicken, rabbit and saffron). We enjoyed exploring the many alley ways (some dating back to Roman times), the museums, the America's Cup exhibits for the upcoming races, and the botanical gardens.