Day 45:
It is Saturday the 20th of August here in Valencia and we will be heading to another city to continue our little road trip today but first we are going to do some more sightseeing and lunch. From the
Hotel Hospes Palau de la Mar, we decided to walk through the long strip of park called,
Jardi del Turia, to the arts & science center,
Ciudad de las Arts y Ciencias. Like last time we came here, we stopped at
Contrapunto Restaurante to have espresso, water and cava. We then went up to the landscaped walkway called L'Umbracle with plants that are indigenous to Valencia. Unfortunately they had the second half of the walkway closed off for what looked like to be a private event they will be having. As we were walking to check out the next building, we stopped at this little stand that said something about the product being from Valencia. The product is called Horchata and it is made of Tigernuts, water and sugar. It is good for the lactose intolerant (me) because it is not made with milk but it is a milky-like product. It is usually served ice cold so we bought one on this hot Saturday. We were hesitant at first, not sure what to expect but I think we should have gotten two! This drink was incredibly refreshing. Coco tried some too 馃槈
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| L'Umbracle, an open air walkway landscaped with plants indigenous to Valencia along with sculptures throughout at Ciudad de las Arts y Ciencias |
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| Coco and me walking through L'Umbracle |
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| Drinking my Horchata! A drink that originated in Valencia. |
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| El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe, an interactive science museum at Ciudad de las Arts y Ciencies. This building is made to resemble the skeleton of a whale |
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| Coco at Ciudad de las Arts y Ciencies in Valencia |
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| L'Hemisferic, a building at Ciudad de las Arts y Ciencies that holds an IMAX, planetarium and laserium. This building is meant to resemble a giant eye and is also referred to as the "eye of knowledge" |
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| L'Agora, a now vacant events building holds events such as concerts and sports. |
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| El Pont de l'Assut de l'Or Bridge is the highest point in the city at 125 meters (410 feet high) and the name translates to The Dam of the Gold. |
From here, we hopped in a taxi to the restaurant I researched,
Raco del Turia. I read that the paella is delicious here so I told Scott we must try the paella! Our "Paella Senyoret" had shrimp, monkfish and cuddlefish. It was tasty although we could have done without the cuddlefish. We both learned we did not care for cuddlefish. Oh and the shrimp was cooked perfectly and without the "shrimp gear"
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| Paella Senyoret at Raco del Turia |
After lunch, we took off for our next destination,
Castellon de la Plana, in our rented Smart Car.
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| Scott drives the Smart Car! |
When we drive into the city of
Castellon de la Plana, we are thrown of by the buildings. We both thought it would be more of an old school feel with some castles around but it was more like any other city except completely deserted. We checked into our hotel,
Hotel Jaime I, which was very clean. Bare and basic but clean. The room was incredibly small but we expected that. We only picked this place because it looked like the best option out of only about 3 hotels that are dog friendly in the area. Coco did not care for it either. It is a 3 star hotel. There are a couple of places Scott wanted to check out that are in walking distance. First is the bullring,
Plaza de Toros de Castell贸n, which I have mixed emotions about...it is still an active bullring whereas some cities in Spain have banned bullfighting. Then we walked through a park (pretty but Scott got attacked by mosquitoes) then we ended at a square,
Pla莽a Major, that holds a church, fountain and other cool looking buildings. I got really agitated at the end when I was trying to get a photo of the beautiful building that is a church and it would have been perfect if it were not for the annoying couple that wouldn't move out of my way! They were taking photos of themselves then checking the photos (still in my way) and went back to taking the same photo of themselves from different angles. This continued for at least 10 minutes or maybe longer but I gave up because I was ready to punch these tools in their pretty little narcissistic faces.
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| Plaza de Toros de Castell贸n |
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| Plaza de Toros |
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a tots els homes d'aquestes terres que de l'ofici de torejar n'han fet un art ~Ramon Jesus
Translation: "To all the men of the land that the trade of bullfighting have made an art" |
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| Entrance to Plaza de Toros |
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| Mercat Central de Castell贸, a huge market in Pla莽a Major |
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| Floor art in Pla莽a Major in Castell贸n de la Plana |
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| Where are all the castles? |
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| Catedral de Santa Maria in Pla莽a Major is the Catholic Cathedral of Castell贸n de la Plana...and in the middle you can see the two narcissists that ruined my photo... |
On our walk to all these sites and back, we were extremely baffled that EVERYTHING is closed. It is a Saturday and restaurants, shops, anything and everything, closed. It was a ghost town...not many people around and we could not catch a taxi. It was an eerie experience to say the least and so far, not a very exciting town. Once we finally made it back to our hotel we had front desk call us a Taxi to take us to the port,
El Grao, which has many restaurants. We planned to go to El Mirador del Port for dinner. We walked all around trying to find this place and when we finally did, we were turned away because they do not allow dogs. They have outdoor seating so I thought we were hearing incorrectly but no, they really don't allow dogs in their outdoor seating area. Haters. We actually had a backup plan but after spending about 20 minutes trying to find the place, we gave up and sat at a nice looking outdoor restaurant and in good time because it was starting to rain. I am about to speak very poorly about this restaurant and only because it was so terrible, people deserve to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. Our worst meal in Spain was at a restaurant called
Local 14. First, they brought the wrong wine, (already opened) and it was white wine, not red. So, I had to send it back. The menu was actually not very appealing but we figured we could at least order patatas bravas and something else and feel satisfied. Wrong! The patatas bravas were the nastiest I have seen (and tasted). They were drenched in sauce...a sauce that tasted nothing like a spicy tomato "bravas" sauce. I don't mean, a bunch of sauce on top, I am talking every single patatas piece was lathered in this nasty sauce. More like marinated in the sauce. They were soggy, ruined and inedible. Then our next tapas come out and my face drops even more. There is a mayonnaise substance on my Salmon Toasta. Why is that a problem? Well, I hate mayonnaise...again inedible. I thought about taking the salmon off and just eating that but the salmon looked no good as well. Scott gave me a piece of his Pollo Toasta but it was not much better. Although not worse!
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| Disgusting patatas bravas at Local 14 |
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| Inedible salmon toasta at Local 14 |
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| At least the wine was good! Romantica Crianza 2012 at Local 14 |
We finished our bottle of red wine and made our way out of this town....or at least tried to. We were hoping to catch a taxi back to our hotel but there were none in sight. It was now raining even more so I brought us into a hotel close by to see if they would call us a taxi. The guy at the front desk said something to Scott (in Spanish) about there being a festival in El Grao tonight and there wont be any taxis available but he gave Scott the number if he wanted to try calling. Scott called the taxi service at least a dozen times (probably more) and most of the time they would not answer the phone. Other times, he would get someone and they would say to try back in 10 minutes. He also got hung up on a couple of times...as this was happening, I am still keeping an eye out for any taxis. We found a couple that were dropping people off but they would not take us even after they dropped their passenger off. Still raining, we walked to a small market to get some snacks and water to take back to the hotel, if we ever make it back. I wait outside with Coco and if it couldn't get any worse, fireworks start going off and Coco starts freaking out, scratching the shit out of me and shaking. Oh and it is raining. Scott called our hotel to see if they would help us out. We are basically stranded here but they did nothing to help. Scott even offered to pay the taxis fare for the drive to pick us up but our hotel would not even offer to give it a try. Feeling hopeless and helpless, I suggest we walk away from the port area and try to find a taxi elsewhere. We end up at a small hotel and I ask Scott to go in and ask if they will call a taxi for us. After expressing his frustration and assuming that it would be pointless to ask anyone else for help, he went in and was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. We finally found a nice person to help us out. He called us a taxi and said it would be about 15 minutes. At this point we would not mind waiting for another hour as long as we have a ride. By this time it is about 1am, we have barely had any food and we have been walking around in the rain for an hour with a dog that is terrified. The taxi arrived and we were finally on our way out of this town. Tomorrow we will be completely out of the town of Castell贸n de la Plana with plans to NEVER come back!
Day 46:
I did not even have my espresso this morning, that is how badly we wanted to get out of the city of Castell贸n de la Plana. We planned to stop at an Autogrill rest stop to get my espresso and gas up. I am always impressed by these stops...we have been to a few Autogrills now and they are large with a lot of food and beverage options as well as mini cafes. They have toilets that are very clean and have toilet paper. We plan to have lunch and go to a dog beach in the city called
Denia which is only like 45 minutes from home. When we got to Denia, it was everything Castell贸n was not...it had a castle, charm, beaches and so much more. I found this place by doing my dog beach research on a website called:
Red Canina Espa帽a
There are a couple other dog beaches on the way home that we will probably try at some point but we needed one that definitely had places around to eat. I researched some of the restaurants at the port next to the dog beach and we decided on
Pekado Mortal. This place has the perfect setting, a castle to the right and boats/yachts directly in front. It is quiet here which is also a plus! The food and service was fantastic and Coco really enjoyed the fish as well. We got a giant seabass for the two of us as you will see below...
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| Pekado Mortal overlooking the Port of Denia |
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| Pimientos de Padr贸n at Pekado Mortal....I have been craving this dish and they cooked it to perfection |
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| Jara Sangria at Pekado Mortal |
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| Lubina para dos! Seabass for two at Pekado Mortal |
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"Hola, drop a piece down here!" ~ Coco
"The best things in life are free; the second best are very expensive." ~ Coco Chanel |
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| Lubina (seabass) y verduras (vegetables) at Pekado Mortal |
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| (Pulpo) Octopus appetizer at Pekado Mortal |
Just down the way is the dog beach,
North Jetty Beach. It is not much of a dog beach but we hung out for a bit. The sand was not quite the same sand as the beach area roped off next to us. It was more like a combination of dried seaweed and these balls called Posidonia Oceanica. Coco is still figuring out the ocean water and very afraid of waves so this was not the beach for her. The waves were a little too much. Even if she wanted to get close, she could not because of the heavy piles of seaweed....or in her eyes, cliffs of seaweed!
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| Coco's beach day in Denia |
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| Posidonia Oceanica |
On our way home, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant that we have been wanting to try,
Asia Li. I will have to give this place another shot because our experience was not what it could have been. First of all, it was windy (with a slight chill) so the waitress did not want to serve us like she probably would have if we were one of her tables inside. I decided on the kung pao chicken but when it came out, there were mushrooms in it. I have never heard if a kung pao chicken having mushrooms so I did not even think to ask! Because I am so allergic to mushrooms, I get nauseous at the sight of them. Scott hates mushrooms too but he does not have an issue with pushing them aside and still eating the food. He knows there is no way I am eating this so he offers me his meal, which I gladly take 馃槏
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| Marqu茅s de C谩ceres 2011 Crianza de Rioja at Asia Li |
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| Scott's Pollo Szechuan, now my dish at Asia Li |
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