Day 10 - Valencia - 21 April 2015

While sitting by the windows, eating breakfast, we see this beautiful sunrise

And then, wow, what a wonderful sight!!

It brings us a beautiful hot day here at Valencia.  The ship sails into port and we stop right by a parking lot.  You can already see the coaches arriving to take people off on tours.  Hopefully there will be transport for us

Here is a picture of another fabulous gangway that is soooo easy to use to get off the ship.  Thank you P&O.  

We see the queues for the buses and are directed to one with wheelchair access.  There is already one gentleman waiting to be lifted on and we are next.  An elderly lady pushing her husband in a wheelchair tries to push in front of us but we weren't going to let her!  Anyway there was plenty of room on this coach.  I'm so impressed with it.  How come the UK doesn't have decent coaches with wheelchair access?  Well done, Spain, you are brilliant!

We have a lovely drive through Valencia which is like a mini tour in itself, and takes around 20 minutes before drop off.  It looks like a  beautiful city.  

I really love the architecture and the pavements are easy for me to get around.  

The beginning of the visit is almost a disaster when Andy loses me.  He was taking photos and I was in front of him.  We were intending to go straight up ahead.  While he was taking photos, I got chatting to fellow passengers from the ship.  They gave me a map and told me what was up ahead.  Minutes later  I turned around to show Andy the map and he was nowhere in sight!  I looked up and down and around and no Andy.

I didn't panic straight away but suddenly the realisation of being abandoned in Valencia was slowly sinking in.  I daren't look for him in a shop in case he came looking for me so I decided to just stay put and hoped he would turn up.  I only waited a minute or so.

Suddenly I saw him running down the road looking for me!  Phew!!!!!!  It was sooooo good to see him, I felt very relieved.  He had walked right passed me after taking photos and didn't see me even though he was looking for me and I hadn't moved from my original spot.   

Anyway, he had good news for me.  While looking for me he discovered another Ale-Hop shop that we liked so much in Alicante.  You can't miss it with it's trademark cow standing in the doorway  We bought quite a bit here.  It's full of just about everything.

We carried on up the road to a big square with the Cathedral of Santa Maria

Right in the middle of this district is the Plaza de la Virgin, an old little square that dates back to Roman times.  It is surrounded by the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados and the Palace of the Generalitat.  

This is a perfect spot for eating and drinking.  We stop at a cafe in the hot sun, drink coffee and eat a toasted croissant with jam .... heaven!

In the square is an elaborate fountain with Neptune lying in it, surrounded by 8 naked women.  This was created by local sculptor Silvestre Edeta and it represents Valencia's Turia River and it's eight irrigation ditches.

Neptune with his nymphets

Octaganol Bell Tower El Micalet

El Micalet Bell Tower

Cathedral of Santa Maria

We discover the beautiful food market Mercado Central filled with the most delicious looking food and authentic Valencian produce.  

Mercado Central - food market

Buildings outside the market

Andy bought lots of olives and cheese and some beer

Food market domed ceiling

After we looked for a place to have lunch

We found somewhere lovely in the hot sun to have beer and tapas

Cheers

We managed to get through huge queues to our shuttle bus and make our way back to the ship.  There were geranium lined roads, very pretty

On the way back I took a selfie to see what Andy was up to behind me

Spying on Andy

view from the coach

Evening selfie

Tommorow is the start of our journey back to Southampton, England. We have three days at sea.  I'll cover them in one more post about the cruise . I'll be showing some pictures of friends we met and our lovely waiters and any other photos I forgot to show.  Thank you for reading ...