Category: Valencia

Las Fallas / Tourism / Valencia

Ninot takes a break: Valencia walking tour

We spent a very long, fun-filled day taking part in the Fallas in Valencia last month, and we will tell you more about that next time (finally… we promise!). Although the festival really does overtake the city, we still managed to have a few non-Fallas experiences while we were there for a very long day. For example, not all of the street performers we saw were dressed in traditional costumes – some were quite unique. Dreamer gave this guy a shiny nickel. Because we’ve enjoyed the experience so much in other cities, we decided to go on a free walking tour. And wouldn’t

Continue reading
Castellón / Tourism / Valencia

Where good Banjo Boys and Girls come from

We spent the first weekend of March doing some fun activities at home, too, and we managed to stayed just as busy as our previous weekend at home. This time around, we filled our days and nights with a quirky museum, a spa, a parade, rice, pyrotechnics, porcelain figurines, and horchata (sounds like a lot, but to be fair, our weekends are three days – yes, our life is rough).   Saturday: Spa, playing card museum, and a surprise parade Playing card games are quite possibly an even more popular pastime in Spain than in America, and that’s saying something because we

Continue reading
Las Fallas / Valencia

Finding Ninot: Exposition of Ninots 2017

Doer and I accidentally stumbled upon the Exposición del Ninot 2017 when we dropped by the City of Arts and Sciences with our friend Wendy at the end of January. Most of the combustible figures are destined to burn the final night of the Fallas festival this Sunday; however, each year one of them is pardoned by popular vote, and it is destined to live in perpetuity in the Museo Fallero, which we visited earlier this year. The entrance to the exposition at the City of Arts and Sciences After the ninot indultado, or pardoned ninot, is announced tonight, the unfortunate remaining figures will

Continue reading
Valencia

Nature and rice: Exploring the Albufera

At the end of January, Doer and I took our friend Wendy to the Albufera, a freshwater lagoon and estuary on the Gulf of Valencia. Before that, we spent a couple of days exploring some small cities in our region. We began the weekend in Sueca, a town near the Albufera and only a short train ride from Valencia. Some online detective work brought us there, as I had tracked down a cafetería with five pinball machines – by far the most machines we have been able to locate in one place in Spain. Doer really had been missing this favorite hobby, so imagine

Continue reading
Holidays / Las Fallas / Valencia

Finding Ninot: Museo Fallero, Valencia

Last month, Doer and I previewed Valencia’s upcoming, most famous cultural event with a visit to the Fallas Museum. Located in an old convent near the City of Arts and Sciences, the Museo Fallero hosts each year’s pardoned ninots. The museum also has a great brochure on the tradition if you want to read more about it here. The festival dates originated in the mid-18th century, when people gathered on the eve of Saint Joseph’s Day to erect and burn satirical monuments made of wood, cloth, and cardboard. The festival became more complex and artistic around the beginning of the 20th century, becoming

Continue reading
Tourism / Valencia

Alicante: another world on the Mediterranean coast

Visiting Alicante – the third province in the Valencian community, where we live – had been on our bucket list for a while. With Mom and Jim in town and a few extra days after New Year’s before I needed to get back to work, we decided to give it a go on our way back from Madrid. What we found was a picturesque city full of white sandy beaches and great restaurants. With all that beach, this is a really happening spot in the Summer, though we picked a great time to see and experience what appealed to us. It really

Continue reading