Burriana / Strolling / Valencia

Mom visits our Mediterranean home

In addition to our trip to Tarragona, mom’s early summer visit included plenty of beach time, trips into the city, and paella. Mom accompanied Dreamer to the nearby city of Vila-real to discount shop at the local football club’s end-of-season sale. After buying a bright yellow scarf, the ladies casually strolled through downtown, where they came across an 18th-century villa with some special inhabitants. Dreamer was thrilled to discover four gigantes, or giant people, in the courtyard of the villa. Built by the family of the man who introduced and promoted the cultivation of mandarin oranges in the region, the Casa

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Tourism

Tarragona: ancient Roman city

Mom’s visit after school let out at the end of May provided a great excuse to visit another area on our bucket list: Tarragona, a Catalan port city on the Costa Daurada (Golden Coast) of the Mediterranean, south of Barcelona and north of Valencia. The city, known as Tarraco during the Roman Empire, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its wealth of Roman ruins. The region of Catalonia is just a short coastal train journey from where we were living in the Valencian Community. But, of course, our train was a few minutes late again… Dreamer is

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Other Countries / Tourism

Snacking our way through Venice

Quick! Name your top European destinations – the famous places you’ve heard of. Odds are Venice is somewhere on that list. Though we’d both been to Italy before (and that hotel in Las Vegas, of course), this was new ground for both of us. Dreamer had the amazing idea to go before the summer crowds and the stench of the canals became too much to bear, and what a smart woman she is! A three-day weekend was the perfect amount of time there, and mid May a great time to visit. What one must keep in mind first and foremost is

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Castellón / Holidays

Look at all the Pascuals!

We’ve often observed traditional festivals in Spain, but usually as outsiders. We stand outside to watch parades, we go to museums to learn more, we stay up all night to see the bonfires. In May, we didn’t see any of the official festivities in honor of San Pascual Bailón in Villarreal, but we got to do something even better – we went to a party. The above is the only San Pascual-related photo we’ve got, because we were leaving for a trip the next day and didn’t see how the city marked the occasion. The rest of the post is

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Burriana / Castellón / Museums / Valencia

Valencian Community: sights unseen

We traveled quite a bit our first year in Spain, but sometimes it was relaxing to spend a weekend at home. After returning from a long week and a half traveling to the Netherlands and to Tenerife for spring break, we started the last weekend of April with lunch in nearby Castellón de la Plana before making our way to the city’s fine arts museum when it reopened after the afternoon descanso. At some point during our visit, we discovered Dreamer had become a friolera, the local word for someone who is sensitive to cold. This room was maybe 60°F. There was art

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Andalucía / Tourism

Encore Córdoba: flamenco, mudéjar, and yes: more patios

Our May visit to Córdoba was so full of interesting sights (and resulted in so many photos) that – somewhat to Doer’s chagrin – Dreamer decided the trip deserved a rare third blog post. You see, courtyards (known as patios in Spain) truly are an ubiquitous part of the city; they can be found just about everywhere. While many of the courtyards we visited were part of people’s homes and are only open to the public during the festival, there are plenty of patio-related destinations that are open year-round, including a palace featuring TWELVE. DIFFERENT. PATIOS. But before we get to

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