11 - 12 August : Valencia, Spain

11th August

Having left Madrid I am now in Valencia.

Why Valencia? well lets blame it on the 1961 Hollywood epic "El Cid" with actors Charlton Heston & Sophia Loren. At the end of the film this timeless Spanish folk hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099), named 'El Cid" (The Lord) by the Moors, rode dying, out of the gates of Valencia, and into legend. Given that film was made possibly in Tunisia or Morrocco , I doubt very much if it will align with my memories from the film.

However by 3pm local time I will know for sure. I am now on the train to Valencia with 7 minutes to spare. 

Just over two hours later arrived in Valencia. Trip went by fast as I was on high speed train. Chatted the whole way with young Spanish teacher. Chatted about what they earned. Apparently $2000 a month if they pass a special exam or €800 per month for the average teacher with at least a master's degree. All very interesting.

First impression of Valencia is the humidity. Madrid was high temperature but almost zero humidity, Valencia has both. Together with that is the fact I had to use my phone to pay for the public toilet. That's a first for me. 0.6 Euro.

My first (edited view) of Valencia.

There is a McDonald's right in the station so I am having my first Macca's in Spain. 2 plain burgers. I have not eaten anything since 7pm last night. Quite hungry. Let's see if they can get it correct. - they did! . Cost €1.2  that converts to roughly Au$1.76. But oh so salty.

As I navigated via Google maps to my hotel, I came across a lonley statue at a insignificant intersection. I not even sure why I bothered to look up at yet another priest, king, prince or bishop but something made me take more note of it. Although I obviously do not know Spanish, I was able to read what was written on the inscription and the was the word Campeador.

There was my hero from my teens, up on his stead, fighting the Moors who were still controlling his late 11th century homeland - Rodrigo Diaz da Viva known as El Campeador to the Spanish and El Cid by his Moorish enemies.

There was only one major problem, the statue's head 

was not that of Charlton Heston, the actor who played the great folk hero. For a fraction of a second I felt annoyed, let down, betrayed, but just for a milli-second. 

He is to Spain as King Arthur or Robyn Hood are to England or William Tell is to Italy, names that belong in legend because they are so hard to define in flesh & blood. Except El Cid was real, and even though he did fight on multiple sides during his time.

My accommodation:

I am booked into the Casual de la Musica, Valencia.

It is a single room with 1 1,/2 m2 ensuite and not very different from the room I had in Madrid except this one has the appearance of being much newer, or at least refurbished and most importantly it has an air conditioner. The one in Madrid only had a fan albeit very effective

Local food. 

I had a burger last night at a very weird joint called Freddy's, yes named after the Nightmare on Elm Street fame.

I had to teach them that burger must not be raw in the middle. The burger was OK so I must still know how to teach . And of course beer goes with everything here in Spain. In fact I have yet to open a bottle of wine. Not quite like me.

Images from around the old city of Valencia plus a few other close by spots. 

The local population all come out in the evening and fill the streets and Plazas. It's like this in all Spanish cities I have stayed in date. I find it a lovely custom and way of life. 

12th August

Happy birthday to my late father. He would have been 96 today. 

Found a nice little coffee shop one block away from my hotel. €2.90 for cafe American and a massive coissant.

My phone is reporting 26° at present, buy it feels much cooler. I'm sure it will get warmer as the day progresses. And apparently it does. Day maximum usually arrives about 5pm. But so does the Valencian version of the Fremantle Doctor.

Wander through the old city, just minding my own business, when a plaque in Spanish caught my eye. I would not have stopped for more than half a second except the phrase 'identity de genere' suddenly had some meaning for me. Using my AI translate I read that the plaque referred to a women who was tortured & executed in 1460 because, in the terms of the modern world, she was lgbti ....

The plaque had been placed there in 2017, in the memory of all victims of lgtbFobia (not sure if victims refer to Valencian-wide or Nation-wide or world wide) by the city council.

Slightly further down there is a very old church switch graffiti all across the base. The phrase scawled there is an oldy but goody. Basically yanky go home and the other is evil yanky. Well I am not an American, fortunately, but this feeling of loss of control by one or more locals just goes to show how little they know of their own culture and colonisation attrocities. 

What they do not know or understand is that for 500 years Spain  was one of the most hated countries in major parts of the world, starting with Columbus.