Day 17 - Blogabond

We woke up and thought about all our friends back at Christmas Lake who would be busy decorating their docks and boats for the big 4th celebration. We were sorry to miss it, but found a little something to keep our minds off of what we were missing back home. Off to the Valencia aquarium (which really was the biggest) and a part of the whole big beautiful Santiago Caltrava designed complex. Spain has some very good architects. Paul said the most beautiful parking garage he had ever seen was there. The Oceanographic Museum was really cool. We saw lots of fishes and other marine wildlife, and finished up the morning with the dolphin show. Unfortunately we had a plane to catch, so we had to quick find a cab and get to the airport. We were wishing we had a couple of more days in Valencia, but it was not to be. We had a very nice, talkative cabbie take us to the airport. He and John had quite a conversation, and he told us that John’s Spanish was very good. We rushed through security and ran to the gate to catch our plane. The plane was an hour late of course, so there had been no need to rush. Eventually we were on our way to San Sebastian in the Basque area by way of Madrid. Mark did not like the turbulence and filled a couple of air sick bags. It reminded me of my youth. Another wait for another delayed plane in Madrid and then on San Sebastian, another bumpy landing and another air bag filled by Mark. We were missing two of our bags upon arrival and decided that we would travel by train the rest of our time in Europe. We were getting the feeling we really were meant to stay in Valencia.

Our minds were quickly changed as we pulled up to our hotel after driving up a winding road full of switch backs. The view of the Atlantic and the town of San Sebastian with the surrounding mountains was probably the most beautiful we had ever seen. The hotel itself was very nice too. We settled down and headed into town for some Pinchas (the Basque name for Tapas). The tapas bars were filled with roving bands of young people. They were having a blast, but it wasn’t quite the right atmosphere for Mark so we found a restaurant with a tank full of fish for Mark to watch and ordered a nice traditional Basque dinner. Hake, a type of fish that is prepared all sorts of ways, and very good and some lamb were our main courses.

written by

pscossette on July 4, 2007 from Valencia, Spain

from the travel blog: The Cossette Family Sabbatical

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