Orange ya excited to hear about Valencia?

Ok so the headings just keep getting worse. But we just can't seem to stop ourselves!

With our Eurail pass set to expire, we rode a last train from Madrid to Valencia. With beautiful architecture and a slower pace than Madrid, Valencia provided a great backdrop for an evening stroll. We ended up finding a popular Basque-style tapas restaurant where we were happy to save ourselves from menu interpretation, and the staff from our Spanglish. Simply grab the tooth pick skewered food you want to dine on, keep the picks and present them at the end for your bill. Yum!

Absorbed in architecture and shopping, we didn’t hit the road until the afternoon of the following day. This meant arriving in Javea after dark for our much anticipated stay at our friend Johan’s house. With 3 bedrooms, a swimming pool, English TV, and laundry facilities to ourselves, it seemed like a sprawling palace after living in hotel rooms for the last few months. We joked that perhaps we should push the television into the bedroom and stay holed up in there for familiarity’s sake.

Javea is predominantly a sunny retreat for Brits that want to get away from the English weather, or are retired. So as if in England, we visited a local pub, (while “borrowing” some internet). The patrons seemed to enjoy a chat and we soon learnt much of local life and why this place was so popular. The woman running the bar, (having consumed her fair share of drinks) doesn’t bother keeping track of things, so when closing, everybody’s bar tab miraculously amounts to 12 euros’s!!?

We had hoped to stay for a week, but with our time in Spain running short, we cut our stay to only 3 days of luxury. We did however make excellent use of the laundry, the sun, and had a fantastic Thai dinner with Johan’s friends, Alan and Rosie.

Departing Javea, we turned on our laptop and GPS map software to get us to Alicante. This technology has saved us from many an argument as we navigate tiny un-named medieval streets, but this particular day it chose to take us to the highway via a rather bizarre route through a river, then along small roads weaving amongst the orange groves. After a little confusion, smiles from the local kids, and some good laughs, we were on our way.

Thanks Chandra, Johan, Alan and Rosie for setting this up. And we hope to see you all in Vancouver sometime!