Boredom and Olives in the Countryside

We awoke reasonably early and left the hotel. We drove to the large Parque del Retiro in the center of Madrid, where we parked and walked around a bit. The morning was cool, but we enjoyed the sun and found the park to be quite beautiful, with a large variety of trees and flowers and some very interesting statues and fountains. Amusingly, we spotted some feral kittens on top of one of the large bronzes, but when we approached, they scooted away and into the bronze. Pretty cute.

We found breakfast at a small tapas place a block down from the park. We tried a tortilla española and a pastry or two along with some strong coffee. One thing to warn the American traveler about is the 'eastern' style toilets even in small bars in the middle of Madrid. Yuck.

We headed out of town on the A-3 toward Valencia. Driving on the highway was pretty mild... nothing like Athens or Nicaragua for sure. Drivers seemed fairly orderly, there are frequent rest stops, and it appears that tons of EU money is going into refurbishing the Spanish highway system. The scenery also became pretty as soon as we were outside the city. Grape fields, almond trees, other fruit trees... in the spring time, the countryside was blooming. The area is a bit arid, but that leaves it open for great vistas of the country at large.

We stopped at the Castillo Garci Muñoz, Cuenca, where we strolled around the quiet town and took some photos in the heart of La Mancha territory of Don Quixote fame. We drove on and then stopped at Alarcon, a charming small medieval town, where we had some sodas and walked around the fortified city. The place was quiet... so quiet in fact that we saw a grown man walking through the streets kicking a rock. A boy of about 10 or 11 was lighting off firecrackers by himself. The quietude seems to be drawing city-bound tourists who want some relaxation, hence the hotels being constructed in Alarcon, but the desolation doesn't seem too healthy for the small Spanish towns' occupants. (I've read that this is an ongoing problem with some small towns in Spain now having no residents younger than their mid 50's.)

Willing to take a bit of a wandering path around the countryside and picking out interesting places from photos in the guidebook, we then drove to Alacra de Jucar. The drive was gorgeous, taking us past blooming almond trees, grape vines in all stages of growth, and beautiful olive groves.  We stopped and had a picnic lunch near the river that is overlooked by the town on the hillside and another fortress. Our lunch of sardines, crackers, cheese, and salami was tasty and hit the spot after the long dry drive through the countryside.

We eventually headed toward Valencia and traffic got progressively busier as we neared the coast. Once in the town, we couldn't believe how busy it was. We had heard that Valencia was in the middle of a 19 day party, called Las Fallas, and the town was packed as a result. The driving was quite disorienting... lots of one way streets plus tons of pedestrians and cars makes for an adventurous search for a hotel. Add to that gigantic plaster statues appearing in random street intersections that turn out to be the foci of the Fallas festival and navigation got really interesting. We only ended up crossing into and out of the old town are a few times.

We checked on one of the Hotel Ibis outside of the town center, but decided to try to concentrate on the old town area and try our luck. The first place I looked at was less than appetizing.  I'm glad we didn't take that. After about an hour and a half to two hours of cruising around, I finally pulled over in the large square in the middle of the action, put the hazards on and suggested that Jeanette hop out and look for a room. Feeling way more comfortable with her Spanish this trip, she did just that and returned in about 20 minutes, having found a room at the Hotel Husa Reina Victoria, which was nice and only 75€ for the first night, but going up to 125€ for the second night. Jeanette wisely only reserved the first night.

Sure enough, after we checked in, we walked out and found the Hotel Continental for much cheaper for the second night!

We walked around the town a bit after retrieving our bags and freshening up. We strolled past a few of Las Fallas, marveling at the detail and creativity of the creators. We walked by the old market, closed at that time of night, and found our way into a pleasant square with a Fallas statue and a couple of interesting looking tapas bars. We sat at one and had some yummy pulpo gallego (octopus) and mussels and a couple of beers. The waitress warned us to keep an eye on our camera and things as there were pickpockets in the area. We didn't really have any problems there.

On our way back to the hotel we tried some donuts (churros? can't remember the name) and chocolate sauce. I got about a kilo of the fried dough, which was about 9/10's of a kilo too much. But they were tasty!

(Side note: One thing we didn't know was that on the last night of the festival... the Valencians burn all of the statues. Amazing! We missed it by a night or two, but were glad to have seen so many of them go up. If you're interested in reading more about Las Fallas, start here.)