My ipad travel blog: Beautiful Valencia, March 23,2016

I may have mentioned before that I belong to a photo group with people from all over the world on Facebook. To be in the group you have to know someone in the group, and it truly is a wonderful group and I have met quite a few people in person and they are always great.

Rosalie posted such beautiful pictures of Valencia I just had to go there.

So one plus for this tour above others was that it included Valencia.

I must admit I was a bit surprised when I arrived to find myself in a futuristic park, The City of Arts and Science. It wasn't my image of Valencia, the third largest city in Spain. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a world famous architect, a native Valencian.

Here is our wonderful tour director, Lola, who I think was trying to take a picture.

I think Lola was trying to take a picture of this youthful couple who have been together more than 50 years, Angeline and Pat, two of my favourite people on our trip.

Out hotel was nearby and very modern as well and very nice.

We were just there long enough to check in and then we were off to tour Valencia.

We entered towards central Valencia and I began to see the architecture I had admired in Rosalie's pictures.

Here is the bullring which is no longer used.

Our bus dropped us off at Plaza del Ayuntamiento

and Lola gave us a walking tour to orient us to the city. I was happy to see many signs of spring here

Valencia is the centre of a rich farming area. I really don't think I totally understand how Spain is divided but Valencia is the capital of Valencia. We have left Adalucia behind.

As you can see it was a beautiful day with beautiful skies.

I loved to see all the flowers for sale. I felt quite at home!

Blossoms...

Insight likes flourishes. And we were about to be taken for a local flourish at the most famous place to sample these delicacies. Horchata is a sweet milk made from tiger nuts and into this you dip finger shaped buns called fartons. It wasn't my favourite treat but I really enjoyed visiting this neat building.

Just look at those stairs

And here you can see our treat. I think we all enjoyed trying local delicacies.

From here we were on our own for awhile and walked towards the cathedral quarter and Plaza de la Virgin.

It didn't feel crowded but lots of people were enjoying the sunshine. I loved this little outdoor restaurant with heaters and no doubt, Valencian oranges.

Sue and I didn't go into the cathedral. I have to admit we had been in many cathedrals but we enjoyed the outside.

We even had a concert but for some reason I didn't video…sorry, it was lovely!

The basilica is next to the cathedral by the way. The cathedral dates from Roman to Moorish times. The basilica was built new.

And yes, Valencia was living up to my expectations.

I just liked being there.

We wandered back to our meeting spot

How I love these balconies!

And the beautiful trees coming into bloom...

And I had been looking for high quality fans and I found them, but I think these were in the 350 plus Euro range...

I think these may have been taken on the bus.

I think this is one of my favourite pictures below!

Isn't this a beautiful train station?

We headed back to our hotel. Some people stayed downtown to have dinner, preferably paella, a Valencian speciality, but we headed back

I had an important date

Here you can see some of modern Valencia.

I was meeting my two Photo group friends at the hotel. Rosalie lives in Valencia and always has although she has travelled. She works for the civic government here. Ines actually lives in Florida as she married an American but she comes home each year to see her family and her beloved city. I had my own local experts. I met them at the hotel and we were off, after they had checked where we had already been. We tried to convince Sue to come along but she decided to have a night off but I am sorry she missed this wonderful evening.

We whisked into a taxi and as we drove they were giving me information about what once was a river is now a park after the river was rerouted after a terrible flood. It seems to be a solution that works. And the land in Valencia is so rich something is always trying to grow.

I made Rosalie and Ines pose by this amazing tree.

And you can see the magic began as we wove through streets and I heard so many wonderful stories.

Below is part of the original university in Valencia. This district is Plaza del Patriarca.

We went in the most beautiful church

but a service was taking place so I didn't take pictures of the beautiful paintings on the wall.

I definitely didn't have enough time in Valencia!

I liked this shop display. I was being conservative about taking pictures because my battery on my iPhone was really low!

We ended up eating in a little restaurant on the street and I finally had my favourite tapa, pimientos de padron

We had a lovely serenade as well.

And of course a full moon!

It was one of the loveliest evenings of my life, exploring beautiful streets and hearing personal stories as well as Spanish history. I got to see the "palace" where Rosalie works, the school where Ines and her sister studied English etc. etc.