Buen provecho

June 19th, 2007

Valencia

A nice breeze helped cools us off as we step out of our tour bus. We had been on the road to Valencia for over 7 hours and it was a relief to be able to stand up straight. It was a nice surprise to feel the warmth of the sun on my face, since for the past few days it had been a little chilly.

We began walking down the street in search for a place to eat. We found a nice cafe on a small side street. The cafe had several small tables set up outside under some orange trees that were in bloom. We sat down and quickly ordered our food. I had the menu del dia (menu of the day). Soon after arriving, a small man with his guitar came and stood across the restaurant and began strumming his guitar. He sang Guantalamera and other Spanish songs. At that time, all of our moods changed from a grumpy and tired to a happy and upbeat as if the music erased our exhaustion from long road trip.

Our waiter brought my first course, was arroz al horno (baked rice), which was so delicious, it was yellow rice with garbanzos and lamb a full plate that would of been enough but I was anxious to taste my second dish that was soon to come. The second dish was a fresh and tender Lenguado, an excellent white meat fish that was covered with a creamy butter sauce accompanied by some scallop potatoes and green beans. The fish seems to melt in my mouth, and even as I was feeling full, I could not stop eating it. After the main dishes was serve and eaten, dessert followed I order the manzana asada (baked apple), it was more than exquisite the taste was granny and sweet you could cut the sugary sweet coat with a spoon. I was one happy girl as I ate my dessert. After finishing our perfect meal, we sat back and chatted for a little while.We could hear the faint sound of music coming from around the corner on the next street, the band was playing Mana, and we all began to sing along with the faint lyrics.


The church bells rang punctually at 3 p.m. that was our cue to leave. We had a lot planned for the small amount of time we had in Valencia. We walked fast to the church where the Holy Grail is located. It was an amazing experience to walk around the ancient church filled with paintings and sculptures from the 17th and 18th century. We saw the Holy Grail from behind a thin rope, still encased in a protective box. We also saw original paintings from Goya and even saw the arm of Vincent the Martyr. That was a Little creepy to say the least. Our stay in Valencia was very short, and it left me wanting more, but at the very least I was able to see the Holy Grail and had an amazing lunch...Tomorrow we have an early wake up call to head to Granada.

Manzana asada

Arm of Vincent the Martyr