A soccer pitch where?

Walking around Valencia, the map shows what I thought to be a river running through the city, a number of bridges cross this low area, this was for all intense purposes a river bed.

You can imagine my surprise as we walked across the bridge to find a soccer pitch and other sporting facilities in the low area - good use of space though.

Two days in Valencia

There was so much messing around getting out of Barcelona, we departed the city late and naturally arrived late in the city of Valencia. The city centre, located slightly inland gives the impression of being an inland city, actually, the city is actually coastal.

Looking on a map, it looks like a river borders the city centre. Built on what I thought to be the old river bed is a number of sporting facilities. However, unlike other cities of Europe, the former river, or what I thought to be a river is not the definining feature of the city of Valencia.

I am informed this is the third largest city of Spain, we stayed within the centre, we found the city centre to be reasonably compact and the main sites close.

After navigating our way through the centre to our apartment, there wasn't much left to do except go out to dinner, we walked a few local streets next to our accommodation.

We were to get an early start the next day, the consumption of way too much wine into the morning put a stop to that, regardless, we were able to see everything we wanted after our late start.

So, the next day, a very late wake up and sore heads. We were out of the apartment late morning to purchase train tickets to Malaga, then we got serious about looking around.

A new dress

We were down the Barcelona marina complex, I was trying to hook onto free WiFi in the building and Noriko was running around looking at shops. Finally, I'm online and answering emails and reading the news, I don't want to be disturbed with such trivial things.

When Noriko returns and wants me to view two dresses she has tried on, I guessed my solitude is in danger. I also sense danger here, I am in a no win situation here, she wants to drag me into a deep dark world of indecision and regret. I'm not buying into this - no chance.

My obvious answer is buy both, then you can't be disappointed,  I then go about explaining to her that I will say this dress is better than that dress if it means getting out of there earlier.

To my delight, she did exactly that, off to now enjoy an illy double expresso in peace.

Place de Joaquim Xirau

Just tucked in off La Rambla is the square, Place de Joaquim Xirau, filled with various restaurants, we decided to go for these after eating on La Rambla the evening before.

While they seem to be offering slightly better deals price wise, we found the service to somewhat lacking, the place is very busy and quite competitive, potential diners are checking every restaurant for price, service doesn't seem important.

While expensive, our meal was adquate in every respect and a reasonable evening was enjoyed.

Dinner at La Rambla

One of the in places to be in Barcelona is La Rambla, a street packed with people milling around enjoying the Barcelona summer atmosphere. We headed down for an expensive dinner in the famous street watching the people of Barcelona pass us by.

I must say, I enjoyyd this night out.

Paul Gruel Park

When Noriko gets something in her head, no amount of reason or logic will change her mind. I explained to her that this park was all the way across town up the hill overlooking Barcelona and there was nothing of interest for us getting there.

Of course, all she heard was there was plenty to see along the way, when we were walking through the backstreets of Barcelona, through what felt like a Hollywood ghost town set, I asked myself, why didn't I just stay in Perth? Naturally, she argued and fought the whole way, what hell had I let myself in for? She was, as normal, moving slowly and my leg was already starting to hurt, fuck I hate this shit.

I stated that if we are going to walk there, we are going to get a move along, no dawdling or stuffing around, I ended up getting plenty of both. Let me elaborate, I have had knee pain since I was 21 after a work accident where I hyper extended my left leg and hence knee, in the last years, the pain has increased tremendously.

Somehow, if I keep moving it and walking at a reasonable speed, the onset of pain is delayed and take plently of rests inbetween. Noriko prefers to move slowly, take her time, stop all the time, she doesn't need stress and she feels no pain.

I sought treatment for the knee and after countless doctor, specialist, physio, MRI, CT and other appointments, they came to the conclusion it is the hamstring and tendons causing the issues, regardless, towards the end of the day, I struggle to walk despite dropping thousands of dollars to various medical practitioners.

So no doubt, she had read on some Japanese website that "you must go and see the Paul Guell designed park" so that is what you must do in Barcelona, follow the advice of some arsehole on a social media page.

When we finally arrived, it was worse than I expected, firstly, they wanted €7 to enter the park, fuck that. I had already seen parts of the park and it looked like it had been designed by the guy who designed the Cadbury chocolate advertising - tasteless shit.

As we walked back, I wondered if this Paul Guell was still alive, I would love to punch this wanker in the face. Now, what about this other tasteless fuckwit who had recommended this bullshit destroying my Saturday in Barcelona, could I beat this prick to a pulp as well?

By the time we made it back to La Rambla, it was 7 pm, people were out and about enjoying them selves, I was hobbled by this stage, I couldn't enjoy the moment, I was moving from park bench to park bench to take the weight off my leg.

What a waste of Barcelona.

Barcelona water fountains

We had some bottled water, it was ok, well, we had been out walking all afternoon and the water was quite warm, so I decided to tip out my warm bottled water out for some fine Barcelona scheme water.

Big mistake - the water was awful to taste, that's when I noticed the colour, off-white, it appeared to be calcium rich. I couldn't believe it, I just tipped out drinking water and now I have a bottle full of water not fit for drinking, albeit, slightly cooler.

So, I emptied my bottle again.

Now I was really thirsty, apart from a mouthful of foul tasting off-colour water.

When I thought back, I couldn't recall seeing anyone drink from the fountains. Over the next days, I saw people fill up buckets of water for cleaning, people washing their faces but I never saw one person filling up a water bottle or drinking from one.

Learnt that lesson the hard way.