Today we had a full day in Valencia. No gigs to go to tonight. But we had a bit of a late start due to a very late night last night. That’s kind of how it works around here anyway.

We had breakfast at our hotel. It was tasty.

After breakfast we all headed off to the Central Market of Valencia. I always enjoy a good market. It was already super hot outside but it was only a 20 minute walk so we figured we could make it.

We saw some things on the way

Found the market!

Great market. So much good food. But it also just makes me sad about the quality of food back home. If only I could shop at a market like this instead of buying things that look like they have come out of a bin in Woolworths.

We spotted Piper with a cup of olives and had to get in on the action. We couldn’t stop at just the olives though and also got some pickled octopus and some gildas. So tasty.

After snacking and wandering around some more we left the market to head off to another nearby market. Unfortunately that market wasn’t really a market – more just restaurants so we didn’t really hang around there very long. Instead we went off in search of coffee.

We have been drinking ice coffee a lot more than we usually would because, well it is VERY hot here, have we mentioned that yet?

After coffee we walked to a park and walked slowly through the shade of the trees (as much as possible). We saw this cool, huge playground which was a sculpture of Gulliver. It was huge and really cool – but out in the hot, hot sun nobody was actually playing on it. I wanted to go for a climb but I also didn’t want third degree burns so I didn’t.

We kept walking until we made it to this area that has the science museum and a music venue and other buildings. Really cool looking buildings – but not a lot of shade around here. We snapped some pics and then went in to the foyer of the museum hoping to cool down for a bit.but it wasn’t actually much cooler in there.

At this point of the day the heat becomes too much so the best option is to head back to hotel and chill. Which is what we did. Very sensible. We actually had a swim in the pool which was quite refreshing.

I also went for a walk to a supermarket and got sidetracked by a cute shop.

For dinner tonight we met up with Paul, Yolanda and Christina – fellow Wilco fans and world travelers. Yolanda and Christina are Spanish so it was handy to have some expert help.

We had a very delicious tapas dinner – loved the fried anchovies.

After dinner – it was already about 11:30pm by this stage – we managed to squeeze in an icecream stop.

Then back to the hotel for our traditional “drink all the hotel water in the foyer” regime.