5.19.2008

may 19th, travel from Valencia to Barcelona

So last night when we got back from the center of arts and science by calatrava we were so tired. We napped for a bit and then we went out to try and find somewhere to eat. We went downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel and realized that the prices were so expensive. Right now the Euro is really strong. It’s about 1.5 dollars to every Euro and the dinner plates were about 26 euros so about 40 dollars! So we went walking around our hotel and gave up rather quickly because we were really hungry. So we decided to go up and order room service which is way expensive. But we have learned the trick, order from the kids menu! The same portions just lower prices! So after dinner we decided to watch the da vinci code on our laptop.

This morning we got up and decided to treat ourselves to the breakfast buffet at the hotel since we haven’t eaten any breakfasts really besides street cafĂ© pastries and hot chocolate, which don’t get me wrong is great! But we decided the hotel today would be good to try, well what do you know….They don’t charge you for breakfast; apparently here it is included in your room charge! Yippie, we love free food! So after breakfast we decided to go check out the Catedral (Seu) that sits in the older part of Valencia. We toke a taxi, which was much easier to catch today! The Catedral was very beautiful, but the real reason why we chose to go see it today is because they claim to have the Holy Grail! Afterwards we walked around some of the street markets around the Catedral. We then went back to the hotel and packed, because we are going to Barcelona today by train!

Our train was about 15 minutes late, and we were about an hour early, so we sat around the train station for a while before boarding our packed train. The train toke 3 hours to get from Valencia to Barcelona. Along the way the Spanish countryside was a little different than before. We traveled alongside the ocean, and there were ruins of castles alongside every hill/mountain along the coastline. The terrain looked a lot like Utah, interesting! Anyhow the primary language is not Spanish here, they actually speak Catalan, which to me sounds like a mix between Spanish and French. The taxi driver understood Bryan though so we are hoping that they fully understand Spanish here. We are pretty tired and it’s about 10pm here so we are going to turn in for the night!

Here’s the pictures from the day:


our hotel in Valencia, the lobby and the sun gardens


Catedral (seu)











plaza outside the Catedral


the holy grail
Valencia train station
this ones for Carla!

our hotel Barcelona





1 comment:

Todd Family said...

those rooms are pimped out! :) have you guys gone shopping yet? i'd be loading up on the souvenoirs!