devoured in Barcelona. It did the job though, and we headed back to the hostel to change into more appropriate clothes (it was warmer than we had anticpated) and also check out our hostel's rooftop terrace! Although very cool, the view was a bit obscured by fence, though the sun shining down on us was wonderful.
We started off the day's adventure by going back to the square/plaza where we had lunch. The plaza is home to the Catedral and Migulete, which is the bell tower attached to the Catedral. We grabbed some ice cream (see above right) while we walked around snapping photos. We then walked over to the Plaze de la Reina, which had some beautiful buildings and a very cool fountain (see left). Off to the side of the Plaza was this little garden, which we were delighted to discover was FULL of orange trees! They were too high to 
grab (we did try) but their blossoms smelled FANTASTIC! If they made an orange blossom perfume, I would buy it. We sat on benches in this little garden for quite some time, taking in the wonderful aroma, and finishing our ice cream. It was truly heaven (see right)!With our noses full of the wonders of orange blossoms, we pressed on. We went down to the Mercado Central, or Central Market. Sadly, it wasn't open. This was due to it being Easter! This was
about the time we realized that it WAS Easter, and that lots of things may not be open. After a bit of souvenir shopping, we walked further into the city. I was so impressed with the architecture in Valencia, though similar to the other Spanish cities, it just seemed to have it's own flair (see right). All the buildings had the beautiful scalloped edges and were different shades of pastels. I could have walked around for quite some time, just taking in the buildings! But, that did get dull after awhile, so we headed in the 
direction of the Jardín del Turia, which go along the middle of the city, like a river would (it actually used to be a river, back in the day). We had a few pit-stops (see left) on the way...climbed a few trees...played on some playground equipment, and I took a few dog pictures...as I like to do. We made it eventually...took in the view...found a good spot on the grass...and proceeded to take siestas. What a great tradition that is! I'm FOR it! After our little respite, we wandered through the garden further and happened upon a game of fútbol (soccer to those of us 
in the US). We watched for a bit before walking to the Jardines del Real (Royal Gardens), which were close by. These were MUCH more pretty than the area we had napped in, and were also FILLED with the wondrous orange trees (see right)! This time, we REALLY wanted to pick one. I being the shortest, was not the optimal choice for orange picker...Carolyn ended up going for one. She was successful! We each tried a slice and found out that we don't like the way oranges from these trees tasted, just how they smelled. We donated the remainder of the orange to the local birds. Speaking of birds, there were cages full of them in the middle of the Jardines del Real, and we took plenty of pictures of them! It was now time for our sangria break, which we enjoyed along 
with some tapas of fried potatoes. Afterward our liquid consumption came to an end, we wandered more throughout the gardens before heading back towards central Valencia. The Catedral was open 
now, which it wasn't this morning, so we were able to look around inside and even take in Easter Mass, in Spanish (see right)! Also, REALLY cool side note, this church is the supposed home to the Holy Grail! We weren't able to SEE the 'Holy Chalice' but still, being IN the church that houses it, ON Easter...that was pretty cool. Kind of gave me goosebumps! We even climbed to the top of the Miguelete bell tower (LOTS of stairs...LOTS) to see the sun set and catch the bells tolling. Took some GREAT pictures (see below) before we started the decent down. Dinner 
time arrived and we found a perfect spot. Carolyn had tried 'bocaditos' while in Madrid, and recommended them to the rest of us. These are little sandwiches (see left), a euro or so each, and you order multiple - each can be different. It was fun to try different sandwich toppings, and we all ooh'd and aah'd over them as we consumed each one. We washed it all down with some lemon beer, or the Spanish version of Summer Shandy! (Thought of Doug - who is INVOLVED with Summer Shandy, he likes it so much.) We hit the sack to prepare for Day #2 in Valencia...
Day #2 started off with some traditional Catalonia (the region we were in, in Spain) Easter fare
for breakfast (a day late, we did realize). They call it 'mona' (see right) and it's cake that can be shaped in festive ways with a hard boiled egg in the middle of it. I enjoyed mine quite a bit, and even ate the entire hard boiled egg (of which I'm not a HUGE fan of usually.) We ate our breakfast in a plaza outside a small hidden church. We HAD to explore the church afterward, and I was surprised by how big it was inside! It also had a beautiful rose window, one of my favorite architecture pieces in churches. After church exploration had 
ceased, we walked in search of the train station, where were going to secure our tickets for the following day to Seville. We found out our train ride was going to be 8 hours, joy. Oh well, we still our day in Valencia - we could worry about the train the next day, when we were ON it!Our plan for the day was to rent bikes (see left) and explore the areas of the city that were a bit on the outskirts. We found the bike rental place successfully, grabbed the bikes, and were off! We even had little baskets, which was handy with how heavy our
purses were (I can cart an impressive amount of crap in there...ask anyone). We biked along the Jardín del Turia, heading towards the Mediterranean (our end destination). We found a much prettier part of the gardens that we didn't get a chance to see the day before. Beautiful fountains everywhere (see left)...which meant lots of pictures! We eventually made our way into the Ciudad de las Artes y last Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) where there 
are many different museums to tour (see below). We wanted to go into L' Oceanografic one, which was a huge aquarium. We grabbed lunch after we made it inside, mine was a tasty tortilla espanola sandwich (potato omelette on bread basically...TASTY!). We then proceeded to watch lots of fish, penguins, sharks, rays, birds, flamingoes, jelly fish and even dolphins at the park's daily dolpin show (see below left). I really enjoyed the jellyfish tank, as the jellyfish were all lit up against the deep blue water, which made for fun viewing. Also, I have no idea why, but penguins 
are very entertaining to watch...as the waddle 
around and flop into the water and swim about. Enjoyed those as well! Full of knowledge about creatures of the sea, we grabbed the bikes and headed off in search of the Mediterranean! We had some difficulty, did a little off-roading, but eventually found the pier! We made a quick pit stop at the musuem dedicated to the American Cup (a BIG sailing race, that Carolyn had to explain to the three non-sailors) before grabbing some daily sangria and snack. We sat right along the beach, and were a bit sad as the sun had disappeared, and the air had gotten quite chilly. We still tested out the water anyway, with only our feet though. Frolicked in the sand for a bit, took LOTS of photos (see below) and hopped about in the waves. Before long, the cold air got the best of us though.
We headed back to return our bikes and find a place to eat some dinner. We decided that the bocaditos were SO good the previous night, that we'd be alright consuming them again - and we
did! More lemon beer too!! We started to come up with games to be played during our day-long train trip the next day...coming up with a solid 32 options. (Many of which made the Top Ten!) Ice cream was dessert (and it was SO good, mango and strawberry - see right), and we proceeded to walk around town for the next hour, window 
shopping, chatting about life, and consuming our ice cream. We had intended to go out that night, but it ended up being only our walk and then bed for us that evening. We stayed up chatting more, about all sorts of random things (by the end of the trip, we knew WAY too much about everyone) before hitting the pillow.Valencia was wonderful, and we had such a great time on both of our days there. I took WAY too many pictures, ate WAY too much great food and even added to my freckle collection! I would love to go back to Valencia to wander more throughout the city, licking another fantastic ice cream cone and feeling the sun on my face. :)
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