Day 4. A day in Valencia

The Mercat Centrale in Valencia.
A good place for breakfast and to buy provisions.
The best chocolate croissant ever!

We got up early (assisted by  the jet lag) and headed down to Mercado Centrale. The building itself is lovely, with stained glass windows and a nicely decorated dome.

Here we had a very satisfactory breakfast of fresh chocolate croissants and good coffee and then bought some provisions for lunch.

Fresh food markets are always a wonderful introduction  to local food and this was no exception. I love seeing the different foods in different countries and regions.  Pan! Figs! Jamon! Quesos! On our way back to the apartment we didn't go past a bottle shop so we had an Albarino and a Ribiero del Duero to wash down the lunch.

Horchata - a traditional drink of Valencia.
Made from a local nut ground to a paste, with sugar added.
Served cold it is very refreshing.

The old part of Valencia has some very impressive large buildings, many built around plazas and small parks. Not much use of colour, but very solid building. A lot of the footpaths are red marble pavers which looks great. We stopped in at a Horchataria for a glass of Horchata.

The afternoon was spent sorting out  the rental bikes and mobile phone plus data plans.  I didn't have a very good feeling about Orange Bikes and our experience there was not great. It was all a problem and all very hard. The bikes themselves seemed to be OK but the customer service left a lot to be desired. Then on to Vodafone which was not much better. A LOT harder than in Dubai! The guy in the shop gave us a bum steer in the morning and it took research over lunch and phone calls to Vodafone support before we were able to sign up for what we wanted.

In the evening I had pre-booked dinner at La Sucursal restaurant. It is a tasting menu of around eight courses. Some really sensational dishes, a great balance, great fresh ingredients.

We seemed to get through cava and a couple of bottles of champagne with dinner. The restaurant had a lovely casual feel with good service. It was a lovely evening for the walk there and back as well.

All four of us were impressed by this Michelin-rated restaurant.