The city is well set up for cycling with plenty of bike paths and lanes, so I have rented a bike for my stay: gears, front panier, bouncy saddle, serious lock and chain, and with real air in the tyres, unlike the solid tyres of the city bikes. Not exactly sporty, but practical.
Friday, 23rd: Alan, my old buddy from Holland, arrived for the weekend. Excellent to do a long and relaxed catch up after 5(!) years, and to enjoy a couple of long meals:
He is doing a classy conversion on a ‘bajo’, a huge indoor space, often a shop or garage, turning it into a multi-purpose atelier. Hoping to jam there when he comes back at the end of the month.
We also fitted in a visit to the Jardín Botanic, full of marvellous trees and plants, including one around which the entrance hall is built:
Sunday, 22nd January: Morning run across to the Turia park and down to the futuristic part of the city:
Aria’s birthday at Ángel and Elsa’s. A big treat to meet the birthday girl and her mum for the first time, as well as meet her dad, Carlos, again after what must be decades:
Tuesday, 24th: L’Albufera with Virgilio: he runs Numenius Tours and picked me up at 8:00 and we headed into the large natural park right next to the city, exploring along minor roads and tracks. It’s a major rice growing area around a large and shallow fresh water lagoon. Vast numbers of Glossy Ibis, Cattle and Little Egrets, Flamingos, various ducks on the water, patrolled overhead by March Harriers …
Wednesday, 25th: To the Teatro Principal, a fine period venue, for an orchestral concert: Dvorak’s piano concerto, Richard Strauss’s Four Symphonic Interludes, and Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto for Orchestra. All new to me and not major works, as far as I know, but performed with both energy and sensitivity. A full orchestra for the first 2 pieces; the piano concerto had virtuoso and expressive moments but what worked really well were passages of back and forth, call and response between orchestra and piano. For an encore and contrast, the soloist played one of those short Debussy pieces that are very evocative of water:
Piano de Voyage: yes! the new travel keyboard arrived on time from France. It consists of 3 separate modules which can be configured for either 40 or 64 keys. Ideal for practice. Full size keys with reasonably authentic touch, given the light weight (3kg), runs on USB power and can be played through computer, headphones or amp:
Chivito: one of the signature Valencian brunch items: a baguette holding bacon, slice of pork, fried egg, tomato and mayo:
In order to jam with Javiér on guitar and at Alan’s atelier I got another cajón:
Wednesday, 1st February: Albufera 2: went by bike this time. Got some good White Egret shots, though having problems with the new camera configuration, in particular, locking onto birds in flight, which is my favourite type of shot. Damn!
Friday, 3 February: Montains with Virgilio: for a complete change we went inland through spectacular country, taking in a Griffon Vulture colony and a 1,100m peak where we tripped over Alpine Accentor when getting out of the car and then had a close Griffon fly-past. Called in at Chelva where the church clock is a marvel, showing time, date, day of the week, though given that it’s the 3rd day of Feb at 17:06 maybe it needs winding?
Flamenco concert: late (22:30) start in a nearby bar. Very tight band (cajón, 2 guitars and occasional pianist) and dancer, loud audience with several young women stepping up on stage for a dance turn. Obvious how much fun everyone was having:
Footnote: speaking of fun, Jason Webster, whose books I very much appreciate – detective fiction set in Valencia and non-fiction on various Spanish topics – posted this link to a Flamenco Flash Mob protest in a bank branch.
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