Valencia

First night in V only saw a quick dinner and ice creams before an early start for La Tomatina which took up most of the time the tour had in Valencia.

We did manage to wander into the old town for a look around and our first horchata, a delicious Valencian specialty drink made from almonds, seeds and rice etc. Delicious!

On our sad last night with the tour we headed down to a bar on the beach for final night drinks and tearful goodbyes. Oh what a trip and fantastic friends made who we hope to catch up with again soon.

Si and I continued another night in Valencia and visited all the amazing modernist architecture buildings that dominate the city, bought Valencian oranges (see above!), visited the home of the Amercia's Cup and enjoyed our only paella of the trip. Valencia was quite a nice city for a short visit.

Valencia was a bittersweet end to our Spanish tour.

Sweet in that it’s a pretty cool city and we had a brilliant time at La Tomatina, and bitter that we had to say goodbye to the brilliant friends we made on the tour and the theft of our passports on our last day (more on that later).

We had some brilliant tapas and some excellent paella while we were there, and drank more than a few jugs of sangria. The Spanish make quite simple dishes, like paella for example, surprisingly tasty. And there’s nothing quite like sharing a jug of sangria.

Team New Zealand headquarters was a must-see for us, but we were disappointed to find the America’s Cup village and marina was like a ghost-town. Nevertheless, it was cool to see the NZ flag flying.

Valencia was brilliant, but Barcelona was better.

For Valencia pictures, please click here!