Off to València

Our bus left Barcelona this morning, heading toward Tarragona and Valencia.  Between Barcelona and our first stop, we took a side trip to a winery where they make Cava.  Cava is a light sparkling wine, similar to champagne.   








Codorniu Cava winery first opened in 1551.  It is now on its 18th generation.  We’ve seen lots of wineries between Washington, Oregon , California and Baja, but this was pretty interesting. 


We were soon off, back to Tarragona.  This time, however, it was Monday, following the celebration of Santa Tecla so things were pretty quiet and many of the shops and bars were closed.  We did grab a little lunch at our Romanian friends bar before pressing on to València, our final destination for the evening.  





It’s very lucky for us that we had stopped here a few days ago.  With all of the activity we first encountered, and the hundreds of great places we saw and experienced, we already had a great opinion of the town.  Imagining what a first impression would have been, without the prior knowledge, I would have thought it to be a complete waste of time. 

Rather a long day, mostly boring up until now.  Our hotel is away from downtown but we managed to find some local restaurants/bars just a short walk away.  


It turned out to be a very memorable dining experience.  The place we chose, happened to be owned by a guy from India; not that it is particularly relevant…but perhaps he spoke a little more english. 


A bunch of locals were sitting at the tables outside.  By this late in the evening, their voices were getting loud and fast.  It was obvious they had started a little before we got there.  One guy in particular was kind of staring at us, obviously recognizing us as not being from around here.  


Thinking he was perhaps hungry, we offered what we had left of our food.  Well, that was enough to start a high speed conversion in a dialect that is different from what we’re used to.  It turns out he lives across the street and was there with his mother.  We stumbled through a conversation for at least 45 minutes.  He lives in València now but was from some other unrecognizable city.  He is 61.  We established that we’re from the northwest U.S.  Not a clue as to what spurred it on, but he ended up buying us all a shot of whiskey and eventually even ran across the street to his house to grab a gift for us.  A hat that says “España“!  Unexpected, extreme generosity.  We European kissed adieu and headed back to our accommodations.  What a heck of a pleasant experience. 


We are promised a tour of the sights in València tomorrow. 


Comments

  1. Hard Cider for AllSeptember 18, 2019 at 8:49 AM

    Definitely going to find Tarragona when we go to Espana! Sounds like my kinda place!
    -Neal-

    ReplyDelete

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