Tuesday

We left the frosty city of Toledo for a relatively quick drive to Valencia on the East coast of Spain. I know I said this in the last post, but much of the countryside really reminds us of Australia.

Hamish has been enjoying stopping for a ‘hot drink’ at the petrol stations. This involves usually 1E, a vending machine and him getting a small cup of hot chocolate. He’s a funny boy. When Rod says we’re going to need petrol soon, Hamish always pipes up with, “oooh, and a hot drink?”.

Snacks (and hot drinks) got us through until we arrived in Valencia, found our apartment and walked downtown to a shopping centre to get some lunch: even by Spanish standards, it was getting a bit late for lunch. The weather was a balmy 17 degrees as we sauntered along the huge, tree-lined streets. Valencia is a beautiful city.

Lunch was eventually had at a Japanese restaurant at 4pm. Shortly after, the boys got haircuts and we stopped to grab some groceries from a Lidl on the way home – carrying everything in two backpacks and one shopping bag. Our apartment is very comfortable and we take advantage of the opportunity to do some washing.

 

Wednesday

We kind of planned to take it easy whilst in Valencia as we’d clocked up quite a few km’s in Toledo. With two weeks of holidays left, we don’t want Hamish to run out of steam – or enthusiasm (“Not another Church!”). So, with this in mind, we hit the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe – Prince Phillip Science Museum (similar to Questacon). The buildings in the art and science precinct are worth visiting for their architecture alone. We spent a good 5 hours at the discovery centre and we all loved it. So much for taking it easy – Hamish walked 13000 steps!

From Hamish – The science centre was so cool. We explored space, four scientists (I wasn’t really interested in these scientists), brains and language. We got to see if we could follow a conversation without hearing any words. I liked the area where you got to see how far you could jump from a standing start – I could jump 1.3m. Dad could jump 2m.

 

Thursday

Today we really were going to take it easy! Park and beach – keep things simple. The park we visited is one of the coolest parks we’ve seen: Park Gulliver. With slides, rope climbs, steps and loads of bits and pieces to explore, Hamish loved it. Everyone around the ‘Gulliver’ looked like Lilliputians! What a great concept.

After about an hour at Gulliver’s park, we walked to the beach via the Turia Gardens. These gardens are situated in the site of the former Turia River (the river was diverted after flooding back in the 60’s). It makes for a beautiful addition to an already beautiful city; bike paths, walking paths, tree-lined, gardens – gorgeous. It also includes sports fields and a zoo.

We cut through the city and eventually made it to the beach for our picnic lunch and an opportunity for Hamish to splash about in the water; his fourth dip in the Mediterranean to date. To fuel up for the trip home, we stopped for coffee, ice-cream and churros. Did we ‘take it easy?’ – not really, Hamish clocked up 20 000 steps (which is probably about 12km).

From Hamish – Gulliver’s Park was so cool. Me and Dad played tiggy and hide and seek. I’ll talk about hide and seek first – so I was hiding in one of the best spots where I betcha Dad would spend like 12 minutes trying to find me. Instead, it took him 1 minute and 12 seconds. He was up on the highest point – I had no luck. Tiggy was better.

The beach was a good walk. After that we got churros and ice cream. The water was cold, the beach was gorgeous – it just looked pretty. I couldn’t see any pollution and this made me happy.

 

Friday

Our only plan for today was to visit the Oceanogràfic València, which is a bit like the Sea Life franchise. The Oceanographic is apparently the biggest complex of its type in Europe and I believe they do great conservation work, research and of course, education. Hamish was especially impressed with all the animals and underwater observatories. He thought he might like to work with dolphins one day.

From Hamish – The dolphins were awesome (sorry Gulliver’s Park). At one stage they were flapping their flippers – it was so cute. They did massive jumps, backwards and forwards. They could walk on water believe it or not!

Today we saw penguins (they were so cute), sharks, turtles, stingrays, tropical fish and loads more.

My favourite animal that go in the water, has to be the turtle. They are green, they have shells, they hatch babies on land not in the sea – they’re interesting creatures.