Valencia part 5

After the Paella making class, we walked to the other side of town to see the opera house and cultural center.  

This is a picture of the area that we took during our flight in. 

A few more odds and ends...

I liked the design of this bottle

I got some Horchata. In Spain, they drink it with a pastry called a "farton" so I had to try that, too.  

Selfie in the plaza 

More graffiti

Valencia part 4

 We took a class on how to make Paella.  It was fun, but I'm sure I'll never make it again.  

First we met at the Russafa Market. 

Then we walked over to the kitchen where we made the food.  Look at how enormous this pan is.  

Here's Milena's daughter grating a tomato.

And Milena stirring the beans

The finished product. 

Our paella was made with chicken and rabbit, and they added snails at the end.  I did eat the rabbit (but pretended it was chicken), but didn't eat the snails. 

Valencia part 3

Shopping in the old part of the city.  There is a local who paints himself in all of his graffiti.  Here is an example. 

We went to the Lladro store. 

This is a bottle of water.  I brought one home because I thought it was so pretty.  

A random store display. 

 

Valencia part 2

 Valencia at night...

We spent a lot of time in this plaza because it was close to our Air BnB. 

These towers used to be attached to a wall that surrounded the whole city.  They are on the end of a bridge that goes over to another part of town where we went to the Museu de Belle Arts de Valencia.  

One of the guardians of the bridge.

Inside the museum

Valencia part 1

 Views from Valencia. 

Valencia orange trees all over the city

This is one of the markets where the locals shop

Here's me on the roof of our Air BnB on our first day.  

Finger Lakes

To round out the summer, Jill, LT and I took a drive north for a couple of days to the Finger Lakes region of New York.  Here we are at one of the vineyards 

Seneca Lake

 

One of many waterfalls in the area.

Mission district

 After going to the Golden Gate park, we went to the Mission District for lunch at La Taqueria, which is a well-known Mexican restaurant.  They were still not doing sit down service, so we had to get our tacos to go, which was a little annoying as there was no place to go sit.  We walked a block or two until we found a smoothie place with a few outdoor seats.  We went in and order $9 lemonades, and sat at their tables to eat our food.  It was worth it.

Then we walked around to see the murals that the Mission district is known for.  Here are a few that we saw

At the end of the day, we went to the Ghirardelli Square and stood in a ridiculously long line (because their main restaurant was also not open yet) to get a sundae.