Easter Hols: Valencia Day Three

Weather: Sunny Morning, Cloudy Afternoon, Rainy Evening, Light Breeze
Wake Up: 10:00
Sleep: 23:00

We lounged about in our room (having another full-English breakfast) until 12:30, when we decided to go down to the beach. A nice walk along the beach in the sun. As we reached the half-way point though, the sun went in, so we turned back and headed back to the Hotel. We then wanted to go out, but we had missed the bus and there were no Taxis, so we ordered one and went to wait.

And we waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, a taxi turned up and drove towards the hotel. And a guy came out the hotel, saundered down the steps and commandeered our Taxi!! After all that waiting!! So, we had to wait some more while the Hotel ordered another. So we waited. And waited. And then finally, after a total of 45 minutes waiting around, another Taxi that was obviously booked already, as it had people in other then the driver, came in. And we commandeered that one when everyone had got out.

We then told the Taxi to take us to the America's Cup. America's Cup is a yacht challenge that is divided up into thirteen acts. There are some twelve teams including the defender and current winner in the standings, Switzerland's "Alinghi", and the great American "BMW ORACLE", whose country has won the cup some 27 times!! Britain didn't seem to have a team there though, which was a little disappointing, but not much as we decided to support China instead (mentioned later).

Each team had their own building the size of a supermarket, and these were perched right near the edge of Valencia's port. They nearly always contained a shop, sometimes an interactive area and sometimes even a restuarant on the top of them. Of the buildings, China Team's was the most visual, as they let us look around at their yacht and sails. Take a look at how big they are! Notice that the red arrow points to the top of a large doorway! Their yacht was also quite colourful: red with a white dragon down the sides (see in the picture above). Unfortunately though, they were last in the standings of the races that had taken place, but they were still good. We visited many of the other team's buildings as well, and I bought a shirt from Alinghi's shop (as I loved their logo!) while Andrew bought a shirt from America's shop.

We left once we had got bored of looking around, and tried to find a Taxi. But we really couldn't find one! We spent at least the next half-an-hour, wandering around Valencia's port, looking for a Taxi rank or a Taxi that could take us out of the area. It was only when we came across a 5-Star Hotel that a Taxi casually drove out after dropping someone off, which we could then thankfully commandeer.

We headed for Plaza le Reina, the small Plaza that had we had spent most of yesterday in. The Taxi Driver must of thought he was a racer though, as he sped down the roads coming up to 120 km/h in some areas! And he would slow down just enough to let the lights change before he would spin through them while they were still red!! Once we had arrived from our whistle-stop journey, we settled outside a restuarant to have a snack while we decided where to eat for the evening. Eventually, Andrew decided we should eat in Hollywood, an American Restuarant on the main Plaza (Plaza del Ayuntamiento).

We went in there and sat down. We ordered our meal (after a quick request from the waiter) and the starters came in literally a couple of minutes! The main course came a couple of minutes after that!! Really, it was fast ordering and fast delivery! Quite a contrast compared to the slowness we had experienced with the Taxis during the day.

After the meal, we wandered back to the Hotel bus and took it back to the hotel, before crashing for the evening and then settling down for the night.

This entry was posted on the 11/04/07 and represents today in my trip to Valencia. Please see the Valencia Summary for general information on my trip.