Saturday 26 November 2011
We walked to the Farmers Market in what was reputed to be the largest covered market in Europe. The scene was amazing and slightly overwhelming. With seafood, meat, sweets, fruits and vegetable stands covering a space the size of a small stadium, enclosed by arched ceilings and tile decorations, we wended our way along the stalls with Nicole busily snapping away on her Canon.
A jazz trio was just finishing their sound check when we exited so we decided to stay and hear a couple of tunes. After "Summertime" and half of "All of Me" (what does that leave?), the police came and broke it up. To the jeers of the crowd and scurrying of the other illegal vendors, we departed for more street art images that Nicole had seen by night but wanted to capture by day.
We stumbled on a nice piece of synchronicity while wandering the old section, when we happened on a European rarity, a second-hand shop (Dian's great hobby, and expertise) strangely named La Senora Henderson. When one Spanish owner detected American English through the pretty good Spanish, she called to her American-Spanish partner: "Sonia! English!" She marched over, we told her we were Americans, and she said "Oh me too, I'm from New Mexico."
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| Looks a bit like something out of Radio city! |
Then it started. She not only hailed from Charles's New Mexico (Espanola) but went to UNM as well. Though they attended in different decades, while there she was on the student entertainment committee that booked all the concerts, like the one Charles covered while working at the daily student newspaper, the Lobo. They shot off names of professors and student and civic leaders, local hangs and New Mexican landmarks, and especially the food, oh the New Mexican food, they both started almost crying and even Dian and Nicole were getting hungry and homesick just hearing about it. Hatch chile, blue corn tortillas, sopaipillas....
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| The jazz trio before they got kicked out |
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| Policeman kicking the trio out |
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| Trio kicking it out |
We ended up shopping at the vintage store she and partner Maria had opened only a few weeks earlier and over beer, shrimp and olives acquired some nifty items - including old photos of a Spanish family, and a basketball with the name of a Valencia team on it (a gift from Sonia). We invited her to dinner later in the week.
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| Sonia in the middle |
We had our farmers market cheese, bread and Dian's pesto pasta for dinner and after looking through Nicole's photos, called it a day.
Did we mention the intersection of a busy street where a man was openly groping his wife (or girlfriend)? It reminded Dian of the book Don Snowden had loaned her on the famous Fallas Festival of Valencia held each spring where huge constructions are burned in the streets signifying death and rebirth and mostly bawdy partying. We're pretty sure the man was getting a head start on the randy part and she didn't seem to mind one bit.
We walked to the Farmers Market in what was reputed to be the largest covered market in Europe. The scene was amazing and slightly overwhelming. With seafood, meat, sweets, fruits and vegetable stands covering a space the size of a small stadium, enclosed by arched ceilings and tile decorations, we wended our way along the stalls with Nicole busily snapping away on her Canon.
A jazz trio was just finishing their sound check when we exited so we decided to stay and hear a couple of tunes. After "Summertime" and half of "All of Me" (what does that leave?), the police came and broke it up. To the jeers of the crowd and scurrying of the other illegal vendors, we departed for more street art images that Nicole had seen by night but wanted to capture by day.
Did we mention the intersection of a busy street where a man was openly groping his wife (or girlfriend)? It reminded Dian of the book Don Snowden had loaned her on the famous Fallas Festival of Valencia held each spring where huge constructions are burned in the streets signifying death and rebirth and mostly bawdy partying. We're pretty sure the man was getting a head start on the randy part and she didn't seem to mind one bit.
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