DAY 143

Thursday 1 December 2011

After a fancy omelette a la Charles, Bill came over to walk us on a little tour, to fill in some gaps from his personal knowledge of Valencia. Despite our initial expert tour from Don, and the afternoon we spent with our friend Christine of LA, in to visit her mum Doreen, which included a tour of the cathedral, Bill managed to add to our knowledge and fascination with this elegant but laid back city.

We got to the cathedral just in time to catch the water court, the Tribunal de las Aguas, the oldest democratic institution in Europe, a board which meets every Thursday at noon behind one of the huge side doors of the old church to settle water disputes, verbally, no written records or lawyers of any kind, and they'd been doing it for....  more than a thousand years. Most Valencians, including Bill and Don, knew about it but had never been, and you had to be on time: if there were no disputes, and there often weren't, the whole thing could be over in three minutes. Almost as soon as we arrived the judges in their black robes were shaking hands and smiling and everyone was taking pictures. We realized much of the crowd consisted of tourists, and that the country people who used to frequent these meetings didn't really have issues anymore.

Even though Nicole had a look of, "See, I told you this was going to be boring," we moved on quite cheerily through some of Bill's favorite parts of town. Winding our way back to the Grand Market, we toured the old Silk Exchange just across the street. Its interior was timeless and beautiful with its swirling columns and gorgeous tile floors and carved ceilings, and Charles observed that it was nice being able to get up close to the details of a historic edifice without the barriers a museum would have.

"Sorry this is not art"

We continued walking to a folk art museum that was mysteriously closed despite posted hours to the contrary, and found some good street art for Nicole to shoot, then Bill got a call from Claire saying she was about to get off from the English lesson she was teaching and could meet us for lunch. She caught up with us as we were leaving the Silk Exchange and led us through a street art goldmine she had spied on her way to us! Nicole was especially grateful, but everyone enjoyed seeing the art. Then we went to a modern museum.... that was just closing, at 1:30. Not the way they do things at home, but this was, after all, Spain, and that was normal.

Walking by a few of Claire's favorite spots, we decided on lunch in the park. Picking up a few things from a bakery nearby (fish fry, fish-chicken casserole, macaroni and seafood paella -- yes, at the bakery), we got a couple more things (chicken paella, salad, fried potatoes with garlic mayo and a big pitcher of sangria) at a nicely located outdoor bar in the park. What a feast! The sangria made Dian a little sleepy, and admittedly the rest of our group was a little lethargic from the lavish layout, so we made our way back home whilst burning off a couple of unwanted calories.

Back at the homestead we cleaned Pilar's place for her arrival the next day and put some photos on some of the older blog days (<- click to go back!).