Valencia

What an adventure it is when you have to fend for breakfast for yourself after 8 hotel breakfasts. The plan was to walk over to Mercado Central and observe the market and pick up some breakfast. But at other mercados, there's usually some dining stalls or some seats, so ended up not eating there, but did buy a few pieces of fruit. Here's a picture of the Mercado Central in Valencia:

We went to a restaurant across the street who struggled to serve us and communicate. They were incredibly strapped and folks had to constantly go up to the counter as there were many uncomfortable delays. 

Afterwards, we walked over to La Llonja which is the old commerce market and a UNESCO heritage site. The building has a mix of gothic, renaissance, and neoclassical features. Interesting were the twisted columns shown in the collage:

It was a toss up to take a bus or pull out our car from the parking garage, but we finally opted to take the #35 bus that leaves from near our hotel to Ciudad de les Arts y les Ciencas - the City of Arts and Sciences. 

An architectural marvel that has opened relatively recently and is one of the reasons the NY Times consistently ranks Valencia as one of 52 cities to visit in recent years. My parents had no expectations of what it was and was blown away by it. It has an arts museum, planetarium, science museum, and aquarium. You can buy a multi day ticket to visit all the venues. I had pondered just looking at it on our stopover in Valencia, but thought that would be a shame. 

By recommendation from my friend Jamie, we went to the aquarium and had fun being like kids. 

At the aquarium, we enjoyed the dolphin show:

Underground tunnel fun during feeding time:

Shark exhibit:

Jellyfish:

The outdoor exhibits with penguins, birds, and turtles:

We opted to hop in the cab sitting in front of the aquarium to return to our hotel. Around the corner, we enjoyed an Italian lunch as recommended by the front desk clerk who checked us in yesterday. We enjoyed various pastas and shared a pizza - I forgot to take a picture of Justin's lasagna and the pizza, but I think you get the idea:

We packed our rental car one last time after it took Justin and I much longer than it should have to navigate the streets from the parking garage to the hotel (there was construction and some streets are exclusively for pedestrians during the day). 

3.5 hours is how long it should take from Valencia to Barcelona. Here are a few sights along the way:

Midway, we stopped at the Baix Erbe rest area. We hadn't filled our tank once and it was our first time dealing with diesel. My mom also chipped in by helping to wash the car windows. Here's a collage of our gas fill up experience:

As we drove away, my brother asked my dad how he paid for his coffee when we all went to the bathroom and he said, I thought you paid for it with the gas. 

This led to a 20 minute turnaround back to the rest area which included getting off and back on the highway to go south, and then getting off and back on again to go back north. We probably could have gotten away with it, but feared the worst, like the station agent reporting us and a ticket getting assessed to the rental. We were all mystified why the station agent wasn't more firm with us or followed us, but she did confirm he hadn't paid when I went in to pay. My brother likened it to kids taking toys when they leave a store. Seriously. 

Kudos to my brother who did all the driving as we listened to international pop, Spanish radio, and my mom's cd from the Sainte Chappelle concert. We finally arrived in Barcelona and checked in. We unpacked the luggage and my parents rested while Justin and I spent 40 minutes trying to find the Hertz return garage when it should have taken 15 - this was multiplied by the traffic, rotaries, and a mess up in the GPS address input. However, we returned the car without any issues or assessments. 

Justin and I hopped into a cab to the restaurant Cal Pep. Since we didn't have time to stop at the hotel, my parents took a cab direct for our 8 pm reservation. We finally converged around 8:30 pm, and despite the long wait and tiny room that only accepts reservations of 4 or more, they were able to accommodate us. I had eaten here in 2014 after waiting in line for an hour. This place is not far from the beach and includes classic and mainly seafood tapas. We enjoyed it all, but the razor clams were the best along with our convivial waiter:

After dinner, we hopped into a cab and returned to our hotel. We did buy some groceries, and so glad we did, because we saw this in our elevator:

This cramps our schedule as we had bookings at Sagrada Familia and Parc Güell tomorrow, but at least we have a few days in Barcelona to pivot and beautiful hotel room - it's a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with kitchen and living room, giving ourselves some time to take it easy tomorrow during the strike. 

Also, my best friend Amanda is in Barcelona at the same time, and we met up for a drink tonight and I look forward to catching up her more tomorrow before she returns to America!