valencia2026

Monday 26 January---------------Today's gray skies were very much reflected in my time of "Estoy enfermo" (I am sick). After a 3-day weekend of the paella fiesta, some fairly aimless meandering, the pre-concert park trekking, classical music, laundry and a touch of homework, I awoke Monday at the very late (for me) hour of 7:30 am, on a day when class starts at 9 am. You'd be surprised, but 90 minutes on the first day of a new week goes by quickly. I had half a loaf of bread left over, so made a breakfast of toast w peach marmalade, fresh strawberries and a Valencia orange, along with the obligatory coffee, which takes its own sweet time, thank you very much. Showered, dressed and got the apartment ready for the weekly housekeeper (because one always cleans for the house cleaner) and started on my way to class when an off-kilter sensation hit me, followed momentarily by a light headed-ness that did note bode well. The stroll to escuela is four minutes any other d...

Pics: Procession figures in a local museum; The Cathedral detail; Jardin Botanica; edificio banco; Mercado Central; Quart Tower (right down the street)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday evening I trudged at dusk for 45 minutes, admittedly through the lovely Turia (a beautiful ribbon of a park that used to be a river until the river was diverted to avoid chronic flooding of the city) to get to the Palace of Music to hear the Orchestra of Valencia perform Beethoven's Third - spectacular hall with acoustics said to be among the best in Europe. Unlike theatres and concert halls in the States, they brook no latecomers here...I barely made it to my 20 euro seat when at 7pm, on the dot, the orchetra began tuning up and out walked Maestro to begin the first program with cello master (wait for it).......... Robert Plant . No, kidding, i...

Yes, that's a paella pan. (BTW I see it as code as I write this, hopefully you see it as a photo of delicious paella!) Let me know if you don't. That also means that maybe, just maybe, I can post pics along with my words on this post and all future posts. (Many thanks to the patient Emily,) It's Sunday! Laundry, meander and study day. Longer (and more interesting) post to come.

21 January 2026------------- Two weeks since I left the States, my language classes began this past Monday. That has begun to bring some order to life. Class day, with a conversation workshop tacked on to the end, goes about four and a half hours - Mon/Wed/Fri is morning to early afternoon, TueTh early afternoon to early evening, also known as late afternoon here. Four and a half hours pretty much does me in, truth be told. There's a lot to follow, minute by minute, and especially draining when you're barely keeping your head above water much of the time. There are five of us in my beginner class. Four of us are pensionistas, like myself - retired more or less. Mateusz is a 50-ish conultant from Stockholm, Zoe is from Belfast (a favotite Irish city of mine), Edwin and Jeenok are a Korean-American couple from Warren, NJ, Sam's old stomping grounds. We have rotating teachers, and virtually every word they speak in class is in Spanish. Sink or swim. I guess that'...

Saturday 17 January ----------It's a cool day with on again, off again rain. My last weekend before school starts Monday morning. Ambled slowly on the slick cobblestones to Mercado where I managed to pick up enough provisions (along with a stop at my local green grocer) for two or three meals plus snacks, for all of about 25 euros. One of my purchases was a wonderfully crusty brown bread upon which I immediately chipped a front tooth on my return home. These old teeth are giving out one by one...but tonight I enjoy a seafood salad with olives in oil, local cheese, green salad and the aforementioned crusty bread...followed by fresh papaya which the green grocer suggested was very good for the stomach...or the other translation of his pantomime being that I'm developing a beer belly.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a great What'sApp call with Sam, I walked to Jardin Botanico (Botanical Garden Valencia) this after...

I can't imagine there was a happier man in Valencia around noon local time today Thursday than yours truly, who although exhausted physically and emotionally, closed the door behind him in his new home until this whole Spanish adventure ends, currently scheduled for April. Home is Calle Alta 36, Puerta 5, if you must know. The day started early as I hoofed for half an hour to the offices of Dasha Living for orientation, taxied to the new place just to get the lay of the land, walked back to the first interim apartment to load my stuff to the lobby, hailed a cab and then schlepped 5 or 6 bags of various sizes up to the new digs, and yes, there is a lift thank god. Third floor penthouse with an outdoor rooftop deck about as big as the apartment itself. My suite, to coin a phrase, is sweet indeed. I promised myself a nice place to live while in school and boy, did I deliver! I must share what I have come to realize - that landing finally in my long-term place was a bigger deal ...

------------------------Tuesday 13 January 2026 ------------------------------------------------- Still working on photos. My tech capable offspring are my hope (and yours, dear reader). Walked through the old town for two and a half hours on Sunday and learned that it's where I want to live while I'm here...good catch. Hopefully the new long-term apartment there will come together this week. Yesterday morning my interim studio apartment flooded from a leaky shower door. Yikes!! Several What's App messages back and forth with the landlord agency and after wet towels galore, with water leaking out to the common hallway, and then a respite for me at Mercado, they moved me to a new unit, and it's a huge improvement - one bedroom, not a studio, couch and table, not island and two (count 'em) televisions. Speaking of television, I started watching CNN but soon tired of the Spanish language version (I mean I haven't even started classes yet), and stumbled on Al J...

December 25, 2025 Hello all. Two weeks from today I will be, according to current plan, in Valencia, Spain, at the top end of a planned three-month long Spanish Language Immersion experience which I have had my eyes set on for the better part of the last six months. Today is Christmas Day, 2025, and my flight Logan to Valencia is January 7th 2026, arrival Spain sometime Thursday, January 8th Photo is grandson Sweet Baby James from months ago, as a test. It is now the evening of January 6th, 2026 and I am experiencing the last frantic hours before tomorrow's departure. Lufthansa has sent me a check-in email with a departure today, not tomorrow, even though I have a confirmation email of a 7th departure. I will fret not, assuming that the hell of the last month will not have been in vain, and that I indeed have a ticket for tomorrow, not five hours ago today. Onward. Likewise, lovely granddaughter Lily as a test. ------------------------------- January 9, 2026 (Friday...