valencia2026

So, not boasting about new found Spanish learnings (really!) but am trying to actively use my recently gained language abilities with the new found understanding of the maxim "Use it or lose it." The translation of the title of this post is as follows: The Knee, the Lift and the Final Week.............................. The Knee - A few days ago my right knee started communicating some issues to me and I limped home from a lovely morning with amigos americanos, to nurse it. I stepped out that night to get a dinner snack, took a leg up (no step height ordinances here!) to go into into the tienda and the knee screamed back at me. "Basta!" it yelled. "No mas!" And as they say in Spanish, it hurt like a motherfucker. I limped home, hoping for the best. Not to be. Woke up to find that moving through the apartment was almost as hard as when I had Covid a few years ago and couch to kitchen was an hour-long endeavor. Showering that morning was one huge ...

Life has gotten back to a normal state here in Valencia now that Las Fallas is in the rear view. I heard it when I got here and now know it to be true - "You don't want to miss Las Fallas, it's once in a lifetime, but once is plenty!" The experience is almost indescribable. I'll start with the sweet stuff: impromptu processions (everywhere!) of small bands, dancers and the most beautiful women, men and children in the most beautiful costumed finery at what seems every turn; music is everywhere, at all times, including at 2:30 in the morning; smaller and then massive and colorful "sculptures", the fallas and ninots themselves, crafted by artisans throughout much of the year, at a cost of a half-million euro in some cases; ................And then, of course, the constant barrage of fireworks, no, explosives, at every turn, all day and all night long. Heralded by the daily 2pm Mascletas experience in Placa Ayuntamiente;............................ ht...

...but I'm back. Lynne, Pam, Ron and Joanne arrived last week and before they left for Barcelona and points north, we took a day trip to Albufera, a wet, marshy, reedy destination about a half hour from Valencia. A rice growing locale, and of course then, the birthplace of paella . Soon thereafter, Harvey and I trained to Peniscola for an overnight. Great seafood and yet another castle up a steep hill, and apparently a pensionista destination, but one night was enough. Back home to walk Harvey to the airport train for his long trip back to San Francisco. Good visit............................................................ Weekending away and hosting took it out of me and I've spent the better part of two days relaxing and doing the tranquilo dance. Got back to a gym schedule as I count down to the last two weeks en Espana. Pam, Lynne and company return later this week from Barcelona and I contemplate a three day sojourn to Madrid, a futbol match here in Valencia (c...

Got to several sites last week including a cathedral with the next best thing to a Sistine Chapel ceiling and the old silk mercantile building with design and 16th century architecture to die for. Finally made it to a dentist last week to have this front chipped tooth looked at since it chipped further and I knew there was no good way out of this. Observations: the cleanest, most modern and most welcoming dental practice I have ever been to in my life; two dentists saw me, plus two hygienists all women, it seems; this for a non-resident guy who called for an appointment one day prior; enough English spoken to put this gringo at ease about next steps. Don't worry about your chipped tooth, they assured me, it's the rest of your mouth that needs the real attention. Uh oh. They took two rounds of x-rays, front teeth upper/lower and full mouth. Total cost - about 120 Euro. Care to wager what that would cost back in the States, without insurance? A small but extremely pointe...

An indulgence, dear reader, if I may. Late last month, on a birthday call to my dear friend Ellen, I learned that my Seattle pal Kevin Hughes died suddenly, on the very day I started this blog, 25 December 2025. Kevin was addressed on all these posts, and ironically saw none of them. However his dear wife Ann-Marie has been getting them on Kevin's phone. Ann-Marie, if you're reading this, I wish I could be at Kevin's memorial service this weekend, but know that you, he and the boys will be in my thoughts on Sunday. Kevin was the very first friend I made in Seattle back in 1988, and he remained a close one for all of our time there. Lots of memories, including a guy-trip together to San Francisco, cutting up with Susan Trapnell during Leadership Tomorrow weekends and too many arts strategy meetings to count - Kevin was the chief lobbyist for the arts in Washington state (what arts community has its own dedicated lobbyist?) and taught me so well how important and legit...

Mascletas (booms) daily at 2pm. I've now been there three times and it doesn't get old. I hear it from my apartment when I'm there in the afternoon. Click on this link for a taste.................... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1952354535692460................................... Ninots (the outsized papier mache figures that are the stars of Las Fallas and are set afire at La Crema March 19) are starting to appear throughout the city in preparation for their processions. Great news! I discovered a Senior Center right up the block with snacks, card games, dominoes and mah jong all day long. I'm going to tell next week's guests to cancel all their excursions and hang out with the pensionistas instead... Got a haircut this afternoon at a little shop right next door - here's his sign on the door. When he pulls this rolling door up, out pops a genuine barber pole!

This city is remarkably evocative of Pittsburgh, where I lived and worked back in the late 70s and early 80s. While the 'Burgh has three rivers running through it, Bilbao has just the one, Rio Bilbao, a great deal narrower and tamer than the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio - but the city itself is surrounded by tall, steep hills all around, just like Pittsburgh; both have an industrial and ferrous history - Pittsburgh, steel, Bilbao metallurgy; and, remarkably, you get to each city proper via a tunnel from the airport! And then, Bilbao has the Guggenheim and Pittsburgh has the Warhol! (Well, the scale of each is different, but stay with me on the parallels!) I read somewhere that a prominent architect or architectural critic wept when he first came upon the Bilbao Guggenheim. I didn't cry, but I thanked myself for making the effort to get here to see it. It's that impressive. (I asked Pilar, our guide to the Basque country mentioned in the earlier post, what ...

Back when Emily was in high school, she/we played host in Atlanta to an exchange student from the Basque region of southeastern France. Cecile was a sweet girl, Emily's age, but quiet, as the language barrier was there. Her English was rudimentary, and while Emily was studying French and Ann has some Francophile language ability, we communicated a lot with smiles, hopeful glances and very basic French and English. We took her around (try explaining Stone Mountain and the U.S. Civil War to a 15 year old French/Basque schoolgirl - it's a lot easier just to climb the mountain. Which we did.) Sometime later, on a family trip to France (referenced earlier) Emily got in touch with Cecile to plan a rendezvous. Her parents insisted that we visit them and proceeded to treat us like royalty when we got there. Oh, and they owned a boulangerie - how lucky were we? The years have clouded a lot of specifics, but still clear to me was the outstanding hospitality we enjoyed, and an inc...

Probably 15 or 20 years ago or so we did a family trip to Europe that included a lovely stay in the French village of St. Jean de Luz, right near Biarritz and the Spanish border. While there, I had hoped to get to Bilbao to see Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao (a little over an hour away) but it never happened. Time to go to Bilbao now, to see the museum and a different part of Spain. I looked at the calendar to plan a two or three night getaway from Valencia and began looking at transportation possibilities. Train or plane? Turns out you can fly to Paris from Valencia for half the cost of getting to Bilbao, but last time I looked the City of Love had dozens of museums however nothing designed by our recently departed genius. And besides, I have been to Paris probably half a dozen times. (Not that I don't love that city.) So, Bilbao! The train cost a little less than flying, but was a six hour journey at best (up to fourteen hours!) and the plane trip was a little over an hour...

Sunday 1 March was reserved to visit Plaza Ajuntamiento and experience the first of nineteen daily 2pm firework presentations. Yes, 2pm every day until la Crema, the burning of the ninots, on the nineteenth. This is a big effing deal in Valencia - gunpowder is in the air they breathe here. I got to the Plaza at noon, and it was already crowded, but you could walk. I meandered off hoping to catch a sidewalk coffee, and by the time I returned at 1:30, it was wall to wall. You found your spot and didn't move from it, since you couldn't move. This is a 10,000 square meter open space, and it was teeming with humanity, all waiting for the show. Every few hundred feet or so, a community band of brass, reeds and percussion (maybe 5 or 7 musicians), fired up a tune that everyone knew the lyrics to (save me) and danced away. At 1:55pm, a warning blast was fired into the sky which was being dutifully patrolled by a Policia helicopter. At 2pm sharp, the big show began. Fireworks a...