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March 6 - Xativa

Our friends left Saturday. We dropped them off at the metro and then continued on to the central market where we picked up some seafood for supper and some wild mushrooms for a risotto early this week. We came back to the apartment to drop off our stuff and then went back to the old city to watch the mascleta again. It was so crowded that we couldn’t get close. But the fireworks are high, so everyone has a good view. The noise is so deafening that you feel the vibrations inside your body. But after seeing all the people this weekend I am kind of glad that we will leave as the big festivities start. There are so many people that it’s almost scary and we have noticed that the prices at the restaurants have gone up in the last week. They start lighting up the streets on Wednesday night so that should be fun to go for walks in the evenings. Most streets have lights going across them every few meters. Some look like they’ll be amazing to see when lit.

Sunday, we took the train to a village in the mountains called Xàtiva (pronounced Chativa). It was quite the climb up with a lot of switchbacks, but the hard work began once we reached the castle which was all built going up, so a whole lot of steps and very steep. Once we got to the top the views from all sides was amazing. We regretted all day that we didn’t suggest this while our friends were with us. But you never know what sort of place your going to before you get there. But this place was well worth the trip and the little town on the bottom was really ancient and quaint. We even drank 2 artisanal beers, one made with sea water (Er Boquerón) and the other with rosemary and rosemary honey (La Socarrada). I preferred the rosemary one while Jacques preferred the one with sea water.





















When you got to go - you got to go!



On the way down a local guide told us that there were stairs that we could take that was a more direct route than all the switchbacks, so we decided to try that. On the way down Jacques realised that we were only 350 meters from a cache, so we went a little further to see and we discovered a great big grotto with carved alters filled with flowers and candles. It was eerie being there inside the mountain with this nice view framed by the rocks. We would not have discovered this place if not for geocaching.

Found it!



Once we reached the village we went for lunch. I said to Jacques I now know why they have 2 hours for lunch every day. We arrived there at 2:30 and finished lunch at 4:05. It was a tiring day but well worth it. I am only sorry that Marielle and Paul didn’t get to see this part of Spain.

Today, Monday it was raining in the morning, so we had a quiet day of catching up on e-mails and cleaning etc. We spent quite a bit of time looking for areas outside of Valencia where we could do another interesting day trip like Xativa and finally decided on Segunto.