To the sea

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 – Sunday was another down day – this disease doesn’t give up easily. I slept quite a bit. We finally roused ourselves in the late afternoon and walked over to Parque Centrale and explored a little more of it. The sun was out, the temperature up to 16C or so. Valencians have discovered their new park, the place was humming. We walked about for a bit, found the playground area and more fountains and gardens, then settled down on a quiet bench for a read before heading home to dinner.

Parque Centrale

Parque Centrale - playground area

Parque Centrale - rippling stream

Monday was the first day I felt more or less normal, if not brimming with energy. Karen has been fine for a couple of days now. It was supposed to be sunny, again, and go up to 18C, which probably meant it would go higher. Definitely a beach day.

We headed out a little after one. The plan was to ride, but we had to walk a kilometer or so down Peris y Valero before we could find two bikes at a Valenbisi station. We pedalled from there to the beach, with one stop on Puerto to “refresh” our mounts. With Valenbisi, subscribers get the first half hour free. As long as you re-dock your bike before the 30 minutes is up, there’s no additional charge. So you stop, dock, wait for the system to signal with a double beep that your bike has been recorded as returned, then take it out again. And off you go.

The beach was surprisingly busy for a January Monday. It was Spanish lunchtime. It was also a lovely day. We had feared there might be a cool breeze off the water, but there was none. It was just as warm down here as in the city. Pixel boards along the way had reported as high as 23C. We had the usual problem returning our bikes. On days like this, at lunchtime especially, everybody heads to the beach, and parks their Valenbisi bike at one of several stations along the promenade. The stations get filled up. We had to go almost down to the end of the Valencian beach before we found one with slots for two bikes.

Braving the Med in January

The first thing Karen wanted to do was go down to the water and dip her toes in – and have me record the event on camera. So that’s what we did. She said the water was the temperature of Lake Huron in June. Brrr! We did see a few people in bathing suits out in the water. There were also a couple wearing wet suits, which seemed much more sensible to me. We walked down to the end of Malva-Rosa beach along the promenade and then a short way into Alboraia, the next municipality to the north. By this time, we were in search of a comfortable bench for sitting and reading. Gosh, we lead exciting lives.

Braving the Med in January

We walked back over a kilometer before we gave up on finding a sunny bench with a back. We ended up sitting on the low wall between the promenade and the sand. We read for half hour or 45 minutes. It was getting noticeably cooler by the time we packed it in a little after four. We still had shopping to do.

Marking the beginning of Patacona beach, Alboraia

We’d take the tram and subway and use up one of the ten rides we’d paid for when we bought the Metrovalencia Mobilis cards we needed to get the annual Valenbisi subscription. It was a short three-stop tram ride up to the nearest Metro stop, then 20 minutes or so on the tube to get to Bailen, a stop about 15 minutes from home. We went right out again and did a small shop at the Mercadona across the street. Then we were in for the night. 

What a drag it is getting old! As Sir Mick once sang.