Valencia - Arrival and Fancy Birthday Dinner!

We left Tarragona for our last stop on our trip - Valencia. This is the third largest city in Spain, but seems to fly under the radar a bit. It shouldn't, as this is an amazing city to visit! Exiting the train station, you're pretty much in the center of town. It was a short walk to our hotel, through a big plaza lined with modernist buildings from the early 20th century. Our hotel, Cosmo, is a boutique hotel and restaurant. Check-in and the elevators are right in the middle of the restaurant, which was...interesting. Our room was a bit small, but had a huge balcony. One perk of the hotel: best shower we've ever had in Europe. Overhead, rain, high pressure... nice!

After checking in mid-afternoon, we decided to take a stroll around the city center and hit a highlight or two before sunset. First, we visited Valencia's UNESCO site La Lonja, which was a historic silk exchange built in the late 1400s when Valencia was a major center of Mediterranean trade with the East. It's a little ironic they built such an extravagant building to celebrate their trade dominance around the same time Europeans began to explore the Americas which would ultimately shift the balance of power away from the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic.

What a grand welcome to Valencia!

The historic interior of the train station.

Just like in Tarragona, we had a huge balcony in Valencia (which was bigger than our actual room).

The exterior of La Lonja looks like a castle.

The whimsical twisting columns in the interior.

After visiting La Lonja, we strolled a few minutes towards the cathedral, which is not unlike many cathedrals in Spain. The main claim to fame here is one of the chapels holds what's claimed to be the true Holy Grail. That's one heck of a relic! Of more interest to us was the tower you can climb for panoramic views of the city center. The steps were very narrow and going up is quite popular, so after you pay your few euro fee, you have to wait until a little green light turns on and the crowd coming down has all passed. While you're up top, you then have to wait until its your turn to go back down. Efficient!

Interior of the cathedral.

The holy grail? Uh, sure.

David climbing up to the cathedral tower.

Great views from the top.

Some taller buildings and the port in the distance.

Looking through the windows on the way back down.

Our last stop on our quick city tour that evening was the city's ring park through one of the old city gates. The park, Jardin del Turia, is a long linear park that passes through the entire city from west to east. It serves as a great emerald necklace of green space that surrounds the city center and passes through many neighborhoods. The space is full of running and biking trails, event spaces, sports fields and playgrounds. A really great amenity for the city... with a questionable origin story. The park was born from the desire to prevent flooding in Valencia. In the mid 1960s the river Turia, which used to pass through the city center, flooded causing damage to a large part of the city center. City leaders decided to take a draconian approach and reroute the river around the southern side of the city and prevent future floods. Initial plans were to create a highway where the river used to flow, but that idea was eventually replaced with the plan to create a large park with nearly 20 subsections in a master plan that spanned 50 years. So, while we think the space is really great and a huge asset for Valencia, it came at the cost of a huge disruption to the city's ecosystem and by 21st century environmental standards is a questionable decision at best.

On the way back to the hotel for a quick siesta before dinner, we ran into a few cute shops and got some drinks and gifts for family members. The city center of Valencia is really a wonderful, dense, walkable community with great shopping, restaurants and cultural amenities. We highly recommend staying in this part of town if you visit Valencia. 

Old city gate, one of several around the city center that used to be attached to walls.

Walking path in the Turia Park. More pictures of the park to follow in another post.

The central city is really pretty and comes alive at twilight.

Truer words have never been spoken in any language. (You can't buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream... which is the same thing)

For David's birthday dinner, we made reservations for a tasting menu meal at one of the top rated restaurants in Valencia - Karak. Karak had three options for the tasting menu, an 8 course, 10 course and 12 course meal. We opted for the middle option, along with wine pairing. Often when we travel abroad, and especially in developing countries, we will try to find at least one really outstanding restaurant to try (like Leo in Bogota, Dulce Patria in Mexico City and Central in Lima). These meals are usually much cheaper than a comparable experience in the USA and allow us to try some different types of food.

Karak is a really excellent restaurant. We were able to try a wide variety of interesting dishes and wines in a really chic atmosphere with very attentive staff. If we had a single complaint, David would say the tie in between all the dishes in this tasting was "smoke" and most of the food had a somewhat smoky flavor, which he is not a huge fan of in general. Paul has the opposite opinion and loves smoky flavors in food...who's birthday was this again?! We were also able to meet head chef Rakel Cernicharo, as she introduced herself to all the guests at some point during their meal. Some people had really in depth conversations with her about the food, which is a nice touch. Join us for a course by course photo tour of our visit to Karak, below. 😋

Course 1: Six "snacks." Paul's favorite was third from the left - smoked Canarian goat cheese, celery, yogurt, smoked peanut, pickled mustard caviar, and cocoa butter. Intense and unique flavors!

Course 2: Preserved charred tomato, romesco with almonds, and tamari ponzu. One of David's favorite dishes.

Course 3: Galacian mussels with sriracha, cinnamon, anise, cloves, cardamom, shisho, lime, and cognac, with tofu tartar and turmeric foam.

Course 4: Gazpacho with tikka and tandoori curry, chickpeas pedrosillanos, shrimp tartar, a crispy tapioca cookie, and coconut cream.

Course 5: Dry-aged meatballs with black chanterelle stew, chicken liver pate, smoked pine nut, mushroom and bone marrow broth, and blueberry and blue spirulina granola.

Paul smiling despite eating mushrooms! David was not a fan of the liver.

Course 6: Smoked lamb and carob ravioli, celery cream, pickled lemon sauce, puffed quinoa, and spice crumble. Another of David's favorite dishes.

Pre Course 6: We were given these pieces of metal. Cutlery or medieval torture devices?

Ohh, cutlery. 

Course 7: Twelve day aged salmon, carrot kimchi, venere rice, garlic and fermented ginger.

Course 8: Stilton blue cheesecake with elderberry, smoked cookie, smoked paprika meringue, rose cava, yuzu, kombucha coulis, black tea, tamarind, coriander seeds, ashwagandha, dried beet, fenugreek, smoked paprika, millet granola, quinoa, and amaranth. WHEW! The real treat is the negative space on the plate...

Course 9: Cold soufflé with smoked hazelnuts gianduja, smoked corn, citric masala, and fermented black garlic toffee.

Course 10: Petit Fours. Left to right: carrot, orange, smoked butter, and dried citrus peel. Smoked pine nuts and white chocolate. Smoked strawberries, smoked strawberry coulis, yuzu chocolate. Smoked spiced chocolate, grilled plums, thyme, licorice salt.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a 41st birthday. 😉 A couple more days of Valencia touristic fun to come!