By far one of the best things about living in Spain is their high speed train, the AVE. Reaching speeds of up to 315 km/h, one is able to get to many destinations in half the time it would take to drive. Although it still does not reach every corner of Spain, it does connect many popular cities. Furthermore, the fact that I live in the heart of the country, in Madrid, I can get to Sevilla in 2 hours and 20 minutes, to Barcelona in 3 hours, and to Valencia in 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Autumn has entered the center of the country in full force and the evenings are quite chilly in Madrid. My friend Carlos had this past weekend free and offered to host me at his apartment in Valencia. Needing some sun, I took him up on the offer. Using the RENFE app, (RENFE is the national train service) I booked my tickets the night before and hopped the AVE to Valencia the next morning. When I left Madrid it was about 58 degrees and overcast and when I got off the train an hour and a half later in Valencia, it was sunny and 83 degrees. Wanting to take advantage of the weather, I went straight to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean which was slightly chilly but more than tolerable. On October 18th, mind you!
The rest of this visit, Carlos and I caught up on life and had a fairly low key time. I have visited Valencia many times and elected to just relax and enjoy the weather instead of heading into the old quarter of the city. We did wander a bit through the hip Ruzafa neighborhood and stopped into an Asturian restaurant for a light evening meal, dining on chistorra (very small grilled sausages) and patatas cabrales (potatoes covered in a blue cheese sauce from the region of Asturias).
Before catching an afternoon train back to Madrid on Saturday, I told Carlos that I wanted to head just south of the city to check out the area of La Albufera which is a lagoon that once was a saltwater body but over centuries of irrigation and canals, became a freshwater estuary. Valencia is know for its rice dish paella, and La Albufera is filled with rice paddies. Off to the village of El Palmar we went in search of an authentic paella! We found a local restaurant called “La Isla” and lunched on puntillitas (tiny baby squids which are flash fried), esgarraet (a typical Valencian cold appetizer consisting of grilled red pepper, cured cod and olive oil) and finally a traditional paella with rabbit, chicken, green beans, large lima beans and of course local rice. Needless to say, when I got to Madrid that evening, I skipped dinner!