Valencia - Thursday to Sunday

After we met up with Steph on Thursday we all went to Valencia´s cathedral together, which is a really amazing cathedral, over 600 years old. It has an amazing collection of tombs and paintings, even containing the Holy Grail, apparently the chalice that Jesus Christ drank from at the Last Supper. After having the audio tour through the cathedral, we climbed 272 narrow winding steps to reach the top of the tower. This provided awesome views of the whole of Valencia, from the port to the hills. We spent about an hour up the top of the tower enjoying the view, and the cool breeze.

After that we walked past the bull-ring and picked up tickets for a bull-fight the next night. By this time we were very hot, as temperatures have soared past 30 degrees most days, so we headed across town for a swim. We were lucky to be able to use a private pool, which is attached to the apartment building where the kids that Steph teach live.

On Friday we slept in as we knew we had a big day ahead. We then headed to the port to watch the racing in the wool-shed again. This race was rather traumatic one, as the main-sail blew out on the second leg when we had a controlling lead. We then had to watch Alinghi sail past us, and go to win the race. After the race we headed to an outdoor bar situated beside the waterways, which had clicked onto the fact that 90% of it´s clientele are Kiwi´s and so serves 2 euro beers and plays kiwi music (Dave Dobbyn etc). After a couple of beers we caught a bus to the bull-ring and headed in to watch the bull-fight. This turned out to be an interesting spectacle, a lot more brutal than either of us expected, but was a good experience none the less and gave us an insight into Spanish culture. Then we headed down to Estrella bar at the port, which is surrounded by the water in a fantastic setting with light shows, lasers and giant glowing eggs, combined with the fact that is surrounded by super yachts makes it a pretty exciting bar to drink at. It´s obviously pretty popular with tourists and locals alike, judging by the line to get in. We managed to skip this by arriving early (11pm). They start late over here.

On Saturday we woke up late and headed to an Irish pub to watch the All Blacks game which was packed to the rafters with Kiwis and a sprinkling of Aussies. It was a great atmosphere until the 63rd minute when Carl Hayman was sent off, but this created the opportunity for a Warriors chant! After the disappointing loss, we picked our hopes up and headed down to a packed wool-shed to watch some racing....however this turned out to be a disappointment as well and the only saving grace from a terrible sporting day was the mighty Warriors downing the 4th placed titans 22-6! We then headed to Estrella bar to drown our sorrows and renew our hopes for the next day.