La Patrona We had an hour to kill before our apartment was available and this was one of the only Russafa wine bars open in the later afternoon. It was warm in the sun so we grabbed a table outside...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencian paella
We visited 3 paella-specific restaurants while in Valencia. It's traditionally a leisurely lunch meal with family and friends on weekends but we did have it for dinner once. Important to note that...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia restaurants
As one can imagine, we visited a lot of restaurants in the month+ we stayed in Valencia, even if we did eat at home most nights. There were many options right outside our door in Rusafa, and we did...
Europe Spring 2024: Russafa neighborhood memories
We have a lot of good memories from our month in the Russafa neighborhood. Just about anything we could possibly need could be found within a few blocks, including two large grocery stores and...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia gardens
Valencia has as a lot of different gardens, some simply between streets, others as large formal gardens. Jardín del Turia The famous former Turia riverbed is now a large, winding park for the city....
Europe Spring 2024: La Semana Santa Marinera de València
One of the memorable moments from our 2022 visit to Valencia was stumbling across the Our Lady Of The Forsaken Festival while trying to go for a drink (never made it to that bar...). Our 2024 stay...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia apartment
Finding an apartment for a month in Valencia wasn't difficult, but narrowing the choices down definitely took us some time. We started with neighborhoods of interest - on our 2022 trip we had stayed...
Spain 2022: Valencia street art
Before we left on this trip, I researched a bunch of street art places and muralists that I wanted to see. As with most street art, a lot were still visible while others had been painted over or...
Spain 2022: Valencia food & drink
Our week in Valencia was filled with food and drink experiences, from quick snacks to full-on meals. Bar Oliví is a lovely little wine place with a bar on the right and some additional stools on the...
Spain 2022: Valencia museums
To be honest, I feel like we struck out a bit with the 'formal' art institutions in Valencia. The street art was a lot more interesting to us than the two museums we tried. That said, both art...
Spain 2022: Our Lady Of The Forsaken Festival
Midnight on Saturday and BOOM! BOOMBOOMBOOM...!!! Leandra got up to see what was going on and is surprised by a large fireworks display taking place a mile away in the Turia Park, but visible from...
Spain 2022: Valencia – El Cabanyal
We centered our Saturday afternoon around reservations for a late lunch at Casa Montaña, and we were very happy with our choice to do so! From the old town we used google maps to help find a bus...
Spain 2022: Valencia gardens
Jardí Botànic - This small university-affiliated garden has a reasonable admission fee of 3€ and surprised us with its number of specimens and blessedly shady interior. Palm trees, massive oaks,...
Spain 2022: Valencia Ciutat Vella
Our apartment was located in the heart of the old town, so over our five days we saw most of the sights multiple times. The Mercat Central / Central Market was a definite highlight - located just 2...
Spain 2022: introduction
Two years. In February 2022 it was two years since we'd left the US, and we were ready to go somewhere for a spring trip. We weren't keen on having to test to get into a country, but as luck would...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)