Friday, September 07, 2012

Valencia and Madrid- Day 4 & 5

We've had two busy days of travelling, but we're setting up camp now for a few days, so we can slow the pace down a little.

Yesterday, we took a train from Barcelona to Valencia and had a spectacular visit to their Oceanarium. We saw a dolphin show that could rival Sea World, walked through huge glass tunnel aquariums, and saw sharks, whales, turtles, penguins, and all kinds of fish and sea creatures, including Nemo! Gracie loved the dolphin show so much, people in the audience were turning to watch her instead of the show. There was some very exuberant clapping and numerous squeals of delight coming from her little 2 foot 11 inch body.

To top off our lovely stop-over in Valencia, we had some delicious pizza and pasta at an Italian restaurant and got our apartment upgraded.

"Fantastic!" as Gracie would say.

This morning, we woke up feeling more refreshed (yay for getting over jet lag) boarded an AVE (super fast) train to Madrid. We hit 300 km/hour and raced there in under two hours. We planned to take it easy is afternoon, but ended up wandering through a beautiful park, called El Retiro, stumbling upon Plaza Mayor and the elaborate architecture that stretches for blocks in any direction, and then trekking a ways to find a market for supplies. Maybe not as restful, but low key and quite nice.

Our apartment here is great. Very nice and modern (inside) and clean, and close to a number of sites and the train station.

Tomorrow, we rest. Unless something interesting comes up....

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