The village trip to Valencia

Saturday 5th May
About 30 people set off at 6.00 am from the crossroads in the village in a coach heading through Gandesa to Tortosa and onto the motorway arriving at Valencia around 10.45. On the way we stopped at a service station for a drink and to eat the bocadillos we had brought with us for our breakfast.
Valencia is a modern, spacious city with lots of trees in the streets as well as it's own park area but it has that modern day problem despite wide roads of having too much traffic.
The area we visited was composed of several futuristic buildings . In the photo above is the "Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía" to the left with "L'Hemisfèric" on the right, neither of which we visited - probably will next time!
We spent what was left of the morning going around the science museum, "Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe" which as you can see from the photo above is quite a large building. It has several floors and deals with the creation of the solar system and the evolution of the species but nothing on global warming or the consequences for the future.
We had lunch in the restaurant of "L'Oceanogràphic" and then spent the afternoon visiting the displays of fish and birds from all over the world.
The birds are housed in the large spherical cage which we went inside to see them at close quarters.
The marine life are in vast tanks underground and are viewed from various angles including a couple from a "glass" tunnel which passes through their tank - all good stuff!
There are at least 6 people missing from the group taken above but it was pretty difficult to get everyone together when they are exploring in small groups. It was a superb day out and we set off to return at 19.00 and got back to the village just before midnight so at almost 18 hours, it was also a very long day out!

Our new Solar Panel

At last it's there and today the sun is out so we are about to enjoy "free" hot water.

It has been raining here for the last five weeks with the exception of about 3 days when the weather was quite promising and spring/summer like. We seem to have experienced the monsoon season throughout April with some very heavy rain and several thunderstorms. (We haven't been able to do very much outside, that's why the place looks a bit disorganised at the moment.)

Yesterday evening on Spanish TV news they were showing torrential rain and hailstones in Valencia and guess where we are going tomorrow on the village trip - Valencia! More on that later...

We have also had 2 very large water barrels, 1500 litres each, connected to collect the rain water from the guttering we had fitted to the house. They have been full to overflowing since January.

The 2 containers are inside the "house" that Cyprian, our constructor, built for them. A pump pushes the water through the hose and so I am able to water the plants - not that they have needed much this last month.

With all of this water however, the almonds are swelling, the roadsides are very colourful with all of the wild flowers, including poppies, and the fields are lush - just like England at this time of the year after all of the April showers - only it has been drier and much warmer in England than here this year so far.

You can even see the flowers forming on the vine which because of the rain is looking very vigorous with it's fresh green leaves.

That's it for today so as they say in "Star Wars", "May the fourth be with you!"

Link to Floyd's blog.

See more events happening locally from Floyd over on
Torre-del-Compte.blogspot.com

Wild Boar stew

Monday 30th April
Today is a "bank holiday" or a fiesta day and so is tomorrow because it's the 1st of May. So why, I hear you ask, is Monday a holiday? Because it's a puente or "bridging day" so therefore everyone can have a long weekend. That is why we have so many more people in the village as they have come from Barcelona, Zaragoza and other places where they live and work to be here for the holiday weekend. Last Monday, the 23rd, was also a holiday - it was St George's day and he is the patron saint of Aragón as well as other regions of the world where he is not celebrated to the same extent.

Last year a hunting party from the village killed several wild boar or jabilí and many of the villagers, including us, went down to the bar/restaurant for a meal of boar and potato stew. A few weeks ago when the marcha was being planned Pablo bagged a boar so 13 of us had stew in Rosi and Pablo's garage. However, the stew is much better as it's Rosi's own recipe and contains potatoes, artichoke hearts, alcachofas, asparagus, espárrago, and peppers, pimientos. This is accompanied by bread, red and rosé wine, salads and followed by the local desserts, postres, of apple pie, almond pie and a type of swiss roll. At the end of the meal the receipts for the food, etc are added up and the bill comes to €3.50 per head - I remarked that eating with friends was cheaper than eating at home!

VII Marcha por caminos de Torre del Compte

Sunday 29th April 2007
We set off with a small group of friends just after 9 am from the Plaza Mayor, down the hill on the road and onto the Via Verde - the old disused railway track which is now a walking pathway.

We had already ignored a couple of diversions which would have taken us into very muddy territory so when the track indicated that we should leave the Via Verde and head off to the right into more muddy fields we chose to ignore it - by now we were on our own as our compatriots had forged ahead.


We made good time up the steady slope of the old railway but at least it was easy going and according to the route map, we should be joining the route again before turning left up to control point number 1. It was as we were crossing a very steep embankment that we noticed groups of people walking up a track to our left below us - they had crossed from our right through a tunnel below us!








We had been encouraged into believing we were still on the correct path by seeing a few yellow markers even though by now we were completely on our own!

Hoping that there would be a link track from ours to theirs just a way up ahead we continued for quite a while before deciding to call it a day and head back home the way we had come.




At least having walked so far up the track than we had ever done before we had seen some new and different views of the village such as the view of the hermita of San Juan in the distance. Our house is right next to it but on the other side of it as it is seen in this photo.




When we returned to the Plaza Mayor after a quick change of footware and a cup of tea back at our house, we were presented with our "keepsake" for participating in the marcha. Last year it was a hiking stick, this year a small first aid kit and yes, the village doctor and his friend the doctor from a local village both got their first aid kits too! Lots of people were using their hiking sticks on the march this year - hopefully the first aid kit won't be necessary next year.
















This was followed by a hearty meal of bean stew with bits of pig's trotters in it - delicious - under the cover of the Ayuntamiento.


In England the participants of such a walk would probably be walking because they were being sponsored for charity but that is not the case here where you partake in the event simply because you want to.