Day 7 of 20 - Bull Fighting Arena and Laundry

Valencia is famous for the oranges. The neighborhood trees are laden with oranges. One guy told me - not to eat them - then he rubbed his belly. I am guessing the oranges are denatured so you do not eat them.



Here are 4 PhD's in tauromachy. Yes - they do offer a doctorate in bull fighting here.



The bull almost always loses.

I am sitting in a laundromat in Valencia about one mile south of our hotel. It is tiny with 4 modern washers and 2 dryers. You can do about 25 pounds for 4 euros and dry them for 3 euros. I am pretty much alone. It gives me a time to type my web pages. There is no wifi here so I will type the stories now and send them out when I get to the hotel. I can post stories to my web page from the phone but it eats up my data.

Lulu and her friends have been busy at the conference - going to sessions and presently their own material. I escorted them downtown Tuesday morning - but after we went to bull fight museum and bought train tickets to Barcelona - they wanted to go to the beach - so I split to do the laundry. Beach or laundry - that is an easy choice :-)

The weather is perfect - sunny - dry - 80 degrees - 25% humidity. I am blown away by how much clothes people wear here. I am the only guy with shorts and sandals on. They wear sweaters - jackets - long pants - hats - full shoes - and its 80!  It always seems to be breezy here - the warm foehn winds come from the mountains. It must really get hot here in the summer.

People here are very nice and helpful. Maybe I am just an old guy - but everyone’s nice to me. They can tell I am American right away. They speak English without asking. The people in the service industry are better paid - they do not expect a tip for everything. When you leave a tip - even 5% to 10% - they are very gracious.  There are some beggars her - but much less than NYC or Tallahassee
:-)

We bought train tickets today at the station for our Thursday trip to Barcelona - 45 euros each. We will take the bus to the train station for 1.5 euros. It is easy getting around Europe - buses - trains - planes - cars -scooters - bikes. We will stay one night in Barcelona - and then catch the boat for our 7 day cruise.

It is time for me to empty my dryer - and fold Lulu’s underwear - I will post this along with pictures back at the hotel.

The official conference photo - 4 timid librarians invade Valencia

The boulevard from our hotel room

Poor American tour by bus at 1.50 euros each. Rich Americans share cabs - about 5 euros total  :-)

The North Valencia train station

We bought tickets here but will travel 

from the other station to Barcelona

Buying tickets to Barcelona - 45 euros each

North Train Station

Bull fighting arena

they use John Deere tractors in the arena

Some famous matador 

Notice they always wear a tie

This brand has a cross and a G

Did you ever wonder where they got the term "bull pen" 

Bull fighting hall of fame

This bull fighter must be from Florida State

The official bullfighting library

Bullfighting greatest hits

I loved this electric delivery scooter

This pink old Vespa reminded me of Life Buoy soap 

You never get used to all the oranges

This Ferrari dealer was right next to......

.....the laundromat by our hotel.