Sunday: Heading Home

I'm going to miss my European breakfasts!

Not much to report today. We had our first and last Swiss breakfast at the hotel this morning. Freshly made yogurt with muesli, six different kinds of cheese, turkey slices, fruit, bread and coffee were on the menu. Yum!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time to catch our 10:20am flight to Newark, NJ.  The flight was scheduled to be nine and a half hours, but actual flying time is more like eight hours. I sat next to the window, hoping to sleep for a couple of hours. That didn't happen. While it was a comfortable ride, it really just wasn't possible to rest during the daylight! I received a pretty good meal of broiled fish with rice and vegetables. It also came with a small salad, a fruit salad and a roll. I have started ordering the gluten free meal on my international flights. While I don't have celiac disease, I have found that most airline meals are bulked up with crackers, cookies and breads. I liked knowing that my meal would be a little more heavy on the proteins and fruits.

Right before the flight ended, we were served a turkey sandwich (gluten free roll) with a piece of fruit. Airline food has improved dramatically since my last flight to Europe in 2004. You don't usually get full meals on flights to Mexico so this was nice for me. They also carried Dasani Lime Flavored Sparking Water which was a nice treat. While wine and beer are complimentary on international flights, that just held no appeal for me!

In Newark, we made it through immigration, customs and security rather easily.  This was surprising given that it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Things were going well until we reached our gate. As anticipated, our flight from Newark to Dayton was delayed four times. Then, our plane was recalled for an unknown reason. Both Mandy and I were not feeling great. She was having severe ear pain and I had developed a raw, red, spotted throat that I suspected might be the beginning of strep throat. When they started taking bags off the first plane, we knew we had to make a quick decision about school on Monday. We decided to play it safe and arrange for subs for our classes. We were exhausted, missing our families and yearning to be home in our own beds.

By the time this blog post is published, I can only hope that are back home in Ohio! It was an amazing trip filled with lots of culture, professional development and new friends. I am forever grateful to the tourism division of the Spanish government (Turespaña), the Comunidad de Valencia, the Fedele for granting me this opportunity to explore Spain and its impressive language schools.  It was truly the experience of a lifetime!

Friday: Last full day in Spain

Today will also be know as the day when Heidi Morrissey became an official Valencian Paella Specialist!  What a fun adventure we had today.  First, we walked to the central market of Valencia which is the largest fresh food market in Europe. It is a surprisingly clean, airy place where a person can purchase anything imaginable to make a great meal. The seafood stalls alone are worth the trip!  We met our instructor from the Escuela de Arroces (school of rice) who led us through the market to purchase our ingredients for our Valencian paella. She explained the many different varieties of beans and spices.  Paella in Valencia (the only truly authentic paella in the world) uses rabbit and chicken meat with snails added at the end. There are no onions or garlic in this dish at all.  It requires a special low round pan and takes about two hours from start to finish!     In groups of 3-4, we painstakingly chopped vegetables, turned meat and added ingredients as instructed by our instructor, Chef Jaime. He was fun, but very serious about his paella.  I was scolded more than once for my mistakes. It was a little intense at times. I wasn't sure I would get my certificate at the end of the training!

Rabbit!

jamón

Eel

Shrimp!

Snails!

While the broth was boiling (no canned broth here), we enjoyed some tomatoes, Spanish omelet, mussels and more wine.  When the paella was ready, we posed for some photos and then began to dig in. Apparently, it's customary to eat straight from the pan. We were served a salad with olives and tomatoes along side our paella. It was delicious, but very dense. In order to make sure that all of us were qualified to receive our certification, we had to try each other's paellas.  By the time lunch was over (at 4pm), we were stuffed and ready for a nap!

Mandy and I hung at the hotel for a few minutes and then decided to visit the tower of the Valencian cathedral. We walked the 200 steps to the top (we needed that!) and enjoyed the panoramic views of Valencia from the observation area.  We happened to be there when the 5 o'clock bells rang which was really cool.

After that, we stopped for some fartons (Valencian-type churros) and some coffee.  Then, we bought some chocolate at Valor.  It was yummy!  

   

We walked around the main parts of Valencia for about an hour and then headed to the Mercado Colon again to try the other Valencian beer, Turia.  I didn't like it as much as the Socarrada from yesterday.  I also tried the sangria which was supposed to be the most refreshing in the world.  Not so sure about that.  We picked up some cheese and crackers at the grocery and headed back to the hotel to rest up for our Zurich adventure tomorrow.  

Sangria!

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving from Spain!

It might be Thanksgiving in the US, but that doesn't mean you can't stuff yourself in other parts of the world!  My Thursday was filled with food and wine and thankfully, some hiking and walking!

Namaste from the Xátiva castle! Today, we explored the quaint town of Xátiva which is about 45 minutes to the west (inland) of Valencia. This town is surrounded by mountains and has two beautiful castles.

After our trip up the mountain to see the castle, we had another amazing lunch. This time it was at Canela y Clavo which is a restaurant that serves food specific to the Valencian region. 

The highlight of the lunch was tasting the craft beer made only in this town called Socarrada. It was a great honey-flavored beer that I am now on a mission to find in the US.

More fois gras with a prune inside and pumpkin purée on the outside (Happy Thanksgiving to me).

More squid with squid ink spurting from the body with each cut of the knife.

Fish (I think sea bass this time) with a red sauce and potatoes.

This was Mandy's pork. I didn't try this one, but she said it was really good.

Pistachio gelato with strawberry mouse and yogurt.  Very light and the flavors mixed very well.

My afternoon cortado (espresso with milk).

After lunch, we took the bus back to the hotel where most of us rested. I didn't want to take a nap so I walked around the city for about an hour and a half. This is the facade of the Corte Ingles store (Macy's of Spain). It is all decorated for the holidays and reminded me of the Macy's store in Herald Square in New York City.

We had another huge meal at 9pm at the Ma Khin Cafe which is an Asian fusion restaurant in the trendy Mercado Colon.

 Light toasted chips with yogurt dip

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The most delicious artichoke, chickpea, green bean and lemon salad.

Veggie tempura with curry

Seafood potstickers

Pork bun with a wrap that tasted like a sweet marshmallow cream bun!

Hake with vegetables.

Chicken curry with rice

Grapefruit ice with vanilla yogurt

This was a day that revolved around good food and good wine! I was exhausted at the end of the meal (which ended at 12am) and slept until 8:30am on Friday.  

Friday is our last full day in Spain.  I can't wait to see what the day will bring!

Wednesday: School tours

Today's blog post will be fairly short as today was mainly a work day.  I woke up after four hours of sleep and decided to go out in the rain for a nice long walk. I made my way all the way to the City of Arts and Sciences and back which is about four miles.  Keep in mind that it was pitch black and raining the entire time. With all of the eating and drinking here in Spain, it felt good to get out and move! I took a couple of pictures in the dark. It was strangely quiet as the sun doesn't even make an appearance here until about 8am. Spain is a late night culture. I'm sure the cars that passed me thought I was heading home after a long night of dancing!

A walk in the dark!

We left the hotel at 9:30 to begin a long day of school presentations and tours. Our bus took us to the Albufera Natural Park which is just outside of Valencia. This is a nature preserve and beach that is 25 kilometers long. It was absolutely beautiful. Inside of the park is a lake that is both fresh and saltwater. Here only commercial fisherman can catch fish, but licensed individuals (who inherit licenses) can hunt duck. It was a beautiful peaceful place!  The boat ride in the rain was nice, but could have been a lot nicer on a sunny day. Everyone here tells us how sunny Valencia is and how they never get rain. Well, we've been here two days and it has rained most of the day on each day.

We listened to ten Spanish language school presentations and then we had a paella cooking demonstration. Paella comes from Valencia because the rice that is used to make paella comes from this area exclusively. After having cocktails, we were seated for our traditional paella lunch. Because this is Spain, we had to share three appetizers first.  We had a cod salad, huge calamari with salsa and duck paté (no thank you!). Of course, we had lots of wine and bread. They actually had four goblets at each place setting.  After our appetizers, we were served both traditional paella and vegetarian paella. The traditional paella has rabbit, snail and chicken. I was not thrilled to consume duck, rabbit, squid and snails in the same meal, but I did. Our dessert was a chocolate crumble topped with caramel, apples and vanilla bean mousse.  So much food!

The rest of the day was spent touring language schools. In all, we visited 8 schools. It was informative, but incredibly exhausting. By 8:30pm, we returned to the hotel where most of us went immediately to bed. We had the option of another four course meal, but most of us were still full from lunch and decided to get some well-needed rest.

All in all, a really great day! I'm so grateful to be here to learn more about the various language schools in Spain. This trip has exceeded my expectations in so many ways!

Tuesday: Exploring Valencia

Apparently, the folks from the US bring rain to Valencia.  For an area that gets very little rain, it sure is wet here today.  Instead of getting up early to take my usual exploration walk, I slept in until about 7:30am. The hotel we are staying at is nice, but the rooms are very close together and one can hear everything that's going on in the hallways.  I find it unusual that in a country whose culture embraces staying out until the wee hours of the morning, the housekeeping staff of the hotel is in the hall chatting and making noise before 6am. Something isn't right here!  In any case, I enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast including pastries, lots of fruits and cheese and something I had never seen before, cuajada. I picked up what I thought was a plain yogurt to pour over my fruit and what I discovered was a delicious cheese custard (made by Dannon no less) that resembles flan in texture, but tastes like a mild vanilla custard.  I guess it's not available in the states. I am always excited to find a new food!

After breakfast, we met our group. There are teachers from Delaware, New York City, Texas and California with us. We go from 28 to 75 in age.  There are men and women. Our tour hosts are Alba from the Department of Tourism and Alicia from the Comunidad Valenciana.  Both are very kind and helpful. I look forward to spending the week with them.  As per usual on a trip like this, what started out as a day among strangers quickly became a group of friends by the stroke of midnight.

Our tour guide Vito talks about the marina and Valencia's participation in the America's Cup.

We took a bus tour of Valencia followed by a walking tour of the city center. We visited the Cathedral, the Silk Exchange and the train station. It was very informative. The history and culture is so deep here with Roman, Visigoth and Moorish experiences. As someone who has traveled most recently through Latin America, I often forget how far back the cultural influences are in Europe.

We ate a quaint lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant.  The pictures do not do justice to the amazing culinary dishes.  Two days in a row now, I've had squid ink in my meals.  I'm starting to sense a trend here!

After lunch, we went to the Lladro factory and museum. This is the only production facility for this exquisite porcelain. It started as a family business in valencia in 1953 and has remained here ever since. Lladro has a worldwide presence and it considered to be one of the finest brands of porcelain in the world.  It was really interesting to see the process of how the porcelain is created and decorated.  Artists train for 3 years before they are permitted to paint pieces. No photos were permitted inside the factory or the store.

After the Lladro tour, we returned to the hotel for some free time.  I chose a nap!  After about 90 minutes of sleep, I awoke ready for our late night dinner at Entrevins.  This place was amazing!  Not only were the food and wine delicious, but we learned after dinner that there is an underground refuge below the restaurant that was used during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). We got a tour of this area and it was really amazing!  I am posting pictures of the food. I can't do it justice by trying to describe it all.  Mostly fish-based with lots of olive oil, spices and sauces. Portions are small, but the plates just kept coming.  Dessert was slivers of lime with gelato and ginger crumbs.  Weird combinations, but oh so good!

Mandy and our new friend Carlos from the Dalton Academy in Manhattan.

My new friends talked me into one last drink after our 2 hour dinner.  We walked to the Cafe de las Aguas to try Valencia's signature cocktail, the Agua de Valencia.  It's basically a fancy mimosa made more authentic by the incorporation of Valencia oranges!  

At 1am, we walked through the plaza of the cathedral back to our hotel for the night.  What a great day!