It’s not what you might think!!  I fell off my bike yesterday, not once, not even twice…..but three times, and all in the space of a few minutes.  I’m physically  unscathed, mainly because the car behind me stopped BEFORE running me over. But interesting fact, gutter-jumping is not in my skill set.  It wasn’t even a gutter – the laneways here are generally cobbled or tiled, so there’s a little lip, about an inch high, which separates the footpath from the laneway.  Noticing the approaching car behind me, I thought I’d get off the lane and onto the narrow footpath. But I didn’t get enough of an angle to get the wheel of the bike across the lip, and I didn’t do that little jumpy-wheelie thing, so I got railroaded along the lip and was bucked off unceremoniously. Sigh.  Here’s a picture I took whilst lying unceremoniously on the cold wet ground, after the car had gone, of course!

So after that little mishap, I started noticing these little lips everywhere I went.  Some lanes have a narrow channel down the middle (for drainage), some just have the lip on the edge.  But regardless, now that I had noticed them, my bike, seemingly with a mind of its own, kept making a bee-line for these lips.  It’s like when you’re playing golf – you’re not supposed to say “don’t hit it in the bunker” because, inexplicably, that’s where the ball will end up.  So picture this, me riding along, carefully trying to avoid the lips, but somehow ending up in one, front wheel railroaded, over-enthusiastic braking, followed by Aussie girl sprawled on cobblestones!!.  It’s hard to be graceful in this situation!  The upside was I was wearing my new leather knee high boots, so whilst upright, I looked chic.  The downside was, I may have irreversibly damaged them.  I really must get better at urban cycling, because when I retire and spend six months a year in Europe, I shall own a bike, not a car.  So if I want to live into my 60s and beyond, (or even reach my 60s!!!) I’ll need to get better at the bikie-ridey-thingy.

We’ve spent five days in Valencia (Spanish pronunciation Bal-en-thia), AKA the city of flowers, and have loved every minute. It’s an awesome urban centre with sandy beaches, sophisticated parks and gardens, a historic old town, ancient monuments, cathedrals and a plethora of cafes, restaurants and bars in every conceivable location and style.  We’ve been to the Plaza de la Virgins, we’ve dined at the Centro Mercado, we’ve riden our bikes to the head of the old river (before it was diverted) and sat by the seaside watching the families on their roller blades and the elderly couples promenading, arm in arm, in their Sunday clothes. Side note, I also aim to be wearing 3 inch heels when I’m 80.

But despite the history and the tradition, Valencia is also part of the super modern world.  It has, amongst other things, the “City of Arts and Sciences” built within the old river bed (now a parkland).  It houses the Hemisferic (IMAX cinema), an interactive science museum, the Oceanografico (the largest aquarium in all of Europe) and an opera house.  I spent many happy hours wandering through the museum.  The surrounding grounds were immaculately groomed in a juxtaposition of hard stone, formal edges and playful aquamarine ponds and fountains. The scale of this place is enormous and is incredibly beautiful.  I’d love to come back and explore some more. I only saw about one-quarter of the complex in the time I had available.

Poor Rosco is still having troubles with his leg, and now foot.  He finally conceded to having a rest day, giving me hours of unsupervised access to the glittering shops in the city. I had a fun day.

Feeling sorry for the poor pet, I went to the farmacia (pharmacy) where *I think* I bought anti-inflammatory drugs for him.  Apart from ordering wine, beer and tapas, my mastery of the Spanish language is not great. So trying to order pain killers in Spanglish was an exercise of equal parts frustration and patience! The pharmacist had so many Spanish questions, which I took to understand as: oral or cream? what part of the body? for a child or an adult?  Anyway, I got there in the end, at least I think I did.  He’s swallowed four tablets over the last 12 hours, and he still appears to be alive. So far… so good.

Our AirBnB is a beautiful little renovated apartment in the historic centre of Valencian.  The ancient church tower is so close you feel you can reach out and touch the intricately carved arches.  The apartment has ancient exposed roof beams, original brickwork walls, tasteful furniture and tiny little wrought iron balconies. It has a roof terrace.  It’s also on the forth floor.  There is no lift.  Have I mentioned that my boyfriend is a cripple with an injured leg?  We checked-out this morning with me having to carry two large suitcases plus two carry-on bags down four flights of stairs. It took a few trips.  Let’s just say I well and truly deserved my churros y chocolate that day!

I’m writing this blog from a train travelling an average of 250km an hour. The speed of the train is displayed on a digital display in each carriage, so it was going 295km an hour at the moment I took the picture.  We will arrive in Madrid, some 355km away, in exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes, which includes the time stopping at one station along the way. It’s a journey, which if taken by car, would take 3 hours and 20 minutes, which assumes you don’t get lost. Imagine being able to go from Brisbane to Coffs Harbour by train, and it taking less than two hours! For heaven’s sake, the East Coast of Australia doesn’t even have a consistent rail gauge width across state boarders!

We’re travelling business class today, as there was only 1 ticket left in economy.  It was only an extra 2 Euro each to travel business class – 2 extra Euro!  You’re kidding me! If only the same could be said for airfares!

Yesterday was cold and drizzly. We’ve been incredibly fortunate with the weather over the last four weeks. Every single day has been bright sunshine and blue skies.  Actually, there was one day in Sevilla when it rained, but luckily for me, I was in bed all day vomiting, so I missed all of that pesky rain.  Daytime temperatures have been at least 16 degrees – usually around 20 degrees. I seriously love winter weather in southern Europe, more so when I see the temperature has been 37+ degrees and humid in Brisbane most days!

Viva la Espana!! #bikergirl #ilovespain #stairsaremyfriend