Subdued

Home is a long way away when you wake and hear that there has been another "terrorist" incident just up the road at Cambrils so soon after that in Barcelona late yesterday afternoon.

Do you pack it in and go home or continue on with your plans - we have given the bastards the two finger salute and chosen the latter.

Having made that decision the next is to decide what we are going to do today - in that regard we decided to go to the market in the morning and in the afternoon climb Torres De Serranos and walk through the park which is in a dried river bed, in other words stay away from crowded areas as much as possible.

Torres De Serranos is around 300m from the apartment but in a direction away from the centre, a direction we have not ventured before and therefore we were quite surprised how pleasant the environment was as we strolled to the Torres (The Triumphal Gate)

Torres Del Serranos is one of the 12 gates that formed part of the ancient city wall and from which views across the rooftops of Valencia can be had

Note flag at half mast

At the top I tried, for the first time it must be said, to take a photo on the iPhone using the timer function and this is the result

The climb down seemed as difficult as the climb up however it was good to have the feet back on the ground so we started a walk through the park. Really it is a poor excuse for a park and Auckland has 5 or 6 parks that are superior to this one.

During our walk (it was hot as and the shade was only spasmodic) we saw a building with the words Piscina Valencia or Valencia swimming pool so we went to see what it was like and if it was any good we may have gone for a swim there tomorrow rather than go out to the beach! Well it was no good! In fact it was closed! There were workers inside with jack hammers stripping it out! 

No luck there but we are blessed that we weren't in Barcelona - Sherry was in a shop during the walk and an English girl was being served. She was in Barcelona yesterday off a cruise boat, it was panic to get back to the boat after the incident which was unable to leave on schedule hence they arrived in Valencia later than scheduled and her time in Valencia was truncated. At least she is still around to enjoy her holiday (if she can)!