Day 5:
Valencia to
Toledo
This morning Mum and I woke in Valencia – Checkpoint 4.
I’d never visited Valencia before, so I set my alarm for dawn. Mum was also up early. She sat down with a coffee in the tiny hotel courtyard while I walked to the City of Arts and Sciences (Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciencies). And at dawn it was truly striking. The bone-white, animal-like spines and curves of the architecture glowed pink and gold in the early morning sunlight, all reflected in the calm turquoise pools. It’s completely unique, and instantly recognisable from science-fiction films and TV shows - like Andor - which have used this futuristic, unearthly setting as a filming location.
The City of Arts and Sciences is adjacent to a lush, long, slim park that wriggles through Valencia like a snake, a former river bed, now spilling over with flowers and trees, ponds and sculptures. What a fantastic resource. Shortly after dawn, it was scattered with joggers, dog walkers and yoga groups. I explored the Russafa neighbourhood a little, with its tiny squares and churches, before catching a taxi back to the hotel to meet Mum. We were back into Race mode!
First of all: breakfast. We headed to the city centre and chose a traditional café with a beautifully-tiled interior not far from the cathedral. Of course, I plumped for hot chocolate and churros for breakfast. And time for a quick check of the WhatsApp group. Someone has signed up for a food tour of Marrakech the day after the finish party - does anyone else want to join? A few people have already replied yes and signed up, too. Many Racers have by now crossed into Morocco; there are lots of recommendations about best routes.
Breakfast over, we explored the area around the cathedral initially, a wonderful sequence of paved traffic-free plazas in sunny, honey-coloured stone, with shiny roof tiles in jewel tones topping the churches. Queues to enter the cathedral snaked around the square already, so we gave up on going inside and focused on collecting our Checkpoint evidence: a garden for cats, which has become an off-the-beaten-track tourist attraction. It’s about a 20-minute walk through colourful streets to get there. Shady streets of towering townhouses in red, buttercup and orange cast warm tints over us, and the odd purple flowering jacaranda. It was mid-morning and you could feel that heat was coming.
We explored around the cathedral
Evidence obtained, we spent the rest of the morning in Valencia’s enormous 19th century food hall, all painted tiles and wrought iron ceiling above the rows of hanging hams. Now this really is Mum’s kind of sightseeing: local food specialities. We each put together a bougie picnic lunch using Valencian specialities. I just can’t leave Valencia without trying a portion of paella.
Regardless of destination, all train routes require a change in Madrid Charmartín, currently undergoing major renovations, so that’s where found ourselves first. Navigating through a chaotic diversion in a crowded corner of a carpark, we spotted a familiar person in the oncoming flow of people – another Racer! We had last seen her in Hendaye. Both of us rushing for different trains, there was only time for a short catchup, but as she described some of her adventures since we had parted on the French/Spanish border, I began to feel that Mum and I must have been incredibly lucky. The team of 4 had struggled to find seats on trains or buses following the rainstorms and ended up stuck in rainy San Sebastian for a short time. I remembered guiltily that Mum and I had been bussing comfortably in our business-class seats and lunching in Bilbao. Her entire team had also missed a bus (and lost all four expensive bus tickets) because they literally couldn’t find the bus in the bus station.
Street scenes in Valencia
Mum was horrified. “That’s like us yesterday!” she was saying. “We almost missed our bus yesterday!”
On the Toledo train I caught up with the WhatsApp group. Top news: there was a photo of the missing ipad, retrieved from Bordeaux train station! The kind volunteer had retrieved it and will return to the owner in Marrakech. Dozens of celebratory messages accompanied the announcement – we’ve all been following the adventure of the missing iPad.
Multiple Racers making the crossing to Morocco ahead of us have already posted travel tips and route recommendations on the WhatsApp group (emerging as a useful source of travel tips as well as Race gossip). We already know that “Tangiers Ville” is a long way from Tangiers itself. It sounds potentially tricky to arrange independent transport from there to Tangiers. But there’s an alternative.
“There’s a small boat that sails from Spain direct to Tangiers town itself”, I say to Mum. “It sails from a small town called Tarifa. Tarifa has no train station. And I can’t find a bus. But one person says there’s a free transfer provided by the ferry operator, to take you from Algeciras to Tarifa. I I think we would just need to book ferry tickets, then turn up and see.”
Our (eventual) route through Spain
After some debate, we eventually decided to book the ferry from Tarifa (with Balearia) and to rely on this free transfer bus.
Scenes from Toledo’s old town
Meanwhile, our short detour to Toledo is emerging into an excellent decision. The very reasonably-priced apartment we had booked at the last minute turned out to be located in central plaza of the old city. And it was stunning inside – a historic building, beautifully renovated with exposed stone walls, modern fittings, wooden shutters and stupendous views of the palace over the city rooftops.
It was mid-afternoon already, so we dropped our bags and immediately started to explore. Toledo was a Visigoth capital over 1,000 years ago and clearly celebrates its long history. “Old-timey”, medieval-style banners and giant lanterns were draped over the narrow, traffic-free streets. The city is also famous for swords and marzipan and there were three swordsmiths (swordshops? Sworderies?) in the first street alone. I bought some marzipan to bring home. Not a sword though. It’s a bit much to carry.
The cathedral is regarded as one of the most impressive in Spain, so we made sure to take a quick peep at the richly-decorated interior. The old city covers a hilltop almost completely encircled by a river. After a circuit of the old city, Mum took a seat with a cool drink in the central plaza to people-watch, but I continued to explore on foot, following the path of the medieval walls, with fantastic views of the river in a dramatic rocky gorge below through the sunset.
After nightfall, we chose a tapas bar – almost directly below our apartment – and discussed plans for tomorrow. It was now Wednesday night. On Friday morning we will sail to Tangiers. So tomorrow - Thursday – we need to get ourselves to Algeciras, which is a straightforward trip by train, then bus. We booked the necessary tickets.
I set my alarm early again and fell straight asleep.
