The Wind of Change

All visits to Valencia are keenly anticipated, but few more than this.

We’d had a great visit to Malaga in November 2017, but we hadn’t seen Valencia or the apartment since the day the city started to come back to life after our somnoliento Agosto in 2017. The winter had been cold, wet, grey and very long in North Yorkshire. Only a couple of weeks before leaving, we’d had snow that quadrupled journey times, and brought the UK to a standstill for the 10,000^th winter running.

The sun had made only rare appearances for the last 6 months, and we were a little desperate for less grey and more blue.

A glimpse of blue. Springtime in Avenida Portugal, La Saidia.

We’d had a 6-month tenant in Valencia from October 2017 to the very day we were arriving on 31^st March, Sabado Santo 2018, and we were keen to see the apartment and make sure everything was OK.

There was change in our lives. The day before we left for Valencia, we had helped to move our younger son and his young family to a new city away from our home town, and into another chapter of their lives. He follows his older brother who had done the same a few years before. There is much change in Harrogate, which may have had an influence on them both leaving. Perhaps more of this another time.

Almost from the moment we arrived in Valencia, it was clear there was change here also. A favourite restaurant had changed, having been taken over by a larger restaurant opposite. We had enjoyed the previous host’s genuinely helpful and accommodating nature. We had enjoyed his quirky tapas menu which had given many Spanish staples a twist… all achieved by one cook in an unfeasibly small kitchen. In its new guise, the restaurant looked the same, but the menu had reverted to “traditional tapas”. You can enjoy this in many other (much better) places close by, and it was nothing special. Please don’t bring me sobrasada on toast with melted cheese, this is a TV snack. 

This backward step went against the grain in a city that is fascinating for its brave determination to do things just a little differently, to move forward.

 
“Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last”.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, Don Quixote 

(Honesty doesn’t permit me to leave the above quotation unexplained. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I’ve read all of Don Quixote. In the pursuit of an increased understanding of Spanish culture, I have tried to enjoy the crazed ramblings of the noble madman and his portly sidekick Sancho Panza. After the windmill bit, I’ll admit that my enthusiasm faded, and the great Cervantes was consigned to the Ikea bookcase, probably forever). 

In keeping with most of our previous experience of Valencia, all the other change we experienced on this visit was much more welcome!

The weather was in a state of change, feeling like it didn’t want to commit itself to a season.

Domingo de Resurreccion in Cabañal. Colour and joy.

The colour and joy of the Domingo de Resurreccion procession was enjoyed in beautiful sunshine, but the wind off the sea was cool, and the now traditional Paella Valenciana that followed was enjoyed indoors. Later in the week, a day at Playa Cabañal was a must after a North Yorkshire winter, but when the wind turned to the south west and strengthened, we realised that we were being gently sandblasted. A walk through the western end of the Jardin de Turia was enjoyed on the most beautiful warm morning, but the cool wind returns, and not a single evening meal was eaten outdoors.

Our sun-trap balcony was sun-basking warm in the afternoons, but quickly became chilly with the disappearance of the sun behind the apartment buildings next to Parque Marchalenes.

With a brisk and cold wind along Paseo Maritimo one evening, the beachfront bars were closing their folding glass doors to protect their drinkers and diners. We wrapped up and took a brisk walk to Bodega Casa Montaña in the Cabañal to enjoy its delights in relative warmth. 

You're never far away
from the Valencia Blue.

Despite all this, Valencia has one of the most agreeable climates in Europe, and you know that it will make its inevitable commitment to summer. The winter has been long and cold by Valencian standards (my utility bills bear testament to this) and this will make the sweet early summer weather that is around the corner all the more welcome.

Following a 6-month tenancy, we found our apartment subject to change also. Our tenants (quite understandably) had adapted things to suit their own needs. The sofa that had been banished to a bedroom for overcrowding the living room had been overcrowded back in. Various cupboards had found themselves displaced. Seating arrangements around the dining table had been rearranged. 2 (broken) bedside lamps had been stashed in the cleaning cupboard (a fine excuse to go to Corte Inglés lamp department once again). Small units from the bedroom had migrated into the bathroom. Kitchen cupboards rearranged, some items gone, some new ones had appeared. The kettle had been put away in a cupboard (tenants not British).

Sandblasting anyone?

And I’m more than happy for tenants to enjoy my books during their stay, but they put Laurie Lee’s novels back on the shelf NOT in the order in which they were written.

How the hell do these people sleep at night?

Our mission to return everything back to the way it was before was soon accomplished. There’s probably a “syndrome” for this. We felt better anyway, when it was done.

I should mention that none of this is written by way of complaint. We are grateful to our tenants (and agents) for the occupying our place when we can’t. It’s better than leaving it empty to gather dust. A couple of broken things are acceptable collateral damage. We quite like the rent as well, truth be told. 

Distrito La Saidia is also in a state of change. Valencian celebrity chef Ricard Camarena has moved his flagship restaurant to the masterfully restored Bombas Gens Arts Centre on Avenida Burjassot. New cafés have opened, and others have changed their name, presumably under new ownership. I’ll miss “Café Maria Tropical” now that it has changed its name to something dull like “Sabores de Valencia”. They’ve stopped doing karaoke though. Every cloud.

The new Saidia?

The property market is showing signs of buoyancy. We heard the unmistakable dialogue of real estate agents showing people around apartments in our own building. A new apartment building that’s going up close to Parque Marchalenes is clearly aimed at the young professional. It’s “close to transport links to the city centre”, and it will have a pool and a gym. We’re told that a college will be built on another large plot next to our apartment. The area feels resurgent. Is this the start of a “gentrification” of the area… the new Saidia? Or is it just natural progress? Time will tell, but there is no doubt that constant change is here to stay.

The city in general feels like it’s in the same state of change. Plaza de la Reina is going to be redeveloped and fully pedestrianised. With any luck, they’ll accidentally catch the front of McDonald’s with several large bulldozers. It remains to be seen what the Ayuntamiento plan to do with all the traffic that pours in from Calle la Paz. And what becomes of the underground car park?

The site of the iconic Casa de los Dulces opposite the Pont de Fusta is undergoing redevelopment, and it’s exciting to anticipate what it might become. The enormity of Fallas having passed by for another year, the Plaza de Toros is hosting a major tennis tournament. New shops have replaced old ones, districts and barrios jostle for popularity as tastes and budgets change. Many are now “up and coming”, both in real-estate-agent-speak, and in actual reality.

Our beloved Café Sant Jaume. Please don't let it be true.

I desperately need reassurance from a Valencian reader on one thing, one piece of change which I hope will turn out positive. Our most favourite café is Café Sant Jaume at the end of Calle Caballeros. We have enjoyed and experienced so much here, it’s almost sacred to us. We headed for it early in this visit as usual, but found it closed and boarded up. In what felt like some sacrilegious annexing of holy ground, Taberna de Marisa had even put some of their outside tables on Sant Jaume’s terrace. I can’t bear to think it has closed for good. Could someone please comment, and tell me that it is just closed for refurbishment?

Thank you!

As much as we welcome positive and progressive change, some things remain reassuringly the same as they have ever been.

Café de Las Horas. Finally discovered!

New to us, but iconic to the old town, is the Café de las Horas. We’d walked past a thousand times, and never stopped. Not even long enough to see that the interior is a baroque fantasy world of cocktails and cake, like the elaborate tea-room of an eccentric Contesa. We visited several times, and it has now become a new favourite. It attracts its fair share of ignorant tourists as its clients, as it’s close to the Plaza de la Virgen, but find a table out of their way and it’s a delightful place.

The artist who sells his paintings from a small gallery next to the driving school in Plaza del Mercado will be familiar to anyone who knows the old town. He usually paints beaches and the sea, although I recall seeing one or two pictures of the Albufera. His formula is to depict the beach and the sea on letterbox-format canvases in an attractive, skillful style. He then adds traditional figures and/or rustic buildings onto the sand to make his variations. We’ve never been sure about his figures on the sand, preferring the simpler seascapes. We like his pictures, and have often thought about asking him to paint us a large canvas for the apartment.

On browsing his tiny gallery on this visit, one particular painting caught our eye. A simple beach and seascape, with the neat addition of a few traditional sails for context. As soon as he had said adios to a customer he clearly didn’t have much time for, we showed an interest, and he sprung into action. Press cuttings appeared, reviews of exhibitions and successes gone by. Catalogues for galleries and sales also appeared, and he proudly showed us his name associated with some of the greats and almost-greats.

Plaza Negrito. Nicely done.

His artistic pedigree now relatively firmly established, his enthusiasm turned to his paintings. He spoke Spanish in a way I could understand, for the most part. He showed us other work completed, and work in progress. Describing one large canvas, he suggested wearily that he had probably bitten off more than he could chew! He gave us prices for everything. Knowing that we would regret an impulse purchase, we retired to Plaza Negrito to discuss the relative merits of our potential purchase over a beer, having left him with a promise to return.

As we all know, spending money is considerably easier after a couple of beers, so we went back to our new artist friend. Understandably, he was pleased to see us. So pleased in fact, that he broke off a conversation with a friend to engage with us. This doesn’t always happen in Spain, even for a customer.

We wanted the painting. We know where it would look good. We agreed what would be paid, and I asked him to sign it. This made him proud, and he asked us if we were going far, no doubt envisaging his work making its way into Northern Europe and sending more visitors flocking to his shop from cooler climes.

We told him we were taking it to an apartment in La Saidia, which probably wasn’t what he expected. It turned out that he lived in the same area, and further chat revealed that he had a view of the Jardin de Turia, which we don’t. His chest puffed out just a little, as it had when I asked him to sign his painting.

I love these encounters with genuine Valencians, you leave with a little of their warmth.

The painting is not the large canvas we had originally planned on buying, but it’s a picture with a warm heart, and it hangs sweetly above our sofa. It has a little story attached, we can put a name and a face to the artist, and the chances are we’ll be going back to him for more. We like it very much.

This was a good visit. We’d picked up a few things for the apartment. We’d replaced a couple of broken bedside lamps (El Corte Inglés, obviously). We’d returned the apartment back to the way we like it.

We’d returned to some of our favourite eating and drinking haunts. We’d found one or two new ones. We may be mourning the loss of an old favourite, but we do hope not.

We left behind an empty apartment, with a couple of jobs needed before another tenant can take up residence. Painting the bathroom ceiling was not my activity of choice during that visit. We hope that our amiable letting agent and friends will ensure the apartment is in good shape for the next tenant.

That wind of change was chilly under leaden grey skies as we left Valencia for the UK after a week. It was as if it was preparing us for arrival in the grey UK once again, and we got off the ground just before heavy rain arrived.

The Valencian summer has an irresistible pull, and we will be back. For longer.