Road to Valencia (Jan 4, 2025)

Today we left Alicante for Valencia, where we'll be staying for the rest of our time in Spain.  We were here before in 2017 and I think that it was one of my favorite stops then.

We took an Alsa bus--tickets were about $44 for both of us--and the ride lasted about 2.5 hours.  It was a comfortable ride and I did manage to get some sleep.  But I felt some pain coming on...

Some views of the countryside from the bus:

I drove on that 2017 trip to Valencia that I mentioned earlier but I don't remember the traffic being as bad as it was when we came in this time.  I'll bet we waited 20 minutes while the bus crept up to the station entrance.  Then we had to find a way to the apartment.  Wound up taking a taxi (which we try to avoid) and we paid him 10 EUR (about $14), including tip which I think surprised him.  I thought it was worth it because he argued with someone who had tried to get in front of us at the bus station--with input from the rest of the line.  It was a lot of drama, ha ha.

I am glad that we are staying at short-term rentals rather than hotels since we can save money that way and their location can be even better.  The downside is that checking in can be confusing since every place has a different procedure and it can be difficult to find exactly where it is--there's no big sign like at a hotel.  But everything has worked out for us so far and at about 3:30 or 4 pm, we made it:

Living area

Kitchen.  Did I mention that Europeans tend to put their washing machine in the kitchen?

Bedroom.  There's also a second bedroom that we're using for a dressing room/closet.

We settled in a bit, but were ready for some dinner so we went just around the corner to a tapas place called Masía del Vino.  It was an interesting--and local--place.

We walked around a bit after this and found a grocery store (Consum Co-op) where we stocked up on some things we'll need during our stay.  But I was having painful cramps again and I was glad to get back to the apartment.  I won't drag the suspense out any longer...the pain was decreasing each day and--not to go into too much detail--I believe the stone passed overnight.  At least it felt like it did--I didn't see anything.  I'm writing this on 1/9 and I haven't had any trouble since that night.  I really hope it's over.  I wouldn't want to have this ruin the trip any more.