It’s hard to believe that it has been almost two months since I returned to Spain to see the city of Valencia during the early days of the Fallas festival, but it has. That visit ended up being extended with a birding expedition in the west of Spain, and was followed just a week later by a trip to China. I’m back in the office now, sifting through images and prepping files for stock agencies. As I progress, I’ll re-tell the stories of these trips here in this blog.

On Day One, I landed in Madrid first thing in the morning and (barely) caught another flight to Valencia, arriving and getting checked into my hotel right around noon. The image above is the fifth frame of the trip, shot from my hotel room window as I was getting my gear re-packed for the afternoon’s adventures. First stop would be my first Mascletà, a daytime fireworks display that occurs every day during Las Fallas, a traditional celebration honoring St. Joseph held every March in Valencia.

Blame it on jet lag, or just my own lack of creativity, but I am still struggling to figure out how best to shoot daytime fireworks. The display is incredible, don’t get me wrong, but it really is more about the sound and the concussive force of the blasts than the visual experience. The other major part of the spectacle is the crowd itself. It seems that every human in the city comes out at 2:00 for the show. And just as quickly as they arrived, they disperse. With the Mascletà over for today, it was time to explore the streets and get my bearings.

Valencia’s architecture instantly stood out to me. While I suppose there is such a thing as “Spanish architecture,” I have come to the conclusion after having visited 5 times now, that each region and city has it’s own style. Valencia felt very exuberant and the numerous palm trees gave a very tropical feel to this city on the Mediterranean. I was closer to France here than I had been on most of my previous visits and there is perhaps a more European feel to the architecture and layout of the city than in the more Moorish influenced areas of the south.

I typically don’t feel like I accomplish much on my first day in a new location, but it felt as though it would be difficult to take a bad photo in this beautiful city. I still managed, but I had a fairly good success rate given how little sleep I’d had in the last 48 hours. I credit Valencia’s beauty completely.

A quick stop for donuts and chocolate near Valencia’s Round Square provided the energy to keep exploring.

I arrived back at the room in time to drop off some gear before heading back out for dinner (for a first-time traveler to Spain, be forewarned that the evening meal starts very late and can finish up well after midnight). I played around by making more photographs from the hotel room window:

And I was eventually rewarded with a surprisingly brilliant sunset — one I hadn’t really expected given the sky conditions earlier. By leaning out my window (don’t you love hotels that don’t have screens but do have operable windows!) I was able to achieve a nice view of this tower:

I usually try and make a point of not being stuck in the hotel at sunset, but it worked out fairly well for me this time as I don’t think I could have seen this much sky from anywhere street-level in my new neighborhood.

The following day would be a big one with more exploration of the streets, a visit to the enormous city market, a paella-making class, and a bike tour. All coming up in future posts. Stay tuned…