Valencia - 1964 - post 15

Market on Monday from Lonja


Flower stalls outside market


inside Central Market

The Central Market of Valencia is one of the largest in Europe, covers more than 8,000 square meters, over two floors,

inside Central Market

This is a resort town and not used to American tourists. The shops won't take traveler's checks and they don't mail things for you.

There is a little girl at our hotel between my daughter's ages [probably about 2] and she is real cute. They keep the kids up to all hours and I don't know when they sleep. This one fell fast asleep at lunch yesterday. Everywhere on the street they sell lottery tickets. Mostly people who are cripples do the selling. They have real street sweepers who sweep up the trash, which is a good thing because there are no trash cans. Our room lacks a wastebasket.

The children are nearly always nicely dressed, but do not have strollers as my sister says is the rule in Germany. They walk or are carried.

Many women wear mourning and older women wear dark colors. Very few girls are fashionably thin -- most are my size or larger and the older women get very large too. The people are short -- I can look over the heads of most of them -- men included.

The Spanish men as a rule are very good looking. Typically they wear dark grey or bright blue or white shirt, open about mid chest and dark glasses (dark pants). Upper classes of course wear coats and ties.

I told Bob that in the future in the summer we would have our dinner at 10 pm also, as it is really too hot to cook any earlier. The Spanish way of doing things in view of their climate is really most sensible. [Note: I had a small west facing kitchen in Norfolk and no A/C]

There are about 4 kinds of police and they are everywhere, but none speak English or even try to give you a hand with luggage for instance. The traffic cops are in white with white helmets. The civil guard wears green with patent leather hats. There is a kind of soldier in baggy khaki green fatigues and others more smartly dressed in grey. They go in twos almost always.

Love
RosalieAnn

28 July 1964- Tuesday​

Card of Market in Valencia

Dear D.

Daddy and I took a tour of the city and saw this market yesterday morning. Today we have just been relaxing. Everything possible seems to be for sale here in the way of food. The guide said it is the best market in Spain. It is all decorated with tiles and is somewhat on the order of Lexington Market in Baltimore. Daddy and I went on board his ship yesterday and he goes back to work on his ship tomorrow night.

Love
Mummy.

The boys are having trouble spending money here in Valencia. One of Bob's friends says he doesn't know his wife's sizes and they haven't been married long enough to know what she would like. They don't have any children. so that's out.

I'm dying to know what you think of the things I've gotten and my pictures, but I guess (a) they haven't arrived yet, and (b) I have no way to get mail. Someone just told Bob he had 2 letters on board. Maybe I'll go out with him tomorrow and pick them up. Maybe we will take a tour of the outlying country tomorrow afternoon too. We have been mostly relaxing today.

Mail service from me has been bad because the concierge doesn't sell stamps and I can't bring myself to try to get them at the post office myself. I will send this off tomorrow when Bob leaves. Actually after we took the city tour, we have been mostly sitting in cafes watching people walk by, sleeping and shopping. None of the other guys from Bob's ship or their wives are at this hotel.

29 July, 1964- Wednesday​

I heard Bob had some letters on board so I had him pack up and check out of the hotel and on onboard ship during siesta so he could bring them back to me. He went off leave onto liberty at the same time. Bob is going to send 2 pkgs from the ship. One with some things for Daddy plus some trimmings for dresses ($7 worth) and some tiny toys, doll sized cooking pots etc ($1.10) for the children. This depends on how much he can get into the box. The other flatter box has dresses for the children -- 2 for the baby and one for D. I have my niece's with me and will give it to her when I get to Germany. I have also bought a model canon for my sister to give to her husband . (who was stationed in Germany with the USArmy) Bob is going to carry it to Marseilles for me and I can take if from there direct to Germany.

I ate at the hotel alone. The waiter didn't seem to think I ate enough. Lunch was usually hors d'oerves which usually included a) olives b) raw carrots and pickles c) mussels d) tomato and onion in olive oil e) potato salad with peas f) cold sliced potatoes with onion g)cheese h)cold cuts i)lettuce and crabmeat salad j) another seafood salad. Then there was an omelet or fish and after that a meat course, usually breaded and fried veal or chicken Paella (saffron rice) and the dessert. (Dinner was much the same except you get soup in place of the hors d'oerves.

I had a little trouble with diarrhea in Valencia, but not serious. Twice a day I had to stay near a john for 1/2 hour of so.


Postcard - Panorama of the River Turia - Sent 30 July 1964

Dear D.

Daddy and I walked out here last night hoping to have dinner, but we couldn't find the restaurant. The river is mostly used up for irrigation before it gets here. we went back to the hotel and looked up another restaurant, which we found and where we had a very good meal. Tell grandmummy Happy Birthday and I hope her pkg comes for her sometime soon that we sent to her from Portugal. I am going to take a tour of Alhambra in Granada tomorrow morning,

Love, Mummy

Anyway, after Bob got back from the ship, we went to the Ceramic Museum, which we had somehow missed. It was fantastic.

Top of the museum


Ceramic Museum outside


Alabaster door

The ceramic museum was in this fantastic palace with an amazing alabaster Baroque entrance. The entrance is one of the Valencia's landmarks. You can see the outside for free. But if you go indside to the Ceramic Museum you can also see the rooms. Some are still in the original Gothic style of XV century, and others are follow the Orientalism age of salons

Male Egyptian statue in the courtyard

The original Gothic palace dates from the fifteenth century. It was the home of the a Valencian noble family of the Marquis de Dos Aguas. In 1740 it was re-modeled by Hipolito Rovira, who added the famous entrance. In the 1850s-60s, the entire facade was hybridized with newer elements (photo 4). The palace was bought by the Ministry of Education in 1949 to house the collection of ceramics donated by Dr. Gonzalez Marti.

Window in the courtyard

They had all kinds of tiles, plates, etc. There was a fully equiped typical Valencian kitchen made 100% of ceramics from top to bottom.

Valencia kitchen

Tiles in ceramic kithchen

The Spanish ceramics are different from the ones we saw in Portugal - more colorful. The top floor has a large collection of ceramics from prehistoric times to modern works. There are exhibits about the history and process of ceramic making.

tile mural in ceramics museum

Colorful plates

wall mural

They had some of Picasso's ceramics.

Picasso ceramics

and some things I'm not sure why they were there.

They had a room dedicated to Lucretia Borgi.

Opera costumes

Borgi who apparently was an opera star (Ed. note: Her grandmother Yerkes would have a fit over that "apparently" She sang in the Metropolitan Opera). They had saumari armor, carriages and old costumes.

Fireplace and fans

Mirror in Ceramics Museum

Then we went to look for a restaurant and walked out to the fair where we had heard there was a good one, but all we could find was two maternity hospitals. I didn't have my camera and I was sorry because one had a statue of a stork delivering a baby. So we took a trolley back to town and got out the guide books and sure enough there was a restaurant out there somewhere. Since I didn't want to go out there again and since it was supposed to be expensive, we went to the only other one we could find on the map. Herman Cortes 9 -- the Palas Fesol -- which was very good. Bob had coverec soup which was a meat base and had chicken livers and bread in it and also Chateaubriand. I had chicken. Both were very good. The restaurant had white walls and iron grill work, lanterns and decoration and the kitchen was out in the middle so you could watch the cooking and it was tiled and the table cloths were blue and white. It cost us about 140 pestas total with tip (we had ice cream for dessert) which is $2.30 for two.

Dear Mother:

I just finished bringing my expense diary more or less up to date. It has fallen sadly behind as in Lisbon it all went into my sister's book where we kept track of who owed who what. She was always holding the baby or something and so ended up owing me 40 or 50 dollars. With Bob here, he pays for everything.

Anyway, I have now made plans for the following few days, which are these:

Weds - 29 July - Bob's leave ends at 24.00
Thurs - 30 July - check out of hotel and take 8:30 train (2nd class only) with seat reservation obtained from AmExp to Granada. stay at the Washington Irving Hotel which is practically in Alhambra - 250 pesetas a night for a room with bath and breakfast. They have no rooms without bath.
Fri. July 31 - spend in Granada
Sat - 1 Aug -- leave Granada 14.15 on express to Madrid - arrive Madrid 22.30
Sun - 2 Aug - leave Madrid 13.30 express to Barcelona, arrive Barcelona 23.40 and spend night.
Mon 3-Aug - leave Barcelona 9:30 -- express TEE, arrive Marseilles 16.45
Tues - 4 Aug - Bob arrives Marseilles
Sat -- 8 Aug. Bob leaves Marseilles, I leave Marseilles 20.00 arrive Paris. Leave Paris 21.30
9 Aug - Arrive Nuremberg 9.35 (times approximate)