There's not a city in the world Jürgen and I know quite so well as Valencia. We lived here for years before starting our travel project, and should there ever come a day we're ready to settle down, it's to Valencia that we'll return. We figured our favorite city on Earth deserved the full attention of our blog, so we spent 91 days seeing the sights as though we were newcomers.
Pack the bags, turn off the lights, shut the door, hail a taxi, shed a tear... and say goodbye! After five years of constant travel, we've become quite adept at the Departure Dance. But this time, there was a twist. Valencia has long been our adopted home, and this year we finally made it official by buying an apartment. We know we'll be back soon, and that makes this departure a lot less melancholy.
The Valencia edition of "For 91 Days" wasn't exactly compliant with our usual 91-day concept. Jürgen and I started this iteration of the blog in February of 2015, and finished in November. That's more like 271 days. But we had an excuse! Valencia had long been our "home base," and we finally decided to make it official by purchasing an apartment in the city center.
La Xerea is one of the six neighborhoods which make up the Ciutat Vella, or "Old Town," of Valencia. And of all the city's neighborhoods, it's our favorite. La Xerea is central, historic, packed with ancient churches, palaces and monuments, and somehow manages to retain the calm of a quiet residential zone. And most importantly, it's our home.
Even if you're the kind of person who refuses to visit a museum, it's impossible to completely avoid art in Valencia. For years, underground artists have been transforming the city into an open-air gallery, covering walls, fences and entire buildings with works of beauty and ingenuity.