Valencia to Xativa, Spain (España)

Across Iberia


scarlet summer
Poppies proliferate in a meadow of "community" from Valencia, between Xátiva and Dénia.
Lights of Ribalta, Lights of Dénia
Lighting on Dénia's waterfront gives more glow to an already colorful twilight.
Net fishing, lots of nets.
Fisherman is preparing to set sail for the waters of the Albufera del Palmar, a few km south of Valencia.
rough mediterranean
Rocky coastline lined with slabs in the vicinity of Cap de La Nau.
El Palmar dock
Fishing boats anchored on a small floating jetty on the El Palmar reservoir.
Casario de Xativa
Uniform house of Xàtiva, invariably white and with tiles that time gave pastel shades.
End of the line
Cyclist takes a break to admire the lakeside landscape of the El Palmar reservoir.
Valencian Walls I
Yellow sun the imposing walls of the castle of Dénia, another city once defended from a hill.
Rough Mediterranean II
Rocky coastline lined with slabs in the vicinity of Cap de La Nau.
Valencian Walls II
Part of the medieval structure of the castle of Xàtiva, in the south of the province of Valencia.
San Felix Church
Towers and domes of the church of San Félix, one of several in the vicinity of Xàtiva.
the weight of the best friend
A resident of the Xàtiva region is anxious to pick up his heavy pet.
Cap de la Nau
Boat skirts the promontory of Cabo de la Nao, one of the most prominent on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
Casario de Xativa II
A palm tree stands out from the uniform houses of Xàtiva, at the foot of the steep hill on which the town's castle stood.

Leaving aside the modernity of Valencia, we explore the natural and historical settings that the "community" shares with the Mediterranean. The more we travel, the more its bright life seduces us.

Valencia remained covered by a blanket of gray clouds that promised showers at any moment. The promise was soon fulfilled. Banished by the sun and beaten by the rain, the city turned even more gray.

Puente del Mar, one of several over the Turia river, which give access to the old hull, appears lost in the mist, crossed from time to time by locals and strangers that the figures of the Virgin and San Pascual permanently bless . Crossing the river to the west, we reach Plaza Porta del Mar. From then on, Valencia reveals its majestic historical center and its most impressive centuries-old testimonies: the Cervelló Palace, the Church of Santo Tomás y San Felipe Neri and the Plaza de la Reina, marked in the distance by the towering towers of the Miguelete Cathedral and the Iglesia y Torre de Santa Catalina.

Despite the gusts and the wind that meanwhile granted a truce, hundreds of visitors flock there, delighted by the unlikely combination of the medieval and religious atmosphere of the monuments with the pagan stronghold of the nearby bars and pubs. While, in the gloomy interior of the so-called Conjunto Catedralício, some outsiders make an effort to respect the usual warnings of silence, on the terraces that are still soaked around, others indulge in a cosmopolitan laughter fed by successive rounds of cañas and tapas.

We left the Plaza de la Reina, walked along Calle San Vicente Martir and avoided getting back into the almost labyrinth of the surrounding alleys and alleys, from which it had taken us too long before to get out.

The night does not take long to set in. We investigate the animation of one or another bar, but we don't take long to pick up at the accommodation. The next morning, we were leaving early, heading south towards Dénia. As for Valencia, as time is running out, we just skim the historic. The futurist or the Third Millennium – as the Valencians like to call it – we leave it for a next visit.

The new day dawned with an intense sun that seemed to make up for the rain damage that had been so far. Enthusiastic about the unexpected meteorological stimulus, we order breakfast and hit the road. 

We leave behind the city's modern and somewhat chaotic surroundings. According to the routes, the next places worthy of attention were located 20 km to the south, all of them in the Natural Park of La Albufera, a large lake formed by the siltation of an entrance to the Mediterranean and by beaches to the north and south. 

But, as Portuguese, and used – as we are all – to more serious beaches, it soon seemed that that somewhat uncharacteristic coastline and almost no waves would hardly impress us. Accordingly, we dedicated ourselves to exploring only the lagoon, subsumed behind a tall, dense grass that hid countless lake birds and also busy fishermen. We reach the end of a small wooden jetty when one of them appears behind the raised cane field in the shape of an improvised gondolier, balanced on a wooden vessel with coiled nets overflowing. We see no signs of fish on board and when the man docks by the jetty we ask him in Spanish, more jokingly than anything else, how the fishing pond was doing.

"Spanish certainly aren't, and if they were, they could only be Galician." respond to us with humor and boldness. “Well, with Portuguese we always talk a little bit in Spanish, there's no problem, even if it's not our language that Spain has already made the most sense, as you're certainly noticing. It's the same with the lagoon. With the exit to the sea closed as it is, there are days when we walk here almost just making a show. Like today, for example.” We realized that the landing of the nets was going to be a piece of work and we left him to his toil and his political and fishing indignation.

Shortly thereafter, we advanced to Dénia and descended to Cabo de la Nau, which marks the easternmost point of the Valencian community, points towards Formentera and the rest of the Balearic archipelago, off the coast.

We travel through the northern part of the province of Alicante when we come to the originally yellowish Moorish castle of Dénia, facing a bay full of boats, some fishing boats, others not for that reason, or if the city were not an important port port of the ferries to and from the Balearics.

We explore the low houses around the walls and climb inside the sandstone fortification. From there, towards the end of the afternoon, we enjoyed the surroundings at 360 degrees. With twilight already imposing its ethereal blue, we returned to the coastal foothills of the slope and joined the bohemian crowd on the seafront, with much more availability than we had, at the outset, in Valencia. Like Dénia, a large part of the charm of the next destination on the map, Xàtiva, was also due to its castle.

The journey between the two places proved to be short again. We made it along a winding and bucolic path, along a sequence of forests, fields, vineyards and orchards only broken by picturesque towns or villages.

Upon arrival, Xàtiva deceived us. The road goes around a large hill, steep enough to prevent the view from below of the medieval scenery from the top. Inevitably happens to us what affects those who do not know those places: we head towards the busiest urban center of the town and completely miss the monument that stands out the most.

Only later, we reach the historic center along a vertiginous path that enters the narrow and shady streets formed by the old houses until it surpasses it in altitude and gives us a magnificent view of the Baixa-Xàtiva.

We continue to climb. We reach the limits of the long walls and the scenery resembles that of the top of the Moorish castle of Sintra.

The presence and periods of conquests and reconquests between Christians and infidels, as well as other later “internal” confrontations, also left imposing traces there. Xativa came to rival in political and ecclesiastical importance with the city of Valencia itself. He was at the origin and in the life of the always powerful and controversial family of the Casa de Borja and the two Borgia popes, Calixto III and Alexander VI. During the latter's reign, in its eagerness for more and more power, the already Italianized family made deadly enemies against the portentous rivals Medici and Sforza, also recognizably the Dominican friar Savonarola, among others. They were so conflicted that over the centuries the outburst of Toffana, one of her many repentant servants, became popular: “I should have stayed in the stables. What a family does this Pope have!”

The Borgias were accused of a bit of everything. Of incest, adultery, theft and systematic bribes. At the same time, they were dynamic patrons of the Renaissance movement. In fact, they continue to give the arts something to do.

They recently inspired a fruitful TV series from the ever-creative producer showtime. And fascinate and addict most players of  Assassins Creed, a long sequel to cross-platform video games in which their adventures and misadventures stand out. By itself, the genesis of the family gives Xàtiva additional importance and meaning. It involves a guided tour of a series of churches, chapels and stately palaces and a more exhaustive discovery of the troubled life of the Borgias. That's what we continue to do. 

Matarraña to Alcanar, Spain (España)

A Medieval Spain

Traveling through the lands of Aragon and Valencia, we come across towers and detached battlements of houses that fill the slopes. Mile after kilometer, these visions prove to be as anachronistic as they are fascinating.

La Palma, Canary IslandsSpain (España)

The Most Mediatic of the Cataclysms to Happen

The BBC reported that the collapse of a volcanic slope on the island of La Palma could generate a mega-tsunami. Whenever the area's volcanic activity increases, the media take the opportunity to scare the world.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Hikers on the Ice Lake Trail, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 7th - Braga - Ice Lake, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit – The Painful Acclimatization of the Ice Lake

On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Architecture & Design
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
Adventure
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Ceremonies and Festivities
Apia, Western Samoa

Fia Fia – High Rotation Polynesian Folklore

From New Zealand to Easter Island and from here to Hawaii, there are many variations of Polynesian dances. Fia Fia's Samoan nights, in particular, are enlivened by one of the more fast-paced styles.
Tiredness in shades of green
Cities
Suzdal, Russia

The Suzdal Cucumber Celebrations

With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Meal
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Culture
Cemeteries

the last address

From the grandiose tombs of Novodevichy, in Moscow, to the boxed Mayan bones of Pomuch, in the Mexican province of Campeche, each people flaunts its own way of life. Even in death.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
forms of payment when traveling, shopping abroad
Traveling
Travel does not cost

On the next trip, don't let your money fly

Not only the time of year and in advance with which we book flights, stays, etc. influence the cost of a trip. The payment methods we use at destinations can make a big difference.
Basotho Cowboys, Malealea, Lesotho
Ethnic
Malealea, Lesotho

Life in the African Kingdom of Heaven

Lesotho is the only independent state located entirely above XNUMX meters. It is also one of the countries at the bottom of the world ranking of human development. Its haughty people resist modernity and all the adversities on the magnificent but inhospitable top of the Earth that befell them.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

Manaus Theater, Brazil
History
manaus, Brazil

The Jumps and Starts of the former World Rubber Capital

From 1879 to 1912, only the Amazon River basin generated the latex that, from one moment to another, the world needed and, out of nowhere, Manaus became one of the most advanced cities on the face of the Earth. But an English explorer took the tree to Southeast Asia and ruined pioneer production. Manaus once again proved its elasticity. It is the largest city in the Amazon and the seventh in Brazil.
Peasant woman, Majuli, Assam, India
Islands
Majuli Island, India

An Island in Countdown

Majuli is the largest river island in India and would still be one of the largest on Earth were it not for the erosion of the river Bramaputra that has been making it diminish for centuries. If, as feared, it is submerged within twenty years, more than an island, a truly mystical cultural and landscape stronghold of the Subcontinent will disappear.
Northern Lights, Laponia, Rovaniemi, Finland, Fire Fox
Winter White
Lapland, Finland

In Search of the Fire Fox

Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
Kukenam reward
Literature
Mount Roraima, Venezuela

Time Travel to the Lost World of Mount Roraima

At the top of Mount Roraima, there are extraterrestrial scenarios that have resisted millions of years of erosion. Conan Doyle created, in "The Lost World", a fiction inspired by the place but never got to step on it.
Fluvial coming and going
Nature
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Natural Parks
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
UNESCO World Heritage
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Beaches
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Cape Espichel, Sanctuary of Senhora do Cabo, Sesimbra,
Religion
Albufeira Lagoon ao Cape Espichel, Sesimbra, Portugal

Pilgrimage to a Cape of Worship

From the top of its 134 meters high, Cabo Espichel reveals an Atlantic coast as dramatic as it is stunning. Departing from Lagoa de Albufeira to the north, golden coast below, we venture through more than 600 years of mystery, mysticism and veneration of its aparecida Nossa Senhora do Cabo.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
Sentosa Island, Singapore, Family on Sentosa Artificial Beach
Society
Sentosa, Singapore

Singapore's Fun Island

It was a stronghold where the Japanese murdered Allied prisoners and welcomed troops who pursued Indonesian saboteurs. Today, the island of Sentosa fights the monotony that gripped the country.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
hippopotami, chobe national park, botswana
Wildlife
Chobe NP, Botswana

Chobe: A River on the Border of Life with Death

Chobe marks the divide between Botswana and three of its neighboring countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. But its capricious bed has a far more crucial function than this political delimitation.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.