Spain 202: Diary – Day 5

NOTE -> This trip occurred pre-COVID-19 and feels like 100 years ago

Our second and last day in Valencia started with an early morning (for us) wake up call for me to go to the gym with Tomatico. We’ve all been eating too many sweets and could use the exercise.

To the Gym!

I quietly got him up and we got dressed and out of the room as quickly as possible. We made our way up to the top floor gym and found it empty. The night before I thought there wasn’t an elyptical machine, but I was wrong. There was one. Tomatico jumped on it and started going, but there was a loud clanking sound every stroke. The machine was effectively broken.

He then tried the treadmill, but it was unstable and seemed to choose it’s own speed (very unsafe!) so we moved on to the bikes which were the only machines left. We eventually got them adjusted to the right sizes and got the program started on them, but even that was miserable. We couldn’t figure out how to adjust the resistance on his bike and on my bike I couldn’t even start the program. We pedaled for about 30 minutes before giving up. I guess people in Spain don’t use the fitness centers very often, or else we’ve just had bad luck these last two stays. We’re hoping tomorrow’s Hyatt in Madrid has a nicer gym.

Back in the hotel room we both took a shower. Having the connected rooms meant two bathrooms which is quite convenient! The rest of the family was still asleep so we stayed quiet while they slept some more. I woke them in time to go to breakfast.

Breakfast Buffet

We headed down to the restaurant on the second floor. We were the only ones there and the attendant greeted us and took our room numbers. The buffet wasn’t as elaborate as the one at the previous hotel. Tomatico was disappointed they didn’t have scrambled eggs but he managed to find other options.

Overall the selection and quality was about average in our experience. Curiously, we were the only group in the restaurant for the first 20 minutes before 5 or 6 other groups eventually arrived around 10am. While we had free breakfast on our room rate, most people probably did not. The chain does not offer breakfast as an elite benefit so most people would have to pay for it. It wasn’t worth the 15 euros they were charging per person unless you were on a business trip and the company was paying for it. We got it for free and it was definitely worth that price! While we were entitled to the breakfast the next day, we had an early train so we wouldn’t be able to use it. This would be our only breakfast a the hotel. That said, the room rate with breakfast was lower than without breakfast when I reserved the room, so it was still the right choice to choose the rate with breakfast included.

Museum Day

After breakfast we headed out to the science museum, a short 10 walk away in the appropriately names science park. The park contains the science museum, an aquarium, and other related museums in building that are striking and memorable. It’s great that our hotel was so close to the action that we are interested in.

Today it was overcast and drizzly so we were happy we had spent time at the beach yesterday. Today was definitely not a beach day, but it was a great museum day. When we entered the science museum it was nearly empty with only a few school groups. The boys had a blast building a wind-proof building that could stand up to the wolf from the three little pigs story.

There was a big display about Mars and space that had some interactive exhibits, including a space invaders arcade console. There was also an exhibit on how the brain works but the kids weren’t all that into it. Around lunch time the boys were ready to head out.

We grabbed lunch at a nearby mall that had a dozen or more restaurant choices. After that we split up and my wife took the kids to the aquarium next to the science museum. The boys enjoyed the aquarium, but have been spoiled by the ones they have visited recently in Boston and Long Beach. In fact one of the shows they watched was the same one they saw in Long Beach just over a month previous, though this one was in Spanish. This aquarium didn’t have exhibits to touch the animals like others do.

Prepping for Madrid

As it got towards evening we all met up for dinner before heading back to the hotel. I tried printing the train tickets on the computer in the lobby but didn’t have any luck. I was a bit hampered by the error messages in Spanish. We asked the front desk but they didn’t have any luck, either, and suggested we email the tickets to them to print on their computer. I sent the tickets to the address they provided and they happily printed them for us without issues.

Back up in the room I stayed with the boys while my wife had to attend a meeting for work. Luckily with the time difference the afternoon meeting on the east coast was happening at 8pm our time so it didn’t cut into our sightseeing time. She was able to use the WiFi calling feature of her phone to dial in without incurring any international phone charges.

I got the boys packed and ready for bed as we had to get up relatively early to catch our train to Madrid. Once my wife’s call was done I put them to bed and finished packing our stuff before setting the alarms and calling it a night myself.

Overall out time in Valencia was quite pleasant. We found a lot of fun stuff to do in our two short days there. Our tip was more than halfway done already but we had one more city to visit and hoped we would enjoy it as much as the first two.