Welcome back to Valencia! It’s ship’s tour day (I know, groan!).  But we’ve decided to suck it up because a) we don’t want to just wander around Valencia again, b) we have tons of onboard credit we need to spend, and c) it actually goes to Sagunto, a medieval town that we were going to visit on our own if we rented a car.  So, hey, ship’s tour it is!

We meet in the Cabaret at the appointed time, know the drill, so we get our stickers and wait at the back of the room.  When Roma begins to call the tour, we’re outta there and on the bus before half the others are off the ship!  We get the first row behind the guide because cabin #7055 has the front seat reserved.  Hmmmmm….we know this drill too, except that isn’t a suite so we’re figuring they are handicapped or something.  Um, no.  They are nothing of the sort – just want the front seat for some reason, because they are both middle-aged, look to be in good health and capable.  Whatever.  It actually isn’t a very good seat because you have no leg room and nowhere to put your bag.  But that’s their deal. We’re happy here.

It is a gorgeous day today, sunny and 70 degrees, which will make for a great morning tour through Sagunto.  It doesn’t take that long to drive there, and before you know it we are out of the bus, walking through a huge market selling everything from produce to clothing to souvenirs on our way to the Roman theater and fortress built in the 1^st Century BC.  Sagunto was an ancient village founded by the Greeks, captured by the Carthaginians and then reclaimed by Rome.

Once out of the market, we start our walk up to the Theater, passing the beautiful buildings and church clocktowers.  We are only going up to the theater, but on the way there are great views of the fortress walls looming over the town.

Inside the theater we sit for a while listening to our guide explain about the town and its history, fighting to hear over the huge school group who are here as well.  Our guide had a little tense conversation with their guides and it totally flustered her, poor thing.  I couldn’t translate but got the gist of the conversation by the tone.  Anyhow, soon the kids are gone and we have the place to ourselves to wander and explore a bit before heading back down the hill.

Once our group is collected (there was a huge line for the bathroom as the children got there first!), we walked through the old Jewish quarter, viewing a door where a mezuzah was once placed, then on through the cobblestones streets and alleys until we were back into the main modern part of the city.

Here we had time on our own, so we hunkered down at a little café for cappuccino and a bathroom break, before walking back to the bus for the drive into Valencia.

Arriving in town, our guide shows us where the shuttle back to the ship will be if we want to stay in town (it is the normal place on other side of the bridge by the Serranos Gate) which is exactly what we are going to do.  As the rest of the passengers get off the bus for a quick walking tour of Valencia, we tell the guide we are leaving, tip her and we are outta there.  We’ve walked all over Valencia and don’t need to do it again.  We’re on to lunch!

Being on the main street into town from Serranos, there are plenty of options for food – but we decided to just go back to the Travels and Beer café where we had our post-pandemic lunch.  It is good and we don’t want to keep wandering around, wasting time to find alternatives.  Unfortunately there are no tables outside, so we grab a table near the beer display inside and have a wonderful little (well, actually huge!) tapas lunch of charcuterie and cheese – plus mixed sausages. Ay yi yi.  We’re stuffed, but it was oh so good!

Then we just commence to wandering around, stretching our legs, taking pictures of the cathedral, the main square and all the great buildings around.

We make it all the way over to the market, where we wander through, thanking our lucky stars we are totally full – but in the end succumbing to a chocolate stall and buying some chocolate with jamon and chocolate with orange. I mean, how can we resist that?

After the market, we turn back toward the shuttle point, taking pictures of the old Convent de San Joan and the Llotja se la Seda, then hit the Pao de Queijo place that our sweet waiter Carlos from years ago turned us onto, and head toward the bus stop.  The bus is just pulling away as we arrive, but he sees us and stops.  So nice!  And we are back to the port in a jiffy – great day in Valencia and surrounds.

Back aboard we do our normal thing, then head to the Cabaret for tonight’s Destination Celebration – a Flamenco show which we think we may have seen, but can’t remember, and doesn’t matter because it is fantastic!  The dancers were wonderful, the acrobatic guy in one of those huge hoops that rolled all around the stage was amazing, aerobatic guy equally good.  All in all a great show, and even though we know that doing Destination Celebrations on board instead of Azamazing Evenings off the ship is a cost saving measure – no buses for entire ship, no extra cost for special venue, no major hassle for the Shore Ex staff and crew, etc. – tbh, we like it just as well. No fuss, no muss, we’re done, having a drink and then going to dinner.  Perfect in our opinion!  Just a lovely evening.