Before heading to the Chamartín high-speed rail station this morning I took a nice walk down to the Royal Palace. As a frequent traveler to continental Europe, I am always impressed with the cleanliness and order of many European cities. I saw municipal workers sweeping up leaves and cigarette butts (no leaf blowers). The other striking feature is the absence of homeless people. Like most of its EU partners, Spain is a liberal democracy; yet its streets are free of the homeless and the associated litter and human waste matter. There’s something terribly wrong with the governance of most US cities. It’s not fair to ascribe this to liberal leadership; rather, it’s what I call “abdicationism”, the willful refusal to police the existing laws, thus making life miserable for law-abiding citizens.

I’ve also commented on the aesthetic superiority of European (and certainly East Asian) infrastructure. While the US builds cheaply, with its reinforced concrete sidewalks rather than pavers, Spanish city streets are smoothly paved, with no potholes, and the transit system is superb. While en route to Valencia on a high-speed train, I saw several other high-speed trains on adjacent tracks rushing passengers to their destinations at 130 mph. The trains themselves are spotless. Even the toilets are sparkling.

València is a lovely old city. Fortunately , the disastrous floods earlier this month spared the city itself. I noticed that all the signage is in Spanish and Catalan. There’s a reason behind this. After defeating the Moors in 1278, King James I established the Kingdom of València, which thrived for centuries. It’s now the third largest city in Spain, with a population of 2.5 million (metro). The reason for the adoption of Catalan is attributed to the importation of women to València from Catalonia, since the departure of the Moors left the city depopulated. The king invited women from the north to move to València to marry his soldiers.

As I typically do on the first day of visiting a new city, I booked a free city tour, which began at 4:00 pm. The guides are always excellent since they receive more in tips than many private guides do. However, today’s guide was somewhat hard to understand and was kind of a bore, blabbing about paella and other uninteresting topics. I was the only American and had a delightful chat with a German couple afterwards. They didn’t seem alarmed by our recent election. I guessed that they were conservatives. They appreciated my information about the Electoral College, which generally is well-received by non-Americans.

After passing through the Serrans gate, I was able to grab a shot of the dramatic sky in the east.

València’s medieval quarter is charming and full of artisanal shops and inviting restaurants. Tomorrow I plan to delve more deeply into the city and perhaps rent a bike to explore the vast green area just to the east of town, with a trek to the Mediterranean coast if possible after the floods.