I’m writing this on Saturday since I never got around to posting yesterday.

València is truly a gem! Spain’s third largest city is worth visiting. It’s much better that Barcelona, and in late November there are virtually no tourists. The horrible floods earlier this month mainly affected the southern suburbs, sparing the city center. After a horrific flood in 1957, the Franco government embarked on a major infrastructure project to reroute the Rio Turia away from the center to the south. The former riverbed was transformed into a stately kilometers-long park, the Jardí de Turia, along which I took an extensive walk yesterday. The park is filled with exquisite trees, including orange trees, soccer fields and running trails. It’s the largest city park in Spain. Among its attractions is the science and arts complex, which adjoins a prominent oceanographic museum. The Museum of Sciences was finished early this century and was designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava. The modest admission of €7 provides access to four levels of amazing scientific and environmental exhibits.

The complex also features a modernist concert hall, the Palau des Arts.

I walked almost four miles through the Jardí to the Torres de Serrans, built in 1392, which I visited on Thursday. From there I made my way through the old town to the highly-recommended Puerta del Sol, where I enjoyed an excellent sea bass accompanied by a dry vino blanco.

This morning I went to an adequate gym for a much-needed lifting session. Cuzco Gym and Fitness was an 8-minute walk from my apartment and was staffed by a lovely Dutch expat. The fee was only £10, and the gym was thankfully rather empty, so I could go about my normal routine. Afterwards I headed back to my place to run a wash, after my hostess explained how to run the always mystifying European washers!

I received several great restaurant suggestions, so after some more walking through the city, I’ll have my usual late lunch.

Before closing, I’ll comment on the well-reported migrant crisis. Since it’s a shoulder season in terms of tourism there are virtually no foreign tourists in València. The vast majority of the people one sees on the streets are native Spaniards. While in Madrid there were a handful of women with headscarves, they appeared to be rather fair, so I’m assuming they were from former Spanish Morocco. I spoke to a few and they seem well accepted. Of course, as I wrote earlier, the Moors ruled Spain for centuries and the Spanish language is filled with Arabic words. Perhaps some of the immigrants are distantly related to the Moriscos who were expelled from Spain by Philip III in the early 17th century.

Even though Spain has a disastrously low total fertility rate, I noticed a number of strollers in València. The parents, however, are generally in their late 30s or early 40s. The children are well-behaved and well-dressed. Even though the per capita GDP is less than half that of the US, the people seem to live well and are uniformly height and weight proportionate, without the endemic obesity and slovenliness of many “richer” Americans. The stores are thriving and the restaurants are well patronized. As has been reported, there are a thousand additives forbidden in the EU that are allowed in the US. Hopefully, Americans can recover from chronic obesity and disease.