aadler | Spain/China 2023, continuing (10)

Ninth day in Spain – July 07 Friday

Up shortly after 7:30AM, and after I showered and shaved we went downstairs to breakfast. Susan communicated by WeChat with Rena (second tour guide) to establish what today’s plans would be, and the two of them agreed to go yarn shopping a bit later in the morning.

Back up in the room, we found out that Amber had been running a fever — though not feeling bad — so they’d be picking their activities carefully today. Around 9:30AM I walked a couple of blocks to the nearest pharmacy, bought cough syrup for Susan, who’s been dealing with minor issues of her own the last couple of days.

Susan met Rena in the lobby at 10:30AM to go yarn shopping. Not my kind of things, so I went back up to the room to nap. (Joachim went along with them to push the wheelchair.) She had returned by the time I awoke.

At noon we went down to the lobby again, and moved from there to the bus. We traveled to El Saler (officially a village, but mainly just an area in the overall district of Valencia). Cristina was worried Susan wouldn’t be able to deal with the next stage — a boat ride — so Susan elected to wait in a restaurant by the docks. By 1:15PM we were on the boat (about twice as long as a gondola, maybe three times as wide, with a motor) and starting off on a 45-minute cruise.

We were warned ahead of time that they would have to lower the hydraulic canopy to pass under the first bridge, and everybody had to bow their heads deeply to accommodate that, which was also done on the last phase of the return. These were supposed to be areas of rice fields, but all I saw was water (narrow channels, broad channels, a wide lake … I subsequently learned this was the Albufera, a freshwater lagoon and estuary off the Gulf of Valencia) and shores lined with bamboo, cattails, and very long grass. I determined that Susan wouldn’t have had any problem with the ride itself — she’d taken me whale-watching when I visited her in California — but getting her into and out of the boat might have been a little tricky.

By 2:00PM we were back ashore and seated in El Palmar Restaurante Alacamiento. We had several different dishes, but the main course was paella.

The next event planned for the day was a visit to a major aquarium. Susan was tired (sitting down too long), so after the bus reached the aquarium Cristina called a cab. We were back in our hotel room by about 4:30PM.

Reading and working various things. We were supposed to go out again for dinner, but (again) Susan wasn’t up to the trip. Meanwhile, she asked if I could get her some cough drops in addition to the syrup. I went down to the pharmacy on the block, brought her back some Hall’s and some Ricola. Then I went back downstairs to meet with the others.

Some had gone ahead, already having been provided the address, so it was only me and Rena and Joachim initially. About halfway there our path intersected one of the mother-and-daughter sets in our group, and they proceeded with us. When we reached the chosen spot (Chang Fu Bar Restaurante), we found that they’d sold out of about half their menu items; Rena found that unacceptable, and she and Joachim went ahead to check other possibilities. When they found one that satisfied them, they sent word and the rest of us joined them at Shullun Hot Pot.

I’d never eaten hot pot before. Basically, a steel pan of boiling broth in the center of the table (divided, one side plain broth and the other super-spicy enough to leave my lips tingling), and the staff would bring various ingredients which the diners would boil in the broth. Mei‑li took control of the process for our table, and she knew what she was doing, so I fairly quickly got full of pretty good food.

About 10:20 Amber suddenly decided she was tired, and Kevin elected to get a cab back to the hotel (and gave me a ride as well, not surprisingly). Once we arrived, since we hadn’t really been able to put anything aside while eating, we stepped next door — to another Chinese restaurant — and got hot noodles as takeout for Susan.

Back in the room by 10:50PM. Susan let the noodles cool for a few minutes, then started them …

She hit something that was supernaturally spicy — it all but literally set her mouth on fire — and begged for some milk to make the burning go away. I got some of it from downstairs at the lobby bar, and she had a couple of packs of peanut butter crackers with the milk to calm everything down. (I tried a bite of the stuff myself, and got the same general effect, though less since I wasn’t caught off-guard and took a very small bite.)

Worked through a few things, then to bed at midnight.