Friday 11th December: With the tickets for the Levante v Granada game on Saturday evening secured online before the trip; Valencia old town was given a good seeing to on our arrival at the visually stunning North Station. After a simple lunch and a cerveca, Al and crutch failed a late fitness test so was abandoned in a cafe for a couple of hours. Wilkie, Colin and Tony decided to tackle an elevated sight-seeing tour which included a lung bursting 207 steps to the top of the tower adjacent to the cathedral and ascending an ancient gateway tower on the periphery of the old town overlooking what had been a river bed before the Turia River was diverted to avoid repeats of the devastating flood that Valencia had experienced in 1957. We rescued Al from overdosing on coffee and waffle and an excellent first day ended with a superb meal at Bar Mari near our hotel in the south of the city. The cuisine and tinto vino passed the WilkieTours criteria for quality and price!
Saturday 12th: After a visit to the 'fine arts' museum and enjoying the 'menu de dia' the main event of the day was the evening game at the 26,000 capacity Ciutat de Valencia, home of Levante. The home side were bottom of La Liga and visitors Granada were also struggling - so we were not expecting to see a lot of quality on show. We were not disappointed; after a dreadful first-half the visitors secured a 2-1 victory with a late goal. Rochina, ex Blackburn Rovers, dominated the midfield for the visitors in front of a less than half full stadium.
Sunday 13th: In glorious sunshine we took the train north, through miles of orange groves to Vila-Real for the Segunda B (3rd division fixture) between Vila-Real's B team and Cornella, from Barcelona. This promised to be a decent spectacle as the teams were second and third respectively. Again, we were not disappointed - despite a first-half sending off the home side passed the ball confidently and won comfortably with two cracking goals from their centre forward. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the visitors. The plan to get to a third game was abandoned after our lack of success in finding a taxi in Vila-Real and then the taxi not turning up for the return trip from the mini estadi on the outskirts of the town to the station.
Saturday 12th: After a visit to the 'fine arts' museum and enjoying the 'menu de dia' the main event of the day was the evening game at the 26,000 capacity Ciutat de Valencia, home of Levante. The home side were bottom of La Liga and visitors Granada were also struggling - so we were not expecting to see a lot of quality on show. We were not disappointed; after a dreadful first-half the visitors secured a 2-1 victory with a late goal. Rochina, ex Blackburn Rovers, dominated the midfield for the visitors in front of a less than half full stadium.
Sunday 13th: In glorious sunshine we took the train north, through miles of orange groves to Vila-Real for the Segunda B (3rd division fixture) between Vila-Real's B team and Cornella, from Barcelona. This promised to be a decent spectacle as the teams were second and third respectively. Again, we were not disappointed - despite a first-half sending off the home side passed the ball confidently and won comfortably with two cracking goals from their centre forward. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the visitors. The plan to get to a third game was abandoned after our lack of success in finding a taxi in Vila-Real and then the taxi not turning up for the return trip from the mini estadi on the outskirts of the town to the station.
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