Visitors!

Last Friday saw the arrival of Rich's parents for 6 days, all of which absolutely flew by, and also the arrival of our summer weather.

We spent a lot of time in the sunshine, at the beach, in the park and in town and even more time eating and drinking.  It was a great trip!

I took a few pictures so here we are...

We went to Xativa on the Saturday in glorious sunshine .

The walk up to the castle is such a beautiful one but it was hot so we took our time and enjoyed the churches on the way.  They have some statutes set up for their local celebrations through the summer.

The huge G&T was very welcome after such a long walk!

We visited in October for the first time but I was thrilled to be back, it's such a lovely town and the view from the top of the castle is stunning. 

After a siesta we headed to dinner at Bacco (an Italian restaurant that sort of looks like a beautiful cave) and then for G&Ts at doce Gin Club where Jan, Les and I had to choose from a menu of 250 gins.  Tough work I'm sure you'll agree!

On Sunday we headed to the Bioparc for Jan and Les' first visit.  We managed to be there in time to see the gorillas being fed, which in all our 10 or so visits, Rich and I hadn't seen before.

I'm always fascinated to see what's new and the baby gorilla is certainly an adorable addition to the park!

I think they both really enjoyed the visit.  We  then headed to the beach for paella where I forgot to take any pictures and then in the evening (after another much needed siesta) we headed to the international Festival in the park for mojitos and a light dinner.

After our mojitos, pizza, crepes and sausages (not all together) we enjoyed the dancers from around the world.

It seems I only took pictures of the weekend, but we saw out the week by eating at some delicious restaurants and drinking more mojitos.  They really were the drink of the holiday!

I absolutely love planning for when people come to stay and then seeing how much they enjoy all of the great things we have here.  I'm so glad they enjoyed their week and now I'm starting to think of the things that we can do with my parents in 2 weeks and my friends Lucy and Olly in 3 weeks.  There's always something going on here!

We're Moving!

There's a good chance those of you reading will know this already from talking to me, or Facebook or Twitter, but Rich and I have decided to move to Doha, Qatar.

We visited last weekend to see the city and the school I'll be working at, and for Rich to have a final interview with his company.  Just before we left on the Sunday, we found out he had got the job, so after 2 months of wondering it was confirmed.

Luckily we both liked the city, and I think it'll be a fun place to live for a couple of years, although we will both miss Valencia.  I'm so glad that some of our friends and family have been able to visit this year, and we still have visits from Rich's parents, my parents and my friend Lucy and Olly to come before we move.

I took a few pictures while we were there so I thought I'd post them, because if you're anything like me, you may not have any idea what Doha looks like.  Here are some of the good bits, the rest looks like a building site ;)

Apartments at The Pearl.

Entirely normal to have gondolas in a shopping centre.

Aspire Park.

W Hotel

 

  

 

It was a long way to fly for a few nights but I'm so glad we went.  It's really put my mind at rest that it's going to be a good place to live.

Onto the next adventure, eh?

Ben and Cindy's visit

Just a few pictures from when Ben and Cindy visited us last month.  We were lucky with the weather and enjoyed a very chilled out weekend of food and drink and loved showing them the city. 

We took them to our favourite paella restaurant at the beach and it is safe to say that everyone enjoyed it.

We got very lucky with the Valencia CF match that we went to on the Saturday night.  They played Malaga and won 5-1

I love Valencia CF matches, the atmosphere is incredible.  All in all a great weekend!