DAY 19 Wednesday 19 September
The Ceramics Museum is housed in the remarkable Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas.which has a spectacular carved alabaster facade and lovely crimson and jade coloured interiors.
Arrabal neighbours with two daughters living in Valencia gave me lift to Valencia and back today. We drove the route I came on the bus 19 days ago, without the detours and stops enroute; Lliria I discover is quite a large town. The journey takes an hour by car.
I’ve have researched Wikipedia and learnt a little of Valencia’s history. It was founded as a Roman colony 2500 years ago for retired soldiers and was called “Valentia” meaning brave, but it’s hay-day was C15th when it’s wealth was generated by banking and the silk trade- until Venice took over! Today Valencia is the third biggest metropolitan area in Spain and the fifth busiest port in Europe; it has a population of 1.7-2.5 million. So there we are.
R. Vidal is the Art shop in Valencia and everything comes wrapped in nice yellow paper parcels. I bought paper and a Ox-ear Hair brush - a Spanish speciality perhaps?
They drop me in an area called Benimaclet: a modern suburb of tight streets and flats and I walk to the bus station from there; then to the art supply shop near one of the old city gates; the Torres de Serranos. I’ve bought enough paper to keep me busy for a while.
I bought a brush made of ox-ear hair... we’ll see how that works, but I couldn’t resist its provenance!
A beer, tapas and lunch with friends who have a lovely flat in the Old Town. Then a visit to the ceramics museum housed in the wonderful, alabaster fronted Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas.
I love the quality of these drawings on ceramics and the particular palette of colours.
I was keen to revisit the Arab influenced Majolica-tin glazed ware which I thought might inform my prints.
It’s a long walk back to Benimaclet and I get lost in the maze of small streets, but eventually find the place thanks to mobile data. We return via the Lidl supermarket in Lliria and then home to the narrow, winding streets and whitewashed houses of Chelva - another world!