UPDATE: the Spanish government has just released a decree that no-one can leave their homes except to buy food or pharmaceuticals, get to financial institutions, go to/from work, get to health services or for “force majeur.” We’re locked down.

Las Fallas has been “postponed” and we’ve just received word that all bars, restaurants, theaters and other places people gather are to be closed for 15 days “for now.” Given that the health minister just stated that he expects the pandemic to last three to five months, I’m not getting my hopes up.

Barcelona has quarantined three communities in an attempt to slow the progress of the virus. The region around Cartagena to the south has closed down, by one account because of the behavior of college kids who came as a result of schools in Madrid closing — they treated it like spring break.

What I’m saying is, it’s finally being taken seriously here and that is definitely going to affect us. Since we have no social circle yet, we aren’t losing a lot but on the other hand, it’s going to definitely put a crimp in our exploration. We’ll have to muddle along as best we can.

Before they canceled Fallas, it was shaping up to be quite the spectacle. In Russafa where our flat is, there was a neighborhood party last Sunday where they shut down some streets and lined up the paella pans to cook up a whole bunch of rice dishes — a competition, maybe?

There were brass bands playing, a variety of music from traditional-sounding oompah music…

…to something that sounded a lot more like what you might hear at HONK! Fest West.

The differences from Seattle street bands were pretty interesting. As you can see, they mostly faced inward (that’s three-for-three that I’ve seen) and there was no particular effort to engage the audience who to be fair were evidently locals who knew the band, mostly. Also, no helicons or sousas in sight, only standard tubas. There’s work to be done here. Gotta get everybody’s eyes out of the flipcharts too!

I did screw up my courage and talk to the tubist in the second band. He was very nice and had some English, much to my relief. Very welcoming and he told me that most neighborhoods have a band and that I could easily play tuba here. Hm, what’s Ebay got in the helicon line?…

As an aside, I was just told today that there is a festival in June where the bandas compete against each other all through the city.

The ninots, the puppets that are created and developed throughout the year with the intention of being burned on the final night, were shaping up to be beautiful and creative.

Now, however, they’re taking most of them down to be put back into storage until the Coronavirus problem works itself out one way or another. Rumors, of course, run rampant and I haven’t heard any definitive information on just what will happen.

The other day we managed to get out and climbed El Miguelete, a 14th Century octagonal church tower in the center of the old city. It’s quite a climb, up a spiral staircase which goes counter-clockwise up, the opposite of most towers. Someday allow me to bore you with the mansplaination for tower stairs. The view at the top is worth the climb, giving you a 360 degree view of the city and surrounds.

This is looking north toward the Torres de Serranos, which mark the location of the north gate in the old city wall and the road to Madrid. The greenbelt just beyond is the Turia Gardens and past that are what used to be towns that have been swallowed up by the city. On foot, it would be maybe a 10-minute walk to the towers. Assuming you didn’t get lost in the narrow, crooked streets leading that way.

This is looking south at yet another church tower and the “round square,” Placa Redona. We’re staying in a flat in the upper-left quadrant, just to the left of the two spires on the left, which is where the train station is. That’s about a fifteen minute walk from La Miguelete. Valencia is a pretty compact city and it’s easy to get from place to place. The Metro is pretty good when the people on the trains aren’t trying to give you the plague.

This is looking east. The things on the horizon that look a little like smooth barnacles are the buildings of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, or City of Arts and Sciences which the city built recently at the east end of the Turia Garden. The buildings are huge and loom over the landscape. They are quite beautiful in that super-sciency post-modern way. That will make up several days’ ventures for us.

We are healthy as far as we can tell and mentally buckling in for the ride for the next few weeks. We formally submitted an offer on an apartment in the city center today and assuming we hit no snags we’ll be moving in a couple of weeks. There’s extra bedspace for the adventurous among you. I mean, after the crisis and all.

Finally, the grafitists in Valencia are…mwah!

I mean, how do you top that?