Uniqlo shirt
Zara shorts (similar)
Mango belt
Dior pumps
Celine handbag
Celine sunglasses
Monica Vinader necklace (c/o)
Linjer rings (c/o)
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Museo Nacional de Ceramica y de las Artes Suntuarias Gonzalez Marti – Valencia, Spain
The title doesn’t mean what you think – we didn’t spend an unplanned day in Valencia. (Who do you think I am?) But we made an elaborate plan and, at the last second, undid almost the whole thing.
This will sound silly – it sounds silly to me when I say it, but it’s true, anyway. For someone who so loves to plan, I have unexpected moments of impulsivity. When we planned our trip to Madrid, we also planned our Valencia adventure. We settled all the details well in advance of departure. And then, two weeks before leaving, I talked to my mom about Casa Batllo in Barcelona – she and Dad were going to Spain a month after us, and wondered if they should add it to their list of places to visit. I could say for sure, because we’d only ever seen the outside.
But, as I casually looked at ticket prices and different available visit options, I felt suddenly, powerfully compelled to change that. We would be in Spain, anyway. It was possible. We could go to Barcelona. But it would mean losing part of our second day in Valencia.
We went for it, anyway. Even though it meant missing a visit into the Museo Nacional de Ceramica y de las Artes Suntuarias Gonzalez Marti, the ceramics museum with what is arguably the longest name imaginable. It was closed the day we arrived, and opened too late the next day for us to sneak in before we left for Barcelona.
We had a plan. We unplanned it, and made a new one. (I know that’s not the right way to say that. I said it, anyway.) The truth is, while I’m sure that the ceramics museum has a lovely collection, it was really the impeccably detailed carvings at the entrance that I wanted to see. This made visiting on a day it was closed the perfect choice – no one was queuing to get in, although that doesn’t mean we had this spot to ourselves. The museum is just off a main street, on a pedestrian path across from a stylish cafe and kiddie corner from the local Loewe boutique. It would be a busy place even without the museum being there. But this doorway stops everyone who passes in their tracks – with good reason.
We loved our time in Valencia. And while it wasn’t unplanned or unstructured, it was relaxed. We visited the ceramics museums and the cathedral, stopped for coffee, popped into some souvenir shops… and then wandered off to lunch (which, admittedly, we’d reserved months in advance.) In the afternoon, we took advantage of the dry, although still grey, skies to simply wander, which we’d had little chance to do by this point in our trip. With no destination in mind, we found an internationally renowned film lab, half a dozen bakeries we were tempted to try… and then somehow wound up back at Loewe. (Who, me?)
Sometimes, you can plan to have an unplanned, or not fully planned, day. At least, I can. And do.
The return to Loewe meant another chance to see the beautiful marble work at the ceramics museum. We found it as breathtaking in its detail in the late afternoon as in the morning. I envied all the employees in the Loewe boutique, who see it every day on the way to and from work. Imagine that. To be in such constant and repeated proximity to something so beautiful that you could come to take it for granted. I dream of it, but only briefly knew what it might be like when we lived in Paris.
Everything I hoped it could be, in case you were wondering.
We did not take this visit for granted. If it weren’t for the call of the rooftop pool at our hotel, and the possibility of a glass of wine in a lounge chair beside it, I would have struggled to pull myself away. But those possibilities were on offer, so I happily ambled back to the hotel, Loewe shopping back in hand, to relax at the end of a lovely, not exactly unplanned day.
