Day 2: Monday 31 03 2025: from SAGUNTO to VALENCIA ON THE Via Augusta

Peter is up very early (at 6 o'clock) and goes looking for a bakery for fresh bread and a shop for coffee and milk. At 7 o'clock he is back with a nice breakfast that we both enjoy. At 8 o'clock we are out the door; we can stay in the apartment until 11-30 o'clock and so we try to visit the city in 3 hours because the apartment is in the middle of the old part, the casco historico, located less than one km from the amphitheater and from the castle and citadel part on top of a vast hill. Later we can go back to the apartment.

Sagunto: the amphitheatre and the castle

The climb to the Roman amphitheatre and then to the castle is short but sharp and powerful. The Romans knew how to build their amphitheatres in particularly beautiful places. Here you have a magnificent view of the valley and the hills around Sagunto: a region of vegetables and fruit, especially oranges and tangerines, but also many vegetables. The amphitheatre of Sagunto is less impressive than that of Tarragona, the Roman Tarraco. The front part of the theatre was rebuilt to be able to hold performances there and as a result the whole seems very closed and inaccessible. Still impressive what the Romans were able to do. It is much too early and everything is still closed. So we walk on to the impressive castle-citadel part from the time of the occupation of the Arabs. It stretches over hundreds of metres on a long ridge and is really impressive.

Then we walk down the hill from the castle past a beautiful little church with a calvary so that people can pray while they walk up the hill while experiencing the way of the cross of Jesus Christ. The little church surrounded by white walls radiates simplicity and peace in the sun. From there we walk further to the old part of the city and we pass the Santa Maria church which is still closed. Remarkable are the gilded doors at all entrances to this cathedral.

Sagunto: the little church with the Stations of the Cross and the Santa Maria church with golden doors

In the lower part of the city there are still remains of a Roman Circus and of an old temple where the old Roman drains and water pipes are also visible. An educational walk through the Roman past of the city, even if the remains of the Roman buildings here in this part are not so impressive.

After a short toilet stop in the flat, Peter takes me by bike to the edge of the city where a cycle path begins (according to the travel guide) that will take me to Valencia after 50 km. Check everything, get changed so I can cycle calmly and at 12 o'clock I am ready to leave. With every departure I have a cramped feeling and I feel a bit awkward. I think about Rientje for a moment and then I am focused again. I say goodbye to Peter, he is cycling back home along the coast in 2 or 3 days.

On the road from Sagunto to Valencia

After 500 meters of cycling a car stops next to me and the nice man tells me that I am a bit further on the via verde to Valencia and that I should not miss it. A beautiful road, wide and clearly painted to warn cars that cyclists and pedestrians have priority. Almost immediately I come across 3 families with cargo bikes full of children; so I am not the only cargo bike on the Caminos in Spain. Under the bright sun I ride between the orchards with oranges and tangerines and also quite a few vegetables. It is soon clear that I am riding on the Via Mediterannea from France to Cadiz, all the way in the south near the Portuguese border. I ride to Almeria where I will take the Camino Mozarabe with Bruno on April 11.

At 15 km from Valencia I see a beautiful church tower (covered with ceramic roof tiles) in the distance above the palm trees and I decide to drive there and eat my sandwich that I had prepared in the morning. The Moli y Fora is a Carthusian monastery from the 16th century surrounded by orchards with citrus fruits in the fertile valley. After my lunch I decide to go and look for the entrance to this abbey. I drive around it and find the entrance where everything has been beautifully restored. The front door is open and I just walk in and calmly visit the cloister and surrounding buildings. When I want to enter the church I am welcomed by beautiful music and by two ladies who are cleaning. A friendly gentleman comes to me and says that the abbey is now privately owned; he does not understand how I got in here. I say that the door was simply open. He politely asks me to leave the building which I do calmly, because I have beautiful photos of a magnificent building. The monastic hospitality of the Carthusian monks is no longer experienced there, which is a pity. I get back on my bike, glad I saw that abbey.

The Monastery of Moli y Fora

The road to Valencia is practically 100% a cycle path, first very wide and then a 2 meter wide cycle path to the center of Valencia to my hostal, River hostal, a beautiful mansion that has been converted into bedrooms with alcoves. On the edge of the old city and that is practical: thank you Magda. Ten people per room but not all beds are occupied. Toilets, showers and sinks are shared; there are cozy common areas, a kitchen etc. people of all ages but especially many teachers with groups of young people (from B, NL and D) who come to visit Valencia with students who are learning Spanish. Price 25 euros per night dirt cheap for Valencia.

The only problem is that I can't put my bike inside but I can tie it up right in front of the main entrance. So I take everything to my alcove under which luckily there is a drawer where I can put everything. I move in and rest a bit. Then I go to visit the old part of the city with the cathedral but first I go to a shop to buy some drinks and food.

My alcove in the River Hostal in Valencia by night

During my walk through the old city I entered a church and there I could witness the end of a mass. That is something our priests can only dream of: on a Monday evening at 6 pm a packed church and fervent believers as I watch them busy in their prayers.

In the kitchen of my hostel I make myself a nice omelette with cheese, ham and tomato. Tomorrow I have to eat the same because I had to buy 6 eggs and I don't want to take them on the bike. In the kitchen I meet a Spanish philosophy teacher who introduces himself with "my name is Raphael like the archangel, but I don't have my wings on". He prepares pasta while I make my omelette. Maybe our Rientje knows him...

Departure of Yves on his fourth pilgrimage