LONG TIME DEAD

Three mates who used to run a business together in Manchester venture south. April 2025.

My pal Neil has recently purchased a very cool holiday house in the town of Denia near Valencia, so me and Simon decide on a train adventure to go see him. If you read my Nov ‘22 Scandinavia blog you will know that me and Simon don’t really do slow tourism – so the plan is to cram in as much fun and culture as possible around the following itinerary:

• Day 1 – Manchester to London with a night in London.
• Day 2 – London to Paris with a night in Paris.
• Day 3 – Paris to Barcelona with an overnight stay in Barcelona.
• Days 4/5/6 – Barcelona to Valencia, where we rendezvous with Neil for two nights.  
• Days 6/7/8 – Valencia to Neil’s place in Denia for a two-night stay.    

The train from Manchester to London was cheap, modern and on time – all of which will come as a massive surprise to regulars on the West Coast Main Line. Day 1 in London involved a visit to the London Design Museum to see the excellent Splash! exhibition, then hanging out in Brixton followed by an evening meet up with some old London friends. Overnight accommodation was at Mama Shelter in Hackney. I have stayed at a few Mama Shelters and always look out for them – they are a great hotel chain and part of the Ennismore group.

Next morning I fit in a swim at the London Fields lido then we are on the lunchtime Eurostar to Paris. The lido at London Fields is one of my fave outdoor pools in the UK – it is a 50m pool open all year round and nicely heated to around 25C.

We arrive in Paris at 4pm and embark on a mad 24 hours of exploration, all done on the Velib city bikes which are pretty easy to fathom once you have downloaded the app. First up is an early evening ride along dedicated cycle lanes adjacent to the Seine and then up to Sacré-Cœur for sunset and views back across Paris. Cycling in Paris still involves a fair bit of jostling with cars so is not for the faint hearted. Read Paris by Bike for a helpful blog on the topic.  

Next day we are up early and cycle across town to see Napolean’s tomb at the Musée de l’Armée then back to the Marais for the MEP – the top photography museum in France. We get to see a brilliant exhibition by the British photographer Dennis Morris including iconic portraits of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols and much more.

Our double-deck TGV train to Barcelona departs mid-afternoon and arrives at 10pm. The circa 7 jour journey flies by and was very comfortable. If you have never heard of the remarkable Man in Seat 61 website by a guy called Mark Smith then click here to see his review of this route.

We have until 4pm in Barcelona on Day 4 and choose to mooch around the El Raval district, hopping over to Poble-Sec for a great lunch at a little place called Casa Axin.

El Raval is a top neighbourhood. Historically infamous for its nightlife and cabarets, as well as prostitution and crime, it has tidied itself up a fair bit in recent years but not lost its edge. It has a wonderfully diverse population (48% of its population was born outside Spain). El Raval also hosts the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and we got to see a very interesting display on lifestyles, art and photography in the Amazon.

The train journey to Valencia takes just short of three hours and we meet up with Neil at the Joaquín Sorolla station. Our accommodation in Valencia is the very central One Shot Colon hotel – part of a small chain of 11 design-conscious Spanish hotels. 

We stumble across the superb Amor Amargo Bodega for dinner. We had the first of our Ensalada Valencianos (loaded with tomato, tuna, pickles and pimento stuffed olives) and also had a massive portion of Figatells (traditional Valencian meatballs).   

Next day is Day 5 and we squeeze in a lot:  

• First up we get bikes and go up and down the Turia river-bed garden and out to the beach. I thought the cycling infrastructure in Valencia was superb and has improved a lot since I was last in the city five years ago. The Turia garden – which stretches for almost 9 kilometres through Valencia – is the best piece of public realm in the whole of Europe. No debate.  
• We then do a three-hour food tasting tour. Our guide Cesar is a chef and does these tours in his spare time. We had a great time. Best stop off was the tiny locals place Tasca Angel serving lovely fish tapas.  
• Then in the evening we go to a couple of decent craft beer bars in the old town (Tyris on Tap and Autenti Craft) followed by the Jimmy Glass jazz bar. This is a fab little place set up in the early 90s that Neil found. Intimate live music and serving mini pizza bites that help with the 6.5% beers.  

We are all a bit knackered the following day so mooch around the hipster Russafa district in the morning and then travel over to Neil’s place which is on the edge of Denia. We go for a late 4pm boozy lunch at Neil’s excellent local (Restaurante Mena) and then do some star gazing from the roof terrace in the evening. I feel very chilled here.

Day 7 is Sunday and we embark on another adventurous itinerary:

• An early morning sea swim (it was more of a dip than a swim if I’m honest). 
• Then some coastal scrambling into the huge sea caves of Cova Tallada.   
• Then a trek over the mountain plateau to the neighbouring town of Xàbia for lunch.
• Finishing back in Denia for dinner. Denia is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy and has five Michelin star restaurants. The venue for our final evening – Casa Benjamin – is not one of the very top places but gets close. The fried aubergines with cane honey and feta has the taste of a toffee apple from when I was a kid.

We take it easy on our last day. A bit of swimming in Neil’s pool and an amble around Denia Castle. Denia has a fascinating history. Apparently there was a sizeable community of English raisin traders who lived in the town from 1800 until the time of the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. There is an old warehouse we saw that was previously owned by the Manchester-based Cooperative Wholesale Society for raisin trading and the window guards still show the letters CWS.

Our 10.30pm flight home from Alicante is bang on time. We touch down in Manchester before we know it and the Benidorm massive plus 50 school kids were all well behaved.  

Post Trip Reflections

A few people have already asked me about train costs to get down to Valencia. It was a very reasonable £170 all in, but this was largely because we booked well in advance. I booked three months in advance on the Manchester to London leg and got a single for £30. Eurostar tickets were from an Uber deal I spotted just after Xmas and cost £30 for each of us. Paris to Barca was £70, and Barca to Valencia £40.

I really liked the dynamics of this trip. Plenty of cultural stuff in the cities followed by a few days of relative relaxation by the sea in Denia. I say relative relaxation as our main day in Denia consisted of 25,000 steps and a few nasty cuts to my head and arms in a darkened sea cave!     

The weather certainly helped us get the most out of our 8 days. Every day was clear blue skies and a temperature range of 18-22 degrees. Perfect for charging around Europe.

It was great to spend time again with Neil and Simon. This is the second European trip we have done and planning has already started for 2026. In the midst of all the activities we had some pretty in depth chats about health, relationships, grown up kids, money and plenty of politics that (I think) helped us all.