Avenida de Francia Panoramic view from our balcony

Avda de Francia Panorama, originally uploaded by snowgoose1.

We finally made it to Valencia last Thursday and spent a couple of days looking at apartments. Whilst the very first apartment was a little depressing - four bedrooms in a rather grim layout on two floors with prison cell-type windows and a rental price which would not look adrift in Park Lane - we managed to find far more likely accommodation on Friday.

This apartment, on the ninth floor of a 4 year-old luxury building overlooks almost every important area of Valencia, and within 200 metres, boasts a supermarket, bars, cafes, two restaurants, a tennis club, a free car park, its own swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna and meeting rooms. Additionally, there are two cycle rental places, several children's parks, crazy golf and the world's most stunning performing arts centre all within five minute's walk. As if that's not enough, the number 19 bus stops directly outside the entrance to the apartment block, giving a 10 minute journey time to either the old part of the city or the beach - equidistant on both directions.

There are abundant cycle routes throughout the city, including the area of the City of Arts and Sciences, the beach at Malvarossa and the America's Cup Port, which means that no where is more than 10 to 15 minutes away from anywhere else - and it's as flat as Cambridge!

So when is everyone coming to visit?!

We now have less that four weeks remaining in Cambridge to sort out all the household and business affairs - our ferry leaves at 21:15 from Portsmouth on Friday 24 August, arriving Bilbao at around 08:00 on Sunday 26 August. By Sunday evening, we'll have arrived in Valencia and the 'vacancies' sign will go up, unless our many friends have pre-booked the year ahead!