After stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana was over, I met Nicole at the El Corte Ingles. Rather than drive to Valencia’s city center, I thought we should check out the area surrounding Levante’s home stadium – Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. However, there was not much in terms of restaurants so we drove back to the city center.

Pre Game Dining
Last Sunday, before the Valencia football match, we spotted a couple of pintxo restaurants opening as we were leaving for the Mestalla. Thus, Nicole wanted to try them out this week. We thought we would try both of them since pintxo’s are basically tapas – meaning you can eat a few at one restaurant and a few at another.

1) The first restaurant we tried was Sagardi Euskal Taberna – located at San Vicente Martir, 6. The restaurant was more upscale and was a pleasant dining experience. Pintxos cost 1.80 euros each.
2) The second pintxo restaurant we tried was about one block towards the Cathedral called La Taberna de la Reina – located on the Plaza de la Reina. This place was not as nice and neither were the pintxos they were providing – of course, the pintxos were slightly cheaper – 1.20 to 1.55 euros.

Pre Game Transportation
As stated earlier, Nicole wanted to shop in Valencia’s city center rather than watch a second division soccer match. Since Nicole and I had already parked our car in a public parking lot, I decided to take a cab rather than move the car and try to park the car on a sidewalk or in the middle of the street at the soccer match. The cab only cost 6 euros from the city center to the stadium.

Obtaining Tickets
I walked to the ticket office to find out the cost of the cheapest ticket. They did not have their prices posted so when I asked at the ticket window they said 20 euros. With a high price point, I decided to talk to the guys who had approached me wanting to sell their extra tickets. I talked to one of them and he said he had a face value 40 euro ticket for 30 euros (I had no idea if that was true since the ticket did not have a price on it). I told him I would only spend 10 euros – a price he balked at. Of course, he dropped from 30 euros to 25 euros to 15 euros to, finally, 10 euros. I bought the ticket and entered the first gate I could find as the ticket did state, “INVITACION. PROHIBIDA SU VENTA” – meaning “Invitation. Prohibits your selling.” Not sure what that meant but I entered the Levante supporter’s area and sat in a relatively empty section.

The Game
There is not much to mention about Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. The stadium is old, run down and there were temporary concession stands setup to sell drinks and snacks – similar to some other stadiums I have been to in Europe.

D. Carril Freire gave Levante a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute. E. Moruno equalized for Cadiz in the 68th minute and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Post Game Transportation
After the game I could not find a cab outside of the stadium. Thus, I walked to the main street where I was dropped off (Avenida Alfahuir) to see if cabs were driving (and hopefully waiting). There weren’t any. I walked a couple of blocks towards the city centre figuring I would find a cab as I got closer to the city centre and found a metro (tram) stop. I figured whichever showed up first (the tram or a taxi) would get me back to the city center to meet Nicole. The tram came first and I took Linea 6 to Beniclamet, transferred to Linea 3 and took that train to Colon – the stop by the city center.