Mercado Central and the City of Arts and Sciences

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After a sleep-in (by my standards) I decided I would Valencia’s fresh food market the Mercado Central. Situated only five minutes from the hotel the market is THE place for locals to buy their fresh produce. The market is open Monday- Saturday and if you want to taste the real Valencia I recommend a visit and mingle amongst the locals and curious tourists.

From its fruit and vegetables, fresh fish and cured meats (including the ever present jamon) this market has the lot. Of course there are lots of oranges on sale (at less than 1 euro per kg) as well as other regional produce.

I decided to buy some clementines - a fruit that we don’t seem to have in Australia. They are similar to a mandarin though their skin is probably tougher. The fruit is very sweet and it does not contain seeds like so many Australian mandarins.

I also bought a supply of my other favourite fruit, the olive. At home on a Saturday I always ensure I have a supply of olives and as it was Saturday, albeit in Valencia I needed to stock up.

I returned from the Market, dropped off my goodies and then headed off to visit the City of Arts and Sciences. I was given instructions by the hotel concierge on which bus to catch and as soon as I left the hotel I immediately ignored her helpful advice and jumped in a cab. The taxi cost four Euros and it took me right to the front of this incredibly grandiose ‘city’.

The "city" is made up of the El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (The opera house and performing arts centre) L'Hemisfèric: (the Imax Cinema and Planetarium) L'Umbracle: (the Walkway/Garden), el Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe: (The applied science museum) and finally the L'Oceanogràfic: (The Aquarium).

The first thing that came to mind on arrival was that this seemed like a white elephant. Several massive structures, dropped into Valencia. The architecture is magnificent, almost mind-blowing however what’s inside is in my opinion rather dull.

Admittedly I’ve never been one for science museums (particularly interactive ones like the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney) and my gut feel on entering this one was that it was going to have to fight hard to keep my interest. After five minutes of touching and interacting with stuff I was definitely over it.

I then moved on to the Oceanografic - lots of fish and other aquatic creatures, again it was not for me and again it was time to move on.

I asked myself whether it was worth going to the IMAX Cinema and the planetarium; it took me very little time to answer no! I decided to wander around Valencia pop into a couple of bars to interact with the locals. Late in the afternoon I slowly made my way back to the hotel.

There could a million other tourists with a different and more positive opinion of the City of Arts and Sciences many may find the visit to be incredibly exhilarating however I am not one of them.

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