Spending the Day with Sharks, Penguins and Seals

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I left Barcelona this morning and made my way to Valencia. It is about a three and half hour train ride which went well and was very uneventful. The views were beautiful ... filled with orange trees and the odd old fortress built up on a hill. I could easily walk to my hotel and I found it right away with no problems (I just took a right at the bullfighting ring and I was on my way ... not a sentence that I get to say very often!!). My room was not ready but the young girl at the reception checked me in right away, gave me a run-down of what I needed to know and a map of the city (she kept circling things on the map and saying "this is pretty" and "this you want to see ... very pretty". Then I was off to explore Valencia.

Seeing that I essentially only had half the day, I decided to go to the Oceanografic. This is actually part of a whole complex but I will get back to that in a minute.

The girl at the hotel had given me instructions on how to reach it by bus. I asked her if it was do-able on foot. It looked do-able on foot. She said yes but that it was about a 30 minute walk. Piece of cake ... it actually took me an hour! Not because it was far but because I kept stopping every few feet ... Valencia is incredibly pretty.

I had two choices in the path that I took to get there. One was to just walk along the sidewalk but I chose to go down to the kind of park area that is parralel to it. Beautiful green space. There is also an enormous water fountain that seems to have this synchonized water display. There is a children's park as well. What is fascinating is that the installation looks like a big Gulliver who is lying down. You can climb him and there are slides and other things for the kids to do. How fun.

I then got to the complex. This is what being in Dubai must be like. The complex includes not only the Oceanografic but also the Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia, the Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe and the Hemisferic. The buildings are huge and very modern. There are these enormous pools that surround it. The grounds are pristine. It was like coming into another world. It is just spectacular.

The Oceanografic is an aquariam. Apparently, the water used in this particular facilities could fill 15 Olympic sized pools. I started my visit with the pavillions where you can find the seals and then moved on to the dolphins. I then went to the Artic and Antartic section. There were penguins of course ... I could have watched them all day. There was a sign saying that they were moulting and so that there appearance was a little more unkept than usual. The little tuxedos looked mighty cute regardless. There were also Beluga whales and walruses. There is also a section for the tropical climates and there are birds and turtles. I love turtles. There were also penguins outside. One was napping and looked like he had been put in a "time out". I then made my way to the aquariums. I must have spent an hour just at the shark tank which includes this 70 meter long tunnel. They float right above your head. It gives you a great view of their teeth. Scary looking teeth at that! The jelly fish tank was hypnotic. Had the same effect as a lava lamp. That too I could have sat there and watched it all day. And you had to look past the fish, the coral is also just as an important part of the exhibit and it is just spectacular. Oh and I found Nemo!!!

So that was pretty much my day. The complex is so huge that it literally took me about five hours to go through all of it. It was definitely amazing. This was different from what I have done so far and I think that it added to why I enjoyed it so much. The photos are a little crappy ... very hard to take photos in an aquarium (despite the fact that I actually have an aquarium setting on my camera!)

So now I am relaxing in my room. I have eaten my Valencia orange from Valencia and sipping my Valencia wine while watching Charlies Angels ... the original with Farrah Fawcett. I didn't speak English when it first aired and now it's dubbed in Spanish. Regardless you can always follow the plot ... oh and the orange Pinto ... loved it!

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Photos

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She was throwing that red ball into the small fountain and he would excitedly go and get it. Happy dog.