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May 13th 2006
Published: May 14th 2006
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13.05.2006
The day started with a torrential down pour - the type that makes you want to bury yourself under the covers - and we thought we’d be in for a rather drab day, but we were back on the horse after our day off at the beach in Calpe and rearing to go and see what Valencia City was all about. And I can tell you, the bells of St Clemens have nothing on these guys - there are oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits and any other citrus you care to imagine at every turn, even in the middle of a town with 1.5m people!

Valencia is about 80Km from where we are staying in Oliva, but Sarah made short work of the trip on the A7, as her petrol head days of old came through. And with some superb navigation we ended up bang in the middle of Valencia without a hitch and scored ourselves a secure carpark right next to the major train station. A perfect place to start the mega walking tour of Valencia, with Sarah carrying Kaspar and a very ginger Gabor through this town of contrasts.

Fact file - The Romans found Valencia in 138BC (they had damn good luck those Romans), and has since done the rounds amongst the Romans, the Visigoths (we saw a few Spanish Goths today too - must disturbing), and was under Islamic control for a bit. All this adds to a sweet mix of culture and history, and of course the odd pair of black jeans and black t-shirt on the most stifling of summer days. Valencia is located in a prime pozzie to take advantage of the best the sea and land can offer, food wise, and has a history of producing some of the best silk in the world. And don’t get me started on that citrus fruit!
Of course, it must be said that Valencia is hosting the 2007 America’s Cup. It’s a little odd seeing massive billboards around town that read, “Alinghi and US”…call me simple, but isn't Alinghi the Swiss competitor and given Switzerland are landlocked they just chose Valencia as their “away ground” because no one would come to race an ocean regatta on a mountain lake? But then I can’t be too critical, Team NZ must feel pretty stink about losing to a bunch of yodellers.

Moving on.

One of the things that struck us first off was how green the inner city is. While there is not the abundance of public parks as with somewhere such as London, the streets are lined with flowers, shrubs, orange and palm trees, and couple with the heavy Moorish influence in the buildings you could be mistaken for thinking you were in the middle east or northern Africa at times. There is also a green belt that follows the dried river bed around the northern half of the city, and is full of parks, soccer pitches, fountains, and outdoor areas to just kick back and relax (we even managed to do some of that, but that’s much later).

Water is a problem in these parts. You can drive for hundred of Kms and cross bridges all day long but never see a drop of water. We have probably crossed 50 bridges in the last fews days and seen only one riverbed with anything resembling a substantial amount of water. The rest are completely dry, and look like they have been for decades. The Main park in Valencia itself, is as mentioned above, built in a riverbed. There’s some significant structures there, so they can’t be expecting any water for a while. And it seems to be an on going thing, if the Tribunal de las Aguas is anything to go by. They meet every Thursday, as they have done for the last 1000 years, to settle water disputes. And it’s all done verbally.

We had planned on a couple of days in Valencia, but with the day off yesterday we had a lot to squeeze in the short time left here. We got off to a good start by ripping into the first of our 4 (maybe 5) walking tours of the day at about 10.30am. It was also a good time as there weren’t many people around and it allowed us to get used to the town pretty quickly.

First stop, Plaza Ayuntamiento.
This is probably the biggest plaza in the city and is surrounded by amazing buildings, on one side you have the City hall, and on the other the Post Office (no nothing like NZ post building on the Quay in Wellington), this place took 7 years to build starting in 1915. There was also a cool fountain that Kaspar was particularly keen on, that’s it really, some great architecture and with a nice feel to the place.
From there we headed to the Monastery of San Miguel De Los Reyes, The Monastery is one of the best examples of the Valencian Renaissance in the City and was designed in 1546 but took 20 years to build due to the death of the Duke of Calabria who I guess was paying for it.
Our next stop was a fantastic building - the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas. Now the National ceramics Museum, it was once a town house built in the 15th century. This place was amazing, it reminded us of a big cake as it was so opulent and rich looking. The façade is stucco painted with a marbling effect and Alabaster (mmm icing). It looked quite surreal and if we’d been told that it came from a Dali dream we probably would’ve believed it.

We popped into the town market hall - both to grab a bite to eat and to check out the actual hall…a supposed must see when in Valencia. Unfortunately the cherries were pretty average (although Kaspar was a fan) and the hall was covered in scaffolding inside and out so it was complete fizzer. And as it turns out we went to the wrong market hall anyway, so next time we’re in Valencia we’ll make sure its in June and we’ll head to the Mercado de Colon, given that we’ve been to the scaffolding clad Mercado Central.

We had to bypass the home of the Holy Grail at the Valencia Cathedral because we had run out of cash and couldn’t find a machine nearby…and besides we’ve both read the da Vinci code, so we knew it wasn’t the REAL home of the Holy Grail (that’s in the French countryside somewhere…or is it in Pakistan…cant remember now). Besides, the Basilica and adjoining buildings are huge and would take you at least half a day to have a good fossick through. A pretty nice touch, though, was a scale model of the cathedral (in bronze) directly outside, complete with a braille guide on what any interested blind people were ‘looking at’.

So we stopped in at the Valencia stock exchange for Kaspar’s lunch. Again, nothing like the NZX on the Quay in Wgtn. The Palacio de Biol Arenos is a stunning gothic palace right smack bang in the middle of town, with orange trees in the courtyard, and all the classic stylings of a castle. We downed tools and Kaspar dined out and was changed amongst the other tourists in the garden.

Mum and Dad were getting peckish so we made our way to the Plaza del la Virgen for a feed. We were a day early, or right on time depending on which way you look at it. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the one day every year that an effigy of the Virgen de los Desamparados, patron of the city, will be making her way across the Plaza to the Cathedral. Apparently it is quite the day, with rose petals filling the air and crazed catholic devotees thronging to touch the effigy. One account tells of the effigy being passed across the hands of the devotees, kinda like a massive concert stage dive, Catholic style.
The plaza was in the process of being set up, so we got to see some of the vast preparations that were being made including a 20m high tapestry made of petals depicting the Virgin amidst angels. Most impressive!
Kaspar crashed out, tied to a tree while we lunched in front of the Plaza and watched boys riding in cherry pickers, purporting to be hanging decorations for the celebration.

Full of calories and caffeine we headed for the green area of Valencia, in search of some O2 and a particularly cool bridge. We passed Torres de Serranos. These gothic towers were built in the 1300’s when the city was completely walled, acting as one of the only ways in which to enter and leave the city. There’s a fair bit of riff raff around in these parts (in later life they were used as a jail), and the French live next door, so its easy to understand why they’d need to be so big.

We strolled the old riverbed - now the Jardines del Turia - for the next couple of hours, at times crisscrossing chosen bridges that caught our eye (and there’s lots), and finally finding a rest stop just by the impressive glass Palau de la Musica and fountains for another Kaspar feed (that boy can eat!). The Palau is one of many buildings that are cropping up as part of La Valencia del III Milenio, a more modern Valencia that is certainly wowing the crowds…the piece de resistance we were soon to espy.

We followed the old river bed and found ourselves in somewhat of an amassing of hippies, selling arts and crafts made from wood and stuff. It would’ve been nice to pick up a memento that was uniquely Spanish but there wasn’t much that you wouldn’t find in the James Smith’s markets in Wellington, and it seemed that many of vendors were there more to champion their political or social justice agendas. The place smelled like an absence of underarm deodorant.

Then on the next attempt to walk out of the old riverbed we found the bridge we wre after - Pont de Regne, Valencia’s 17th bridge with its four huge positively evil looking and well hung gothic gargoyles at each corner. These guys look like a cross between something out of a comicbook/ghostbusters/Dracula nightmare.

And then we saw it! Ciudad de las artes y las ciencias - the city of art and science. Now before you think that we’ve gone completely insane, getting all excited about art and science, check out some of these photos (this place is a behemoth - I've tried to include other context to give a representation of the scale of these buildings). It looks and feels like you’re on another planet here. The first section opened in 2000, and there have been 3 additions since. And while it is still a bit of a work in progress, there is still plenty to see and do. We were nearing the end of our ability to walk so didn’t go inside, but we were impressed enough just strolling around the premises of these four incredible monoliths. This is one place that you’d need to see over and over to really discover all it has to offer. And then you’d have to do it all again when its lit at night. For more, check out http://www.cac.es/.

The legs were gone so we took a bus back to the railway station and grabbed some tapas and a beer while contemplating the day. We weren’t quite done and managed to wander a few narrow alleyways while eating gelati and taking in a last view of Valencia. Past the Plaza de Toros as the locals filed in for some bull action on Saturday night, and the orange-clad railway station to our primo carpark, and we headed home as the sun sank behind the jagged hills.

Another huge day, but one that we all thoroughly enjoyed. Much like Madrid, we will definitely need to come back to do more than scratch the surface as we did today. The America’s Cup will be huge here next year!



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12th September 2006

Valencia
My wife and I were there for the week 15/05 to 19/05 What a wonderful city. Definately will go back one day. CAC Arts and Science INCREDIBLE.

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