Greetings from Spain’s third largest city and most important seaport. With a population of 800,000, and two million in the greater urban area, only Madrid and Barcelona are larger, and like Barcelona, Valencia is the center of one of Spain’s seventeen autonomous communities. They speak their own language here, Valencian, which is taught in schools along with Castillian Spanish.
The first thing I noticed about Valencia though, is that it’s pancake flat here. We’ve been all over the Mediterranean, and I can’t remember a port where I couldn’t see mountains when I went out on deck. That’s not to say there are no mountains in the region, but you’ve got to travel a bit to see them.
Beyond the geography, Valencia is a delight . Open plazas surrounded by elegant, classically designed buildings, wide, modern streets lined with upscale shops, and impressive venues for culture and recreation combine to make Valencia a first rate place to visit, assuming you can stand the summer heat and humidity. At least there’s often a breeze off the sea, as there was today.
Our seven hour excursion began with a morning bus tour of the city, where the highlight was a modern complex of venues including an arts and sciences museum, an aquarium, an opera house, and a rentable hall for large events. We also saw the Plaza de Toros, where they still hold an occasional bullfight, and a glitzy street with all the big name designer stores.
We alighted when we reached the older part of the city, where we continued on foot along some pleasant, narrow streets and the aforementioned broad plazas, which charmed me much as they have in other European cities. However, Valencia has something those other cities don’t, and that is the claim that its cathedral houses the Holy Grail. We couldn’t go in and see it, but others have, and if you’re interested there are articles with photos on the internet.
After some free time for exploring and shopping our group reconvened, hopped back on the bus, and were driven out to La Albufera, a large freshwater lagoon that is Spain’s biggest wetland. Despite its huge surface area (52,000 acres) the lagoon’s maximum depth is only two meters—less than seven feet. We climbed onto small boats in the village of El Palmar and were treated to a 45 minute ride around the lagoon, where we mostly saw the high reeds that surround it, at least the portion we toured. A large town or small city was visible in the distance on the far side of the lagoon, but we didn’t get near enough to see anything of it.
After the boat ride we walked several blocks to a local restaurant where we spent the following two hours enjoying a delicious, multi course Valencian meal. The best part was a local favorite they call summer wine, which we think was a mixture of red wine, sugar, vodka and lemon, and which went down very nicely.
Then it was back on the bus and back to the ship after seven full hours in and around the city of Valencia. As I said earlier, this is a very pleasant city, and well worth a visit if you can time it to avoid the heat and humidity. Tonight we’ll continue south along Spain’s Mediterranean coast, and tomorrow will find us in equally toasty Cartagena, where we’ll set out on a walking tour that will take us past a wall built by the Carthaginians more than two thousand years ago. Should be fun, so check back for my full report. Adiós for now.
This modern museum is part of Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, a cultural complex that includes an opera house and aquarium.
The opera house is modeled on Sydney’s.
The Hemisferic is a digital projection theater that includes an IMAX dome. All three buildings are part of the City of the Arts and Sciences.
While it’s used for a lot of other events, they do still hold an occasional bullfight in the Plaza de Toros.
Fountain in one of the plazas in old Valencia.
Basilica de la Mer de Déu dels Desemparats.
Statue of A Rafael Guastavino Moreno, an architect whose many designs included Grand Central Station in New York.
Not sure about this statue across the plaza.
Valencia Cathedral, repository, they believe, of the Holy Grail.
Another part of the Cathedral.
Narrowest house in Europe, one meter wide. Several floors high.
Valencia’s Central Market. This one is as nice inside as it is beautiful outside.
Inside the Central Market. A must see if you’re in Valencia.
Great mural at the end of this dead end alley.
They really do spires well in Europe.
Transformer Guy was one of the cool street performers we saw. He had the moves down perfectly.
I never get tired of streets like this.
What a view. My favorite of the day.
How does your city hall stack up to Valencia’s?
A boat similar to the one we used to tour L’Albufera, Spain’s largest wetland.
And we’re off.
Little house we saw along the shore.
Once you clear the narrow, reedy channel where we started, the lagoon really opens up. That’s a big town or small city on the far shore. It’s hard to believe that such a huge body of water is less than seven feet deep.
The Valencian version of summer wine was delicious and went down way too easily. I need to get out of Valencia before someone offers me some more.
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