As we were celebrating our third wedding anniversary, we wanted to celebrate it in style and a few days in Valencia seems the perfect location for that. Flights and lodging booked we flew to Valencia on July 1st and arrived in the city on a hot afternoon. After the long journey we arrived in out apartment at the end of the afternoon and after a small round to the center and buying some much needed water we decided to take it easy the first day. After a long trip a good bit of rest would see us much better on the next morning.
On Wednesday we had a reservation for a real Valencian paella near the beach so we took a bus which dropped us off a few blocks before the restaurant. In this way we could also enjoy the beach a bit. However ‘enjoying’ was stretching it a bit… It was already so hot that looking at the beach felt far better than walking over it or even worse: lying on it. sitting under some trees in a bit of shade when it’s 38C is very welcome indeed. Not much later we went to the restaurant and after a delicious paella and trying the Agua de Valencia we headed back into the city centre and there we visited the “Museu de Belles Arts de València” -or the Valencia museum of fine arts- which houses a collection of about 2000 works most dating from the 14th–17th centuries. Big chambers and high ceilings with enough space for the paintings to look very impressive.
After the museum visit, we crossed the park and entered the Serranos Towers. A construction dating from somewhere in the 1300’s. It’s been part of the city’s defence walls, it’s been a jail and now a touristic landmark. With mighty thick walls inside it was nicely cool inside. On top after climbing some 130 stairs you got a good view over the city.
But I mostly love walking the streets. The architecture of the buildings in Valencia is just amazing wherever you look. High block of apartments everywhere and each one it’s own style, but together it makes what Valencia is all about.
The next day we started in the market hall in ‘our’ barrio Russafa. Lot’s of fresh fruits and vegetables and lots and lots of meat. Also we found a great Argentinian guy there selling a delicious Horchata. The Valencian version is made from the Horchata-root or ‘Tiger nuts’. The natural version is really delicious but we would try out a few more Horchatas the next days. Slowly walking down to the center taking in more of the architecture we arrived at the central market. Also an architectural treasure of Valencia with a huge glass dome inside.
By now it was time for a good coffee and there are many specialty coffee places to find in Valencia. We found Cafeinomanos in a street and I recharged myself on a delicious espresso and a delicious iced latte. Great guy behind the desk and I brought a filter-coffee to have a bit more of a Valencia taste once we’re back home (overall in the days we were in Valencia we visited several cafés and they were all great, as a specialties coffee lover, this made me really happy :D).
Our next stop was at the church of San Nicolás where they did a light mapping over the interior of the church. The church has a fully painted ceiling that rivals the Sistine Chapel. On its own the ceiling looks very impressive, but the light mapping really brought it to life. Pointing out all of the angels in the ceiling which then started flying about was lovely and adding flowers or other artful things into the picture was really nice.
We ended the day at the Café de las Horas, a place you really must enter as the Neo-baroque interior really is worth the visit alone. They apparently also serve their own version of Agua de Valencia, but as we already had one of those in the day, we skipped that and settled for a lighter drink and some tapas. Sitting in the corner we had a fantastic view over the whole café.
On our last full day we wanted to see the “Ciudad de la Ciencia y las Artes”. It was close to our apartment and so we walked via the palm-filled street Avenida Del Regne De Valencia.The “Ciudad de la Ciencia y las Artes” is designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, famous over the world for impressive design that seems to follow organic forms representing bone-structures. The whole terrain is a testimony to Santiago’s art and houses an IMAX cinema, a museum, an oceanographic, a park and an opera house. It’s beautiful! If Valencia hadn’t already impressed me, it certainly had now. We were tempted to visit the opera in the evening as Phantom of the Opera was being performed, but maybe another time. This would definitely be an inpressive location to visit an opera-performance.
As it was still ridiculously hot, we decided on a bit of quiet in the afternoon, taking some much needed shadow in a park and rest a bit. It’s been 37+ degrees Celius in the daytime the whole week (not to mention how hot it was in the full sun out in the many squares of Valencia) so most of Valencia’s inhabitants smartly stayed inside in the daytime. However we only had four days and a lot to see. But this afternoon a bit of rest and shade was just what we needed. In the evening we enjoyed the time looking at the people go by in a square as the sun slowly set and as it was getting dark I make my way back the the Ciudad de la Ciencia y las Artes to take some night time photos. I’ve been dragging a little tripod with me for days now and this was the perfect time to make use of that. Walking back to the apartment half of the people I saw were Dutch youth just heading out for the night… How times are changing 😉
On our last day we dropped of our luggage for the day after checkout out of our apartment so we could enjoy the day without towing that big luggage around and visited the El Carmen barrio to see some of the graffiti and other wall-art that supposedly is to be found in the area. Although the graffiti was not overall that impressive, we did find a beautifully designed little house in a wall with an entrance-door just fit for a cat. A last horchata in a real horchateria, some last tapas and a last look around we unwillingly picked up out luggage and headed for the airport. But we will come again. Preferably when it’s a few degrees colder and nicer to be outside and enjoy outdoor living slightly more. But Valencia is in our hearts!
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