Early on this Saturday morning, I drove to a suburb town called
Picassent to catch a
train to Valencia for the day. It’s
always a challenge figuring out how a city’s metro system works, many of them have
their own little nuances. It was a tiny,
unstaffed train station with a ticket machine in one corner. There was an older couple looking at it, and
it was quickly obvious to me that they were not locals. They looked back at me and indicated that I
could go ahead. I purchased a card but wasn’t
totally clear if I bought what I needed.
A middle-aged Spanish woman then started to help the couple, with the
older woman seemingly able to get by in Spanish. It was a bit of a weird system where you
could preload your card with multiple trips, but you had to “validate” the
ticket on a different machine before hopping on the train. I thought that my ticket was good for the
return ticket too but I’d later find out that that was not the case.
Anyways, while on the platform waiting for the train, I
ended up chatting with the couple who turned out to be from Belgium. Ludo and Marita were super friendly and have
done a fair amount of travelling, including to Canada which they loved. We talked the whole way into Valencia, and I
now have an offer for a place to stay in Belgium should I ever find myself
there!
Marita and Ludo.
My plan of attack for visiting Valencia, the third biggest city in spain behind Madrid and Barcelona, was to walk to a medieval tower called Quart Tower, then over to Valencia Cathedral followed by another tower and then to the City of Arts & Sciences, a modern architectural complex.
Not sure what made this video games store a Canadian one...
Good name for the store.
The Quart
Tower was built between 1441 and 1493.
It was still in use during the early 1800s during the defense of the
city from Napoleon’s forces during the Peninsular War. The tower still sports the cannonball and
musket shot damage that it endured during that conflict. Unfortunately, it was temporarily closed when
I was there so I could not climb up to the top of the tower.
Heading through the entrance.
The backside of the tower is not as impressive...but it has no pockmarks.
The street behind the tower, into the old section of the city.
Some interesting grafitti.
Lovely streets.
Getting a little musical accompaniment on my way to the cathedral.
Arriving in Plaza de la Reina. That's the back of the cathedral on the right and the basilica (with a stupidly long name - Real Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados) on the left.
A nice water fountain in the middle of the plaza.
The back of the cathedral.
Walking around to the front. I was hoping to go up the tower to get a view.
The entrance to the Valencia Cathedral. I decided that the lineup was too long to bother with since time was of the essence as I was trying to pack a lot into one day, plus I was able to go into the basilica next door. Unfortunately, that did mean that I couldn't go up the El Micalet Tower in the previous photo...luckily my next stop made that a moot point.
Inside the basilica.
The dome in the basilica.
There were many babies in the basilica, perhaps there was a baptism earlier.
Having another look around the Plaza de la Reina.
After deferring on the cathedral and a quick visit to the
basilica, I walked about 800 meters to the other tower I wanted to check out. Serranos Tower was
built a little before the Quart Tower, between 1392 to 1398. It was one of twelve gates that formed part
of the ancient city wall, the Christian Wall of Valencia. The city wall was ordered to be pulled down
in 1865 by the governor, but the Serranos Tower was left standing. Luckily, for a mere 2 Euros, I could climb up
to the top and get the view of Valencia that I missed from the tower at the
cathedral.
Approaching the backside of the tower.
Up on the middle level.
One of a number of crossbow slits.
That's the Catalan flag.
Scanning the skyline from the top of the tower.
You can see the tower of the cathedral just left of centre.
Looking down, behind the tower.
The top of one of the turrets.
The Turia Gardens, a big greenspace that runs about 9-10 kilometers along the former riverbed of the Turia River. That's a football pitch down there.
Looking at the Turia Gardens.
At the top of the turret.
These folks were doing a photoshoot.
The front of the Serranos Tower.
I started to walk along the Turia Garden Park towards the last stop of the day, the City of Arts & Sciences, which was about 3 kilometres away. I stopped briefly to watch some young kids playing football (soccer). I was a bit shocked and saddened to see one kid go down to the turf after a very wimpy challenge from another player, he was totally faking an injury. That's one thing I wish they would remove out of the sport...yet when they learn to do it at this age, it's going to take a lot of undoing.
It was a lovely greenspace area with many joggers, walkers, picnikers etc.
And even some dancers getting fit...with the infamous "Spank the Donkey" move.
Since this ribbon of greenspace does a big arc around the old town of Valencia, there are many bridges for traffic and pedestrians to cross the area...many were beautiful.
On the underside of this bridge, they have handholds or grips for those who are into some climbing.
The Palacio de la Música.
There was a kids park and I liked the signs for the toilets.
It is called Gulliver Park and kids get to climb all over the giant.
I stole this from the web, as it is a cool looking park but hard to see it all on the ground.
The City of Arts &
Sciences is a cultural and architectural complex that was built between
1998 and 2009. It is one of the 12 Treasures of
Spain, like the 10 Wonders of the World, but Spain’s list. There are a number of different buildings such
as a science museum, an arts gallery, a planetarium, a convention centre, an
aquarium and more. I walked around the
outside of all of the buildings but only planned on visiting the aquarium,
known as Oceanografic.
Getting closer to the City of Arts and Sciences. That building on the right is the Palace of the Arts.
Amazing architecture.
The Science Museum.
Of course the aquarium was the last building from the direction I came from, but that was perfect really, as I got to walk by the others.
Where's Nemo? Where's Nemo? Where's Nemo?
One of a number of huge aquariums in this complex.
An eel, some rays and a ton of fish.
A bunch of tropical fish.
Some amazing colours.
I love sea turtles. I've been lucky to see some close up while scuba diving in Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands.
Sea turtles look like they are flying through the water.
Who wants a belly rub?!?
A green moray eel. I've seen them scuba diving too...weird creatures!
Nobody likes to get stung by a jellyfish, but they can look quite majestic.
Spider crabs.
The ocean is filled with many strange creatures...
A sea horse...also very strange.
Rays are cool.
A sawfish...I haven't seen one of these scuba diving, but I have seen hammerheads which was amazing.
The outside area of Oceanografic.
Some giant tortoises from the Galapagos...although these guys are smaller than the ones I saw. I even had to help a ranger lift a big tortoise into the back of a pickup truck when I was there. Check out a photo on this blogpost.
I was really sad to see that they had a "Dolphin Show" at Oceanografic, which I did not want to see. I didn't realize that they had dolphins here, and they also had seals in another aquarium. These animals are too big, and too smart to be in captivity. I would have visited the Science Museum and support that place instead if I had known this...but it was right near the end of my visit when I found this.
Starting my way to the exit.
After my visit to Oceanografic, I hopped on the tram and then the train back to Picassent and drove about 45 minutes north of Valencia and found a nice, free aire right by the ocean. That was a long day and what a great spot to relax for the evening.
