Sun and sightseeing in Spain COMPLETE About This Page:

[mcc0313]

You have had such wonderful days...glad the heat did not get you as sick as it did in WDW. You photos are amazing...you are so talented, looking through them is like a travel pictorial...those on the beach and at sunset...simply beautiful....

[chezp]

Wednesday 17 September – part one: nearly mistaken for a Russian tour group!

It was an early start – an unusual thing for this holiday, but today we were heading off to see the city of Valencia, an hour and a half’s drive away and we didn’t want to get there too late. That was no bad thing, as the sunrise this morning was beautiful:



After having breakfast, we were on the road by just after 8am, which was pretty much when we planned to get away. The drive was fine, although a little long and, at times, a little hot in the car.

As we approached Valencia, it was like any other city I guess, very daunting the first time you drive there. At some of the huge roundabouts we approached, there were six lanes and trying to negotiate them really was a game of cat and mouse – you had to keep your eyes peeled all around you, as there were cars and motorbikes coming at you from all sides. The sat nav and a bit of eagle eyed spotting got us to the car park we were aiming for eventually, but my goodness, it did seem as if we went a very torturous route to get there. I think we were all very relieved when we got there.

The car park we found was an underground one, right by the main cathedral and it was very well done. As you went in, there were markers telling you how many spaces there were in each row you went past. How did they know? Because there are sensors above each space and if they’re filled with a car, they’re red, but if they’re empty, they’re green. It’s an exceptionally clever system and one I’ve never seen before, but it’s something that we ought to adopt as well.



We came out and took in the scenery in the square – the buildings all around it were absolutely stunning and very reminiscent of Barcelona. Almost immediately, I knew that we’d done the right thing in coming here – it was so beautiful and well worth a visit.


The Cathedral


After standing there taking photos for a while and just taking the scenery in, we headed into the nearby cathedral, only to be told that it wasn’t open yet and then there would be an obligatory charge for the audioguide. No thanks. Actually, I nearly made it in there as part of a Russian tour group, but the other three were lagging behind and got spotted. Darn! And if only I’d kept up those Russian lessons that I started at university, then I could’ve blagged our way in with them.

We took a while trying to get our bearings, as it was the first time in Valencia for all of us and the maps we had weren’t exactly great. Then we stopped one of the open top tourist buses arriving in the square and Barb suggested getting that. What a great idea that was. When we got on board, I saw that it went past all the sights that I wanted to see in the city and without the need for walking. There was also commentary in about eight different languages, courtesy of the headphones they hand you as you enter. The headphones weren’t the greatest – they were the horrible ones that fit inside your ear and usually become painful after not very long. Having said that, the commentary did provide a lot of useful information about the various places we were seeing and I was grateful for that, as I learnt a fair bit about the city.

We decided to head for the Oceanografic, Valencia’s aquarium which is in their Ciutad des Artes e des Sciences – the City of Arts and Sciences, a new area to the east of the city, which has been constructed over the last few years. It’s a very futuristic complex and includes an IMAX theatre and a science museum. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

First a photo tour through the city of Valencia from the bus:


The Central Market

Ancient detail on one of the buildings we passed

And far more modern detail on another building we passed!

The old city walls

One of the 19 bridges over the former river bed – it’s now a huge park..

And shots of that park

One of the huge avenues in Valencia

The city hall


The post and telephone building

Other buildings in the same square

The beautiful Bank of Valencia

Another of Valencia’s stunning squares

This building was amazing – it had so much detail in it

One of the local churches

The bull ring

The main station

Their own version of the Arc de Triomphe, complete with moped!

Next: is this going to be worth the money?

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of Valencia

[Kenny]

OK, I don't want to get too mushy here. I've only been active here on the boards for about a year while waiting for our cruise, so I'm sure someone has said this or eluded to it before.
As I read through this post and studied the pictures, I just kept thinking how fortunate we are to have you as a regular here at Passporter, both as a columnist in the newsletter and here on the boards. We get to visit so many places we could never see for ourselves through your pictures and narration. I will probably never get to Europe, although DW and I wouldn't mind seeing England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Norway, it's really not a priority .... but who knows, maybe someday? I just really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful buildings and parks and all in your pictures!
Not to take anything away from the others here, because we all try to relay our own experiences, and I enjoy seeing those experiences through their eyes .... it's just that you have access to so many places that I think most of us will never get to see for ourselves, and this trip through Valencia is just one more example of that!

Thank you, Cheryl!

Sorry to be so long winded .
Now, as a driver, I know what you mean about all the traffic and the crowded roundabouts.... I'm glad it was you guys and not me ! The bus tour sounds fantastic, and definitely the way to see most of the sights!

[pamcarey]

Great pictures! Valencia looks like a beautiful city!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Kenny

OK, I don't want to get too mushy here. I've only been active here on the boards for about a year while waiting for our cruise, so I'm sure someone has said this or eluded to it before.
As I read through this post and studied the pictures, I just kept thinking how fortunate we are to have you as a regular here at Passporter, both as a columnist in the newsletter and here on the boards. We get to visit so many places we could never see for ourselves through your pictures and narration. I will probably never get to Europe, although DW and I wouldn't mind seeing England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Norway, it's really not a priority .... but who knows, maybe someday? I just really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful buildings and parks and all in your pictures!
Not to take anything away from the others here, because we all try to relay our own experiences, and I enjoy seeing those experiences through their eyes .... it's just that you have access to so many places that I think most of us will never get to see for ourselves, and this trip through Valencia is just one more example of that!

Thank you, Cheryl!

Sorry to be so long winded .
Now, as a driver, I know what you mean about all the traffic and the crowded roundabouts.... I'm glad it was you guys and not me ! The bus tour sounds fantastic, and definitely the way to see most of the sights!

Thank you so much. I love writing up all our adventures - I know we're very fortunate to travel so much and I love sharing where we go and what we see with people and it's good to know that they're enjoyed.

[emtpej]

That's another good thing about posting our trip reports here: you do not have to face purification in purgatory for insisting that your friends and family view your slides of your vacation! You can see them or not as you wish!

I love all of Cheryl's TRs! What a great writer and photographer!
Thank you!

[lauren-roxy]

Beautiful photos!!!

[christiejay]

Valencia seems like a lovely place. I agree, great system in the parking garage to let you know if any spaces are available. All the public spaces are beautiful, the squares and parks. Love the architectural details on all the buildings.

[disneybecky]

I've just caught up and at the pace you've been going I was beginning to wonder if I would! Stunning photos it is beautiful there!

[Artzkathy]

WOW!!! I finally caught up on your TR. Your photos are AMAZING!!! Sounds like you've had a wonderful time visiting all of the places and you've enjoyed many fine meals. Thank you for sharing your trip!

Kathy

[chezp]

Wednesday 17 September – part two: is this going to be worth the money?

Leaving the main part of the city centre behind us, we headed out to the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciencies – the city of the arts and sciences. It’s at the seaward end of the city and is made up of a series of stunning buildings, the ones we flew over on the way in on Monday. This is also located in the dried up river bed of the Rio Turia, the same dried up river bed that we saw earlier on the tour with parkland on it. The first part only opened in 1998 and now includes an opera house, aquarium, science museum, IMAX cinema and planetarium.



It took us about an hour to get to the Oceanografic stop and, when we did get there, I could already see huge lines to get into the place. At that point, I nearly said “forget it”, but we decided to go for it. As we stood in line and learnt that it would cost us 23 Euros each (about £19), I did wonder whether it would be worth the money or not. I have to be honest, we don’t have a great history with aquariums. Usually when we visit them, we find that they’re over priced and not worth the money and we’re usually in and out within a couple of hours. This place was way more expensive than any of the others we’d been to before and I knew that if it was like any of the others, we’d all be coming away disappointed. I’d be feeling particularly bad, especially as it was me that recommended the place, having read in a couple of different guidebooks just how amazing this place was.

The wait to get tickets probably took us about 40 minutes, but we did seem to keep moving relatively well. I think a lesson learnt here – definitely get here at opening time and preferably investigate booking online in advance to try and cut that wait out.

There was disappointment that we could only get one pensioner ticket, rather than two, as apparently Barb is too young to qualify! In Spain, you have to be 65 years old to be considered a pensioner, as opposed to at home, where you only need to be 60 years old. I think that quite tickled her!

Tickets finally purchased, it was into the entrance. Because of the long waits for tickets and the fact that only a few people are getting tickets at a time, you just literally walked straight into the complex, with a very quick X-ray of any bags you’re carrying.

We went into the entrance building and took the escalator down one level to the tropical section. I think at once we knew, just from seeing that area, that this was going to be something very special. The floor to ceiling glass viewing areas gave superb views of the tropical fish in there and there was a huge variety to be seen.


Putting food out for the fishies!



We then walked through the nearby tunnels and saw yet more varieties of fish all around us – above and on either side. It was just like some of the tunnels you get at SeaWorld and, as we walked along, the displays subtely changed to showcase fish from different parts of the world. It was almost so subtle that you couldn’t see the changes, as they were disguised by huge pieces of rock and coral. It was all very well done.



The next section was filled with jellyfish, sea horses and sea dragons. Usually some of these creatures are notoriously shy and hiding away, but not here. :




Then it was into a section about Californian and Japanese marine life and yet more wonderous sights, including some huge starfish. We’d never seen anything that size before.



Finally we surfaced into the middle of the park and it’s only when you get back up to ground level that the size of the place finally hits you. My goodness, it just seems to stretch on forever. There are about nine or ten different areas, all focusing on a different type of water from around the world, such as wetlands or the Mediterranean and all are numbered by a particular letter – for example, M for the Mediterranean. Despite that, the signs weren’t exactly great and we did struggle at times to find our way around, even with the help of the map they’d given us when we got our tickets. These were the sights that greeted us first:







Our first priority was to get some lunch, as breakfast was now a long time ago and we found our way to the closest restaurant – the Oceanos. At first, we walked into the café section that literally seemed to do drinks and just a few sandwiches, but we all agreed that we liked the look of the restaurant in the other half of the building. It did look as if it might be expensive, but when we took a look at the menu, it wasn’t too bad and the salads were reasonably priced, so we all went for those. Mine was a goat’s cheese one and it was excellent. Others had the Mediterranean or tuna salads and, as I commented halfway through the food, we didn’t hear a word out of each other, so I guess that means we all enjoyed it. For me, the goat’s cheese was complimented perfectly by what we think were truffles – they were certainly very sweet and went very well. The bill for the four of us came to 45 Euros (about £36). Not bad, considering you’re effectively in a theme park environment where they can charge you what they like.


Inside the restaurant. Sorry, no food photos – me bad!

Next: a rare sighting

[Kenny]

Quite the aquarium! Great update, Cheryl!

Hmmmmm "a rare sighting".... now what do you s'pose?
Hurry back!

[Colexis Mom]

The buildings are stunning.......such different architecture Glad you decided to go into the aquarium!! Great pictures!!

[Lemap760]

I'm really enjoying the tour of Spain. Can't wait to read and see more.