Until this morning I had only set foot on Spanish mainland four times, thrice in Barcelona and once in Madrid, all for less than 24 hours.
Now I can add another city to the list, Valencia, the town synonymous in my mind with naughty lyrics my dad taught me as a child, it was probably an Army thing, I bet Mum wasn't too pleased? But I digress. We walked the 4 km into town, preferring the get an orientation as we progressed, rather than take the shuttle bus like nearly everyone else. The direct route is not pleasant at first, but as we neared the centre the neighbourhoods picked up quite a lot.
On arriving we headed straight to the Cathederal as we understood it was the most important attraction, and wow what a surprise, this is one incredible site. Originally a Mosque since around C1BC, it was given a faith transplant in C12 to Catholicism, which it overtly is now, although professes to welcome people of any faith and sympathetic others, we found no reason to disprove this.
Indeed the experience was exceptionally good, from the very start, the whole 'enterprise' is a well run machine, and although it makes a charge, this is for the obligatory audio description without which an appreciation would be wasted, and for the entrance to the museum, probably worth the money anyway. Starting in a side-chapel we are treated to a great show which includes the ancient, the macabre, even more macabre, exquisite art, significant releics and many more. Finally we climb the adjacent tower, and 206 deep spiral steps later are above the city for great views all round. '
We decend, grab our elevenses and the head off for the nearest other church just round the corner, before wandering over to the UNESCO preserved market place, a C18 iron roofed building packed with the finest quality purveyors of fish, meat, hams, fruits, wines and so on, a visual, olfactory (and possibly tasty) delight. Across from here was the original Silk Exchange, the ancient equivalent of our a Stock Exchange, same principle, more polished wood and stone!
We headed up to the bohemian Carmen district thinking we could find lunch, but clearly they don't come out in the light is this part of the city. We bought the makings of a sandwich at Carrefour and headed to the amazing park area, created from the dry river-bed of the Turia river. Its an interesting story - after horrendous floods in 1957, the river was diverted to a drain, completely avoiding Valencia, thus creating the Jardin de Turia, a 10 km and 300+ foot wide park running right across the city, still with bridges spanning it, but with beautiful parkland, sports areas, a lido, performance spaces and miles of pathways. At the lower end just the new cultural area is a recent development borne straight from a science-fiction movie, of extraordinary proportions, and wild design. It's a collection of opera house, concert and theatre spaces, exhibition halls, and a sea-life centre marking a magnificent end to the old river bed.
After 12 miles we are once again pleased to be back home in time for a bit of sunshine and possibly a cocktail or two, before donning DJs for tonight's formal evening.
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