Oh, Valencia-a-a-a

The title references a Decemberists song which I will now be incessantly humming in my head as I write this post, which is obviously about our next Spanish stop, way down south in Valencia. We booked another "hostel" that was really a homestay. This time the dude was named Roberto, there were no noisy Australians, just us, and he was cool enough to come pick us up at the train station. After being quite helpful explaining where all the main landmarks, nearby groceries, and cheap eats where, Roberto vanished to go do his thing as an air traffic controller, never to be seen again. So basically the same as our private apartment rentals.

The flat was OK with the one amazing feature being a private terrace, on the 8th floor to boot. Located a bit north of the town center, but Valencia is quite walkable. We unwound a bit and then headed out to explore the Old Town. Valencia is a cool medium sized city with a distinct flavor, even if that flavor is a bit of a mish-mash. Tons of history with walls, bridges, huge towers all dating from medieval times. Amazing street art on literally every surface in many blocks of the Old Town. This is mixed in with some of the most incredible modern architecture we've seen, which I'll get to shortly.

Street art in Valencia.

Sunset behind the medieval city gate.

Started off with the 10 minute walk into town and over the bridge spanning the Jardin de Turia, a former riverbed-turned-park that wraps around the city. We continued past the towering northern medieval town entranceway and into Old Town, stopping at IVAM (Institutia Valencia d'Art Modern), a contemporary art museum with some solid exhibits including Julio Gonzalez, a renowned cubist sculptor, and one area drawing parallels between art and fashion, with dresses and paintings/sculptures hung in the same rooms.

Continued through Old Town to the main tourist square with cathedrals, one more modern Spanish style with an angular tiled dome roof, connected to the older-looking Gothic one next door. Stuck our heads in past the rude tourists snapping photos with their flash on during the service, and sat in for a bit of Spanish preaching while we absorbed the elaborately painted ceiling and looming, gaudily decorated Virgin behind the pulpit.

Lobster paella taunting Molly.

Past horchaterias, cafes and paella examples stuck out in the street to entice passerby, and on to the newer part of the city, with marble walkways near the fountain square in the center and a wild mix of vegetation (apparently Valencia is the tree capital of Europe? Cacti, palm trees, evergreens, and deciduous all hanging out together). Molly said it looked a bit like Vegas, but I'm not sure Vegas has the same kind of baroque facades, tile roofs, or art deco flourishes. At least not as classy of ones.

Lobster gelato also taunting Molly.

After a meal of paella valenciana (made with peppers and chicken so Molly can enjoy it, too, and much better even at the low price point than the awful paella I had in San Sebastian), we returned to the cathedral square to get awesome gelato at a World-Record holding gelateria, something like 100 flavors ranging from the usual to delicious mix-ups like Twix or Ferrero Rocher, all the way to questionable savories like tomato, tortilla espanola, and lobster.

Molly battled a stomachache the next day as we strolled through the Jardin de Turia, a lovely park with hanging ivy strands filtering the sunlight, a crazy playground shaped like a fallen man, and several fountains. Our destination was the astounding architecture in the City of Arts and Sciences. Huge rounded buildings with points, covered in tiles, surrounded by reflection ponds and nearly all white except for one dark blue building. They house the science museum, aquarium, a concert hall, and something else I've forgotten, and resemble giant battle helmets melded with sea creatures.

City of Arts and Sciences.

In El Jardin de Turia.

From here we made our way to the beach (Valencia claims to have several, but they are basically just one very long beach). Spent a few hours sunbathing, reading, and taking a dip in the good-sized waves. As the sun dried us out, a dusty layer of salt formed on our skin. Molly felt better. Long walk back past the University, another set of cool buildings, and after a brief search settled on a crummy cafe for dinner because it was super cheap and we were starving. More ice cream and some pan de chocolate for the AM.

Where are we again?

Up on our final day and back into Old Town, where we swung by the large indoor market. Bustling fresh food stalls, so tempting, truly the way to get groceries. Picked up some tasty dried and salted veggies for our travels, then enjoyed some obligatory churros with our afternoon coffees on a sunny patio before stopping in the gorgeous modern post office with a huge stained glass dome ceiling. Back towards our flat, where we visited the Museu de Belles Artes, with a decent collection from the 1700s onward (also a good floor and a half of medieval art, 1400s+, which we breezed through). Nice overview of Valencia region painters including a Sorolla exhibit we enjoyed.

Down the street to Tu Menu, the cheap eats recommended by our host, which we had tried to grab the previous day only to discover they closed at 4:00pm (strange). Takeaway heaven: only 9 Euro for two servings of paella, a quarter roasted chicken with potatoes, chips, veggie and potato salad, ice cream, and a beer. We saved half for lunch on our upcoming travel day, enjoying the rest on the terrace, where it was finally cooling off. Valencia was quite hot even in mid-September. Walked off a bit of our dinner with a lengthy 2 hour park stroll to the other end of Turia, stopping at a pasteleria on the way home to get the morning's breakfast. Up early to catch the train to Barcelona, a city we were both looking forward to.

I'm sensing a theme here...

Cheap, tasty chow on the terrace.