A bit of a different blog this week as I’m covering just our day trip to Valencia, mentioned in my last blog where we stayed at Benicassim. As my regular readers will know I’m not a city break fan, however, I’d been told by many people that Valencia was not to be missed if we were passing that way, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.
The city has three main attractions from my perspective; the traditional city with its grand architectural buildings and over 2,000 years of history, the futuristically built ‘City of Arts and Science’ housing the Oceanografic & Science Museum, and the beautiful sandy beaches adorned by the palm-lined promenade. All of these are interlinked by The Turia Gardens, the park in the river; more about that later. As we were only there for a day it was clearly not enough to cover all of the above, so we chose to visit the traditional city area and park and I’ll cover what we saw, saving the others, and lots of the city, for another visit.
City of Valencia
Camping Bonterra Resort run regular bus trips to Valencia (you can catch the public bus in Benicassim too), so we paid 18 euros each and hopped on the luxury coach to the city, taking approximately 50 minutes each way. The coach dropped us right outside the Serranos Towers which are part of the medieval city walls, many of which were demolished in 1865 to provide expansion room for the city. If you climb to the top, they offer views across Valencia and the river; we didn’t climb up on the way in with a plan we would do it at the end but that never happened due to a lot of mileage and heat during the day!
We headed up with the crowds to Valencia Cathedral, home to The Holy Chalice, but the queue to get in was already snaked around the building and we had plenty more to see so we viewed from the outside. It is a wonderful building just from the outside, and what I saw from the doorway looked worthy of a visit on a less crowded day. I did manage to get my head around the door of San Nicolas de Bari Church though, built in 1242 it has a beautifully ornate ceiling that has been named the Valencian ‘Sistine Chapel’. Well worth a visit if you have plenty of time, but we were whistlestop touring so onwards we marched.
Our next stop was the Font de la Placa de l’Ajuntament, a fabulous fountain in the centre of what was my favourite square in the city due to the stunning architecture that surrounds it, and the beautiful city hall (Ajuntament de Valencia). There was a small flower market and some street entertainment too, which made for a lovely atmosphere to sit and enjoy an ice-cream in a spacious and less crowded area. There was an array of unusual flavours at the stall, I chose carrot cake flavour, it was scrummy!
Our next stop was the Mercat Central de Valencia, one of many superb markets in the city, to view its wares and admire the ornate architectural structure of the building. You literally won’t know where to look in here, are the stalls the main feature or is it the roof? Don’t forget to look up as you wander through the array of produce, or you’ll miss some amazing features.
Unfortunately, much to my dismay, we couldn’t buy any of the amazing seafood on offer that is so artistically displayed, as it was too hot to take back on a bus, and the oyster bar in the centre was full. I bought a refreshing fresh fruit slush and some picnic fodder to take to the park instead. Check out the hanging hams, shark heads and live eels in the pics, you don’t see many of those on market stalls in Yorkshire!
Last stop on the way to the park was to see the Placa de Bous (bullring) by the train station (another architectural masterpiece). I don’t condone this type of sport, but I appreciate the history behind it for the Spanish. It is an impressive building from the outside, built in the mid 1800’s, it is 17.65 metres high, and the ring is 52 metres in diameter, built on four levels with decorative brick arches. They still host events here but definitely not something I would be interested in watching.
The Turia Gardens
In 1957, the Turia River burst its banks and flooded the city, a tragic event that changed the city of Valencia forever. Out of the old riverbed sprung the Turia Garden, a vast municipal urban park that is used by locals and tourists to escape the high-rise apartment blocks. The space is unusually built, as it feels like you are below ground as it is literally on the old riverbed set beneath the road network, but you have so much fresh air and greenery, and most of all you don’t hear the traffic of the city!
We dropped down at the towers and found a bench to eat our picnic. We’d decided the food in the market was just too nice to turn away from, rather than eat in one of the over-priced and under-rated cafés in the city centre. In all honesty, 5 hours of tramping around in 25-degree heat with crowds of people was enough for me as a non-city lover, so it was a welcome relief to sit and people watch for a while in the park under the shade of the trees. Unfortunately, I only took one photograph of the park, sorry! I've put some extras of the beautiful city architecture as I had so many.
Another unusual feature of this green space is that it has three separate paths/tracks. One is for walkers and strollers, one for runners, and a final one for bikes/scooters. I thought that was ingeniousness at its best! You can hire e-bikes/scooters just by the tower entrance to the city, then travel through the Turia Gardens right to the science park, approximately 2.5 miles. The park more or less ends at this point, but you can walk/bus/cycle the 2 miles to the seafront of Playa de las Arenas, where you leave the city behind for the seaside.
Where We Ate/Stayed
At this point I would normally tell you where we ate and stayed, however, we decided to buy from the market and street vendors who sold excellent produce rather than eat in a café as the heat was very oppressive inside the main city area, very cloudy but hot. So, I won’t be recommending anywhere, other than buy a picnic and utilise the amazing green space. We had drinks at a couple of bars around the city, the one just inside the towers sold lovely fresh juice, and beer of course!
If you read my previous blog, you’ll know we stayed at Camping Bonterra Resort in Benicassim. I can’t recommend this place enough; an excellent campsite open all year round. Check out that blog for further information.
Summary
We barely scratched the surface of Valencia, a beautiful city which offers something for everyone. I’d recommend a couple of days in the city, one at the science park and then a couple of days rest to recover! Overall, in one day we covered just over 11 miles so you might want to spread it out a bit more than we did. It is very worthy of a visit, despite me not being a city lover, and I will return again specifically to visit the science park.
Enough waffle for this week, if you have been to the area, please drop me a comment on the blog letting me know what you thought of it. If you enjoy reading my blogs, please like and subscribe to my website so you get notified when the next blog is published. It’s completely free, I don’t fill your inbox with unwanted spam, and it really means the world to me to know my experience has helped someone else.
Happy Travels
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