Today began by watching the Liberty of the Seas dock while having breakfast. It was amazing to see this little red pilot boat scoot around our hugh ship and seeing the Liberty whip around and wind up at a dock. Our excursion today was taking us on a tour of the city of Valencia, one of the oldest ports in Europe and the third largest city in Spain.
We boarded the bus and the guide discovered that half of us were English speaking and the other half were German so he really had his work cut out for him repeating everything twice .
Around 11:00 we drove into the new, more modern Valencia. Valencia's Turia River kept flooding the city so they rerouted the river to flow south of the city in the 70's and made the area where the river once flowed into what they call a green land...parks, soccer fields, and lots of modern architectures....Imax Theater, Science Museum, Modern Art Museum, Oceanographic Marine Park and Aquarium, Opera House, Planetarium...The buildings have some of the most stunning futuristic architecture created by Valencia's own architect, Santiago Calatrava.
This is some of the most modern architecture that we have ever seen.
It almost looks space age!
Next we walked across the street to the Fallas Museum. Every year around March 12-19th, one of the most popular fiestas in all of Spain occurs called the Las Fallas. The festival begins with parades, bullfights, dancing in the street and fireworks. Each barrio creates one enormous paper mache figure(s) of anyone well known. It is judged with only one of the three hundred and fifty becoming the winner. Each winner has been displayed in this museum since 1930. The rest of the figures are burned simultaneousely on the last night of the festival and legend has it that the last one to go out will have good luck through the year for the neighbourhood that constructed it. This must be a sight!
These are examples of the paper mache figures that have won in the Las Fallas Festivals in the past.
We boarded the buses and said farwell to the modern Valencia and traveled about ten minutes into the historic or old Valencia. We passed the Plaza de Toros, one of Spain's largest bull rings. Bull fighting is one of the nation's oldest and most deeply ingrained traditions. It is considered an art rather than a sport. This area has to be the heart beat of the city because people were everywhere. Little combo bands were playing music as well as an accordian player. People were everywhere... eating paella (a rice dish with chicken and seafood) and tappas on sidewalk cafes, shopping in the markets, and drinking a beer and eating olives. It was a lot of fun to watch it all with the European style apartments reaching 4 or 5 levels to the sky above the places of business.
Beer and Olives, yucky...yucky...yucky!
The Bull Fighting Ring, Plaza de Toros
Right in the middle of this was the Silk Market, a building that looked every inch a castle with it's turreted roof founded in 1483. Around the 16th and 17th century, this was the place where silk and textile products were made. (And I thought silk only came from the orient.) Its interior resembles a church and has large columns and ornately carved doorways. The merchants in Valencia must have been wealthy because this structure certainly had an impressive facade. It is one of the finest examples of classic Gothic architecture to be found in Europe.
The Silk Market
Inside the Silk Market...really high ceilings.
This looks like a castle, but it is part of the Silk Market.
From here we walked down the street to the Plaza del Mercado, hugh indoor market. The inside looked more like a church than a market with its high domed ceiling, stained glass windows and massive wood carved doorways. If you worship food then this is your own Cathedral, the largest indoor market in Europe with over 8000 square meters of space offering every type of fish , meat, fruit,and vegetable that you can imagine. We saw octopus, live eel, and the hugh famous Spanish hams that take two years to cure. It had plenty of delicacies strange and familar, and it was busy, busy, busy.
Inside the Plaza del Mercado, the largest indoor market in Spain.
Spain is known for their hams that take two years to cure.
For a minute we thought we were home!
Walking down a few narrow alleys we came to the Valencia Medieval Cathedral, right in the center of the city. It dates back to the 13th century and was built on the original site of a Roman Temple. The interior styles reflect that of Roman, Gothic and Baroque. Larry and I payed 4 euros and climbed the steep, steep octagonal bell tour built in the 1300's. It rises over 160 feet into the sky and has the largest bell weighing over 10 tons. Climbing the tower afforded us a beautiful view of the city and a chance to regain our breath. Whew!!!!
Valencia Medival Cathedral
The tower we climbed
That is one big bell!
One of the fantastic views from the top of the bell tower.
On the way back to the bus, we saw one of the two entrances of the city gates that remain from the original wall that at one time surrounded the city. It was impressive to see that it was in excellent condition. We wondered why they had destroyed the wall leaving only this entrance. It looked like something that you would see in a movies, except it was the real thing. I was amazed.
One of the two remaining originial gates that opened to the old city of Valencia.
Although Valencia is famous for its magnificent orange groves (we did wee orange and lemon trees lining the streets) and the beauty of its long beaches, we did not have a chance to see them... Maybe next time. We returned to the ship in time to board and wave farewell to one great city. Tonight we must pack and get ready for the next phase of our trip....Two days of touring Barcelona, a flight to Vienna, Austria, and then a train ride to Budapest, Hungary. We can hardly wait for the next part of our adventure to begin.
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