Into the big city of Valencia, Spain

Valencia is a big port city on the east coast of Spain. It's actually a bigger city than I thought it was, with a population of just under 800,000.

Unfortunately the coast of Spain has a reputation for motorhomes and camper vans getting broken into, so you have to be cautious about where you leave them. We have read lots of reviews where people have had problems, so we've decided to take the cautious approach and pay for secure parking when we visit cities.

With regards to Valencia, there is a heavy truck parking area near the port on the southern outskirts. It's just a big noisy parking lot, but there are lots of cameras and security and it costs €12 ($17.50 CAD, $12.75 USD) for 24 hours. 

But the big draw for someone visiting the city in a motorhome is that the local bus takes you right to the center from here for €1.50 ($2.20 CAD, $1.60 USD) cash per person.

So we got Max parked up with all the big trucks and hopped on the bus. 25 minutes later we were in the central area.

Valencia City Hall.

City hall is open to the public.

Yes, there were actually quite a few people. 

Just not in this photo.

The balcony is open to the public as well.

Looking down, there is some kind of protest going on.

The ballroom, built in 1924.

Council chambers.

Valencia Train Station.

It's an impressive building.

Inside the station.

Old clock.

The main pedestrian area.

There is a lot of fantastic architecture in Valencia.

The main post office.

Lots of palm trees.

It was free to go into the Church of San Juan de la Cruz.

The outside was nothing special, but the inside was different.

The facade of the Ceramics Museum is amazing.

Click the photo to zoom in, then click again to see the detail.

Nativity scene outside the cathedral.

Model of the cathedral.

But they charge €5.50 to see the inside, so we took a pass on that.

We liked this side entrance door though.

At noon, every Thursday, there is an event that has been taking place here for 1,000 years. It just happened to be Thursday, so we went over to see what it was all about.

A crowd is gathering.

The judges of the water tribunal.

To us, it was a kind of a non event and it was all over in about ten minutes! If you're really interested, you can read more about it here.

We went inside the basilica. The ceiling was interesting.

Statue in the square.

We had an early breakfast, so we were getting hungry around noon. I had already checked out the restaurant reviews so I knew where we wanted to go. Ruth never had her birthday meal out, and she wanted some authentic Valencian paella. So I found this little hole in the wall restaurant operated by a sweet woman who is both waitress and chef. The name of the restaurant is Baobab and the GPS coordinates are 39.476182, -0.372849

Traditional Valencian chicken paella for two.

It was a really nice meal. With three glasses of wine (Ruth had two... it was her birthday meal!), the total bill for the two of us was €31 ($44 CAD, $33 USD). And that was one of the less expensive restaurants. Eating out in Valencia is not cheap. But it was fun, and the food was very good.

I would like to go back to that little restaurant another time and try some of her other dishes.

The big central market.

We love going to the market, and the Valencia central market is huge. So many different foods.  The seafood section is huge and reminded us of the big seafood market in Yeosu, South Korea that we saw in 2014.

Deli meat and cheese.

Very expensive Iberian ham.

Valencia central market.

They had a model Christmas display that is really well done.

So many different types of shellfish.

And other things.

Live eels anyone?

And of course lots of different produce.

Interesting mural.

From el centro, we walked for a while in the riverbed park. The original river was diverted after a bad flood in 1957. Now, the riverbed is full of parks and gardens.

You know you're in an area with decent weather when you start seeing a lot of palm trees!

Some of the bridges over what was the river are very old.

Parakeets up in the trees.

Yes, this is called the Bridge of Flowers.

Riverbed park goes for about 8 kms (5 miles).

We continued on down the riverbed until we got to the big street called Gran Via del Marques del Turia. This boulevard contains a couple of interesting architecture buildings that Ruth wanted to see.

Edificio Xapa.

Casa Ortega (1906).

Casa Jueva.

The main boulevard.

Then we headed down to the more modern part of town. Where the science museum and ocean museum and various conference centers are located.

Interesting.

In the riverbed park is the giant from Gullivers travels

He is a big playground for the kids.

Modern apartment buildings.

The Palace of the Arts.

Not many people around.

Science Museum on the left, and conference center on the right.

Another view of the Palace of the Arts.

More modern apartments.

Inside the Arboretum.

The Science Museum.

Ruth, trying not to get wet.

By this point, we were more than halfway back to Max, so in true Kevin and Ruth style, we decided we might as well walk the whole way. We stopped in to pick up a couple of things at a big Carrefour grocery store. 

Red wine, for €0.99 ($1.44 CAD, $1.05 USD) per bottle.

We only bought one bottle because you want to try it first to see if it's drinkable. We have had some cheap wines that are better than others, but this stuff was perfectly drinkable red wine! We will be buying more if we come across it again.

Another modern apartment.

And there's Max, waiting for us patiently with all of his big friends.

What a day we had. Probably walked 15 kms (9 miles) or so.

We decided to stay for the night. By this point in was almost 5:00pm and it would be getting dark soon. Surprisingly, it wasn't that noisy of a night, but it did start getting busy by 7:00am.

You could easily do a week in Valencia. There is so much to see. But one day was enough for us for now and we are headed back to the countryside.

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