Valencia: the new and the old

Valencia is a surprising city. In some ways it is the same as other Spanish towns - it was first settled by the Romans, then the Visigoths, then the Muslims, and then the Christians - and it has ruins showing most of the phases. Then it has super modern icons like the opera house, imax theatre, aquarium, and the Agora forum designed by Santiago Calatrava which are all seriously stunning buildings.

Valencia used to have a problem with its river, the Túria, in that the city used to flood regularly. To fix this back in the 1960s they diverted its flow away from the centre of town, now it flows around Valencia. It still causes issues as only last year it flooded again after a year’s worth of rain fell in just 8 hours killing over 200 people.

The old river bed has become a 10km long strip of welcome green space for the city. There are parks, bike trails, sports grounds, and much more. This is where you will find the opera house, IMAX theatre, aquarium, and Agora. See the photos but these are all beautiful buildings.

We then headed up to the old part of town. The old city walls have all been demolished except for two gates which were formerly used as prisons but have now been returned to their former state.

We visited the cathedral and some of the sights around the old town like the Silk Exchange and the central markets - Valencia was a centre for silk and textiles and one stage in its history.

Lunch was a pretty good seafood paella - the paella originated in Valencia so it is a bit of a specialty.

After a short siesta we headed out to see what we could see. First stop was the archaeological museum. Back in the time of Franco they wanted to extend the cathedral so they started digging and of course what happens whenever you dig a hole in a city that is over 2000 years old? You find ancient ruins. This is exactly what happened. They found footings and remains of Roman buildings from around the time of Christ. They also found bones and ceramics so the extension of the cathedral was halted.

Nowadays this is a great museum with walkways built over the ruins.

After checking these out we went for a climb to the top of the bell tower of the main cathedral - the highest point in town. The cathedral itself is really big and built over a 500 year period. Various bits were added and styles changed so it is a mix. Interestingly it has the Chapel of the Holy Grail which the Vatican has recognised as THE Holy Grail. A number of other churches claim to have the Holy Grail but this is the only one the Vatican has approved.

The bell tower is 207 steps to the top up a very tight spiral staircase. We made it up and the views were sensational.

After the bell tower we found the Ceramics Museum which was in a former noble man’s house. Really well done with lots of ceramics displayed as well as much of the house left in its original state.

It had been a busy day so we recovered with a bottle of wine in one of the many squares dotted around Valencia.Read more