Walking Tour Valencia

Lucky for me a company called Tour Me Out, had a good think about their target market and host a walking tour at 12pm each day. Aiming for, I think, everyone who doesn't get out of bed early enough for the 10:30am tour. Which was good because there was loads of tours at 10:30am and they sort of took away from the town.

So I had breakfast / lunch in the Old Town before meeting the group for the walking tour. It was great! I learnt a lot about Valencia and the Spanish history.

Things we covered and learnt in the walking tour:

- The catholic cathedral in the square has a giant star of David on the front of it. Apparently this is because the Catholics ran out of money when building their Cathedral and asked the Jews for help. The Jews said no probs, but could you put the Star of David on it so that for years to come everyone will remember this partnership. It looks really cool too.

- There are two tall towers in the centre of town that are near each other. The story goes that way back in the day there was a priest and a nun who fell in love, but both were devoted to God, so decided to not pursue their love in faith that they would be together for eternity in the after life. But other priests found out about it and decided to kill her, they couldn’t have them both alive. But the guy said no, he didn’t want to live in a world where he lady love wasn’t there, so to kill him instead. The others said fine and did. Afterwards, apparently they realised how wrong it was what they did, so they built a tower in his honour. But the guy’s worst fear was realise, he was standing alone in the town without his ladylove. So when she did they built a tower for her, so now they both stand tall together, forever.

- We tried a milky drink that is made out of tiger beans. Apparently it’s had for breakfast with doughnuts and was a really big thing back in the day. It was considered for luxury. I tried it and threw it out I didn’t think it was that nice.

- The river in in Valencia doesn’t really exist. It used to be full and would overflow when it rained too much, flooding the town. When old mate dictator was alive he wanted to turn the river into a highway, but the people of Valencia fought back and after he died, the decision to turn the 11kms into a dry creek and parks, soccer fields, playgrounds etc. It’s really beautiful.

- The biggest thing I learnt was that Spain will still in a dictatorship up until 1975. And the only reason they are not in one is because the guy died and the person he left in charge, the King of Spain, just pretended to go along with him when the dictator was teaching him the ways of fascism. When the guy died the King declared that Spain would be a democratic country and is has been the same ever since.

It always blows my mind to see the Europe has really only kicked started into this great global community in the last 20 – 30 years. From the Berlin Wall, through to the Spanish dictator and rebuilding for WWII. It feels like it’s been like this for a long time. I suppose that’s why they deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize several years ago. All of these people, culture and races living so closely and peacefully. It’s a beautiful thing.

- There is a fountain in Plaza de Vergin. It has a giant sea king in the middle and 8 water maidens pouring water out of jugs. Each maiden represents one of the 8 irrigation lines in Valencia and one person is responsible for each one. Every Thursday at 12pm all of the persons responsible would be at their maiden and people who use their lines could come with their problems at receive a solution. Now days, with modern technology, it’s mainly for show then anything else, but it’s still something to see.

- The castle…

- We visited the Central market, which is a giant green market. Unlike in some other markets I’ve been to the food looked really good. Everything from fruit, vegetables, fresh seafood (some of it was still alive), and all of the cured meats you could think of. We got to sample some thanks to a partnership our guide has with one of the market stalls.Read more