Valencia

The Oceanogràfic of Valencia Is the largest aquarium in Europe and it’ s only a 10 minute walk from our place. It was a lovely day, 23C, sunny and a bit windy, but perfect for visiting this indoor/outdoor oceanarium.

We arrived when it opened at 10 a.m. and stayed for almost 5 hours. We walked over 10 km and enjoyed every minute. Once again, we said that we were ‘jubilados’ (retired) and we got a great discount. Our tickets included visiting the Science Centre that we can do on another day. Thank heavens!

The complex is divided by zones according to species and marine ecosystems. Each one has been designed so you go in and out of different buildings connected by walkways through ponds and marshes. Really nice.

There was a hammerhead shark aquarium and several tanks with different species of jellyfish such as the so-called ‘fried egg’.

Then a Mediterranean area, a facility consisting of a total of nine aquariums where we could see about 7,400 species that live in the Mediterranean Sea.

Another area showed animals and birds in wetlands areas in an aviary inside of a sphere that was 26 meters high.

The ‘Temperate and Tropical’ area had aquariums connected to each other by the longest underwater tunnel in Europe. Sharks and fish of all kinds swam above and beside us.

The ‘Arctic and Antarctic’ area was cold and had the largest aquarium of the Oceanogràfic with penguins, walruses and beluga whales. We loved watching the belugas swimming in their large tanks and chittering as they surfaced.

The ‘Islands’ area was an open-air installation that looks after the care and recovery of Patagonian sea lions.

There was also a ‘Red Sea’ underwater auditorium.

But the most outstanding part of the Oceanogràfic and the one that we loved the most was the ‘Dolphinarium’, one of the largest in the world. It has five pools that house about 30 bottle-nosed dolphins, one general pool and 4 auxiliary pools for specific purposes such as reproduction, training or giving medical care to the animals that need it.

At 11:45, there was a dolphin show that was amazing. The rapport between the trainers and dolphins was so nice to see and it was obvious that the dolphins loved what they were doing. An excellent show!

We walked home, ate a very late lunch outside and enjoyed the sun. The Science Centre tomorrow.Read more