Sep 10 – 12.
Three nights in Valencia gives us a chance to see the highlights. Originally in March 2020 we had planned to visit Valencia during their Las Fallas festival to celebrate arrival of spring.
Valencia is a city of about a million people, located on the east coast of spain, bordering the Mediterranean sea.
With just two days to see the city we filled in our first day from morning to night. We rented an apartment in the Ruzafa district which is close to many attractions. We ate an excellent restaurant on our first night called A Huevo (the egg). Their potatas brava sprinkled with parmesan and truffle mayonaise was amazing as was a baked egg dish with jamon. We tried the burrata salad, a pork canneloni and chicken meatballs with mole sauce. These five tapas dishes filled us up and total meal with drinks was under 100 euros for 4 of us. The only one that didn’t impress me was the pork canneloni – it felt more like an enchilada and was served last when we were almost full.
A self-guided bike tour of the tourist highlights was a great way to move around this bike friendly city to cover a lot of ground. The bike shop (Bike in Mind) near our apartment had a recommended bike ride that can be loaded into Google maps. They provided a rubber attachment for the handlebars to mount my phone. The premium city bikes were comfortable, easy to ride and cost only 12 euros for a full day rental. Off we went. Valencia is very flat and easy to ride a bike. There are dedicated bike lanes with their own traffic signals on all the major roads On Sunday, the cars and people traffic was minimal in the morning, until we got to the popular spots in the old city center. However side roads just behind the major attractions were completely empty. This bike day was so much more fun than the one we did in busy Barcelona. During the first half of our ride we passed by the bullfighting ring (Plaza de Toros), the Plaza del Ayuntamiento where the city hall is located, the central market which was closed on Sunday, Plaza de la Virgen where we peeked into the busy Catedral, and through the Torres de Serannos (old gate to the city).
The Torres de Serranos are one of two remaining parts of the old city walls. Crossing under the towers and across a main road brought us into the Turia Garden.
The Turia Garden is one of the largest urban parks in Spain. It runs through the city along nine kilometres of green space with many trees and multiple foot and bike paths as well as leisure and sports fields. The vast gardens are built on the former riverbed of the Turia River. After a devastating flood on 14 October 1957, the Turia’s course was diverted south of the city, leaving a huge tract of land that crosses the city from West to East, bordering the historical centre. The park is crossed by 18 bridges, and contains several large modern attractions – a zoo, aquarium, performance venues, childrens playgrounds, an art museum and a science museum.
After the bike ride, we finished up the afternoon at a local restaurant (La Trucha) for some of the famous Valencian paella with seafood which is cooked to order and served in the large cooking skillet.
The Palau de les Arts venue was hosting a free symphony concert in its modern concert hall that evening. I had found the tickets during my research planning for the trip. We were on the third row and had a great view of the orchestra. The program included music by composers Juan Jose Calomer, Georges Bizet and Antonin Dvorak, performed by the Orchestra of Valenciana Comunitat and directed by Alvaro Albiach.
The concert hall was on the 11th floor of the modern building and was reached by glass elevators. This was a beautiful end to a lovely day in Valencia with one exception. On this hot muggy evening we could not find a restaurant for a decent dinner at 10:30pm. This county is known for late night dining but we had to settle for VIP’s – a Spanish version of Denny’s – whose staff told us that dinners were taking a long time and all we should order were tapas – they filled the hole but not very well. Actually it was by far the worst meal on the whole trip and became the butt of many jokes.
