We selected Valencia as a travel destination on the basis that we loved eating paella and felt the need to seek out its origins. Back in Australia we had only associated Valencia with oranges (great when used in sangria) but on our travels we had heard good things about this Mediterranean city. We had tasted different types of paella on trips to Madrid, Barcelona and even Cafe Brood in London's Borough Market; but the original home of paella excelled over all others and ensured that we thoroughly enjoyed our gastronomic weekend away.
Valencia City Tourist Card
Our flight from London arrived at Valencia Airport around 10am in the morning and we decided that the most stress free method of sightseeing would involve purchasing the 48 hour Valencia City Tourist Card. This package included free public transport, including the airport-city route and free/discounted entry into a number of historic attractions.
Our advice to future travelers on the use of similar cards and getting value out of their purchase would be to do plenty of research online beforehand. Create a list of attractions offered by the card and compare the cost versus buying a separate 'full day' public transport ticket plus attraction entry ticket. We tend to seek out cards that offer 'free' city bus tours, at least two cultural activities of interest, and the shuttle services to/from the airport. City cards almost always come with a good map highlighting key tourist sites including restaurant and shopping districts.
Petit Palace Bristol Hotel
The airport metro took us to Colon station, a short 8 minute walk away from our hotel - Petit Palace Bristol. We had stayed at other hotels in this chain before and it was well located in the middle of Ciutat Vella (Old Town) and close to the Mercado (market).
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| Interesting artwork above our bed in the hotel room |
Our hotel room had a balcony that overlooked the orange tree lined streets and towers of the Valencia Cathedral and the city gates. As the weather was quite mild, we didn't have much use for the balcony but during the scorching summer months - a balcony and rooftop terrace would become a must-have criteria for hotel selection.
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| View from the balcony of our hotel room |
Ceramics Museum
Walking around the Old Town, we passed by the beautifully decorated Ceramics Museum with the dramatic artwork of the entrance completed in the 1700s.
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| Top of the entrance, photos below show the side panels |
Valencia Oranges
During our trip to
Seville last Easter we had walked through many boulevards of blossoming orange trees. On this trip to Valencia, the trees were bursting with fruit and perhaps hazardous to stand underneath on a windy day.
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| One of the many orange trees near our hotel |
Valencia Mercado
Looking for something to eat for lunch, we ended up at the Central Market (Mercado), housed in a decorated timber building and full of people. Less tourist oriented than La Boqueria in Barcelona, it still had an amazing range of plump Serrano hams, olives and cheese available for purchase. We bought a small packet of ham and some skewers of olives that we ate standing street-food style (to the amusement of other pedestrians) around the corner from the market.
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| Entrance to the Mercado |
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| Hams for sale |
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| Many different types of olives to chose from |
Open plazas
Valencia has a famous annual festival known as 'Las Fallas' where Spring is welcomed in with spectacular fires, pyrotechnics and giant paper-mache figures satirizing politicians and other celebrities. We arrived the weekend after the festival, meaning that accommodation prices had gone back to normal, the plazas and other open spaces in the city were uncrowded and we didn't need to be on guard to dodge exploding firecrackers.
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| Post Las Fallas cafe life |
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| One of the festival figures |
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| Festival decorations being packed away for another year |
Restaurant Taberna la purisima
For lunch, we walked into a random restaurant - Taberna la purisima that was brimming with patrons and not long after we determined the reason for its popularity. On offer was a fantastic value 12 euro three course set menu that came with beer. Written only in Spanish, our friendly waiter translated all the options into English. Olie ate the paella, baked eggplant and creme caramel; whilst Mei ate a bean soup, a chunky roasted pork rib and fresh fruit.
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| Traditional paella with rabbit |
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| Bean soup |
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| Bbq pork rib |
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| Roasted aubergine |
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| Creme Caramel |
Santa Catalina Church and Tower
Walking through the Old Town, we came across one of the oldest Churches in Valencia - Santa Catalina Church and Tower that had been built over the site of a mosque. The building was fascinating not only for the tower, but one of the walls was constructed using pieces of an older building and its classical stone decorations.
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| Rose window of Santa Catalina Church |
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| Part of the wall was made using bits of an older building |
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| The Tower |
Plaça Redona
If you search for Valencia on Google Earth, from the bird's eye view of the city, you will see two round structures - one is the Bullring, the other is Placa Redona. Recently renovated, the buildings (originally built in 1840) surround a central fountain and is the former site of the fish market.
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| Placa Redona fountain |
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| Close-up of the artwork on the fountain |
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| Plaza de Toros - Bullring |
Placa de la Reina
Around the corner from Placa Redona, we arrived at the main square of the Old Town - Placa de la Reina. This area was popular with tourists due to the location of the Cathedral, several bus stops, public park (good for siestas) and several ice-cream stalls.
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| Placa de la Reina |
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| Always time for an ice-cream |
Valencia Cathedral
Our Valencia tourist card gave us a discount on the entry fee for the Valencia Cathedral. There is free entry via the left door that gives you access into the building if you just want a quick look inside. However for access to all the artwork, museum and Holy Chalice, enter from the right door where you will be given a guided map and can hire an audio guide.
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| Valencia Cathedral and Bell Tower (“Micalet”) |
The Cathedral had been built on the site of a Roman temple that was later converted into a mosque. The interior includes Gothic rib vault archways and a central passageway that leads to a richly decorated altar.
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| Gothic architecture facing the altar |
The dome behind the altar is richly decorated in paintings that date back to the 15th century, commissioned by Bishop Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI). The paintings of the angels have recently been restored after being re-discovered in 2004 when the 17th century lower dome was removed.
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| Amazing detail of the altar and dome |
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| The central dome, up to 40 meters high |
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| Stained glass windows |
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| Many paintings decorate the chapel walls |
The audio guide explained the dedication of the many small chapels inside the Cathedral. We saw two decorated reliquaries (boxes for holding relics) that contained the bones of martyred saints. The relics attracted pilgrims to visit the great Cathedrals of Europe and were sought out in times of famine, war and plague.
Holy Chalice
The most famous artifact held by the Cathedral is the 'Holy Chalice' - a cup of polished dark brown agate stone, decorated in later time period with jewels and artwork. Supported by archaeological fact and historical documents, many believe that this is the cup used by Jesus in the last Supper for the Eucharist. The cup was taken to Rome by Saint Peter and was kept there up to the time of Saint Sixtus II. The cup was then hidden, re-emerging in 1399 when it was given to the King of Aragon and passed onto Valencia Cathedral in 1437. The cup has been used by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI during their visits to Valencia.
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| The Holy Chalice |
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| The Holy Chalice in the Old Chapter House |
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| Stained glass window in the Old Chapter House |
Torres de Serranos
In the afternoon, we headed towards the old city gates - Torres de Serranos. Built in the 14th century, entry to the Towers was complementary using the Valencia card and it gave us a great view of the city including the Turia Gardens - the former pathway of the Turia River that was redirected after the floods of 1957.
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| Looking up at the Towers |
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| On top of the Towers |
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| Turia Gardens and the original stone bridges that crossed the former river |
Torres de Quart
On the other side of the city, the other city gate - Torres de Quart was built in the 15th century and contains artillery scars from the Spanish War of Independence. Our city card gave us the opportunity to climb these towers, however the gates were shut when we arrived and it would have provided us with similar views over the city.
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| Torres de Quart |
Old Town Architecture
We enjoyed walking around the Old Town as it contained a rich collection of interesting architecture in the street lamp designs, the animal gargoyles on churches, interesting alleyways with street art and pairs of parrots seeking out homes in the stonework.
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| A stone gargoyle |
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| Old style gas street lighting |
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| Parrots nesting in the stonework |
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| Interesting lane-ways |
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| Graffiti artwork |
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| Street art covering the entire side of a building |
Sol i Lluna - Bar
Before we headed out to dinner, we walked over to a popular street-side bar in the Old Town - Sol i Lluna for a pre-dinner drink of Spanish wine and grilled sausages.
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| The 'Sun and Moon' bar |
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| Enjoying a glass of Spanish red |
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| Grilled sausages |
Restaurante La Riua
As eating paella was one of our objectives of visiting Valencia, we did our research on TripAdvisor for the best paella places to eat within the Old Town - Restaurante La Riua. A number of the recommended restaurants were outside central Valencia but as we were only staying for the weekend we decided to keep our dinner reservations local - particularly convenient for getting home if we were going to drink more red wine.
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| Collection of plates |
The restaurant had won a number of awards and these were proudly displayed on the wall alongside a collection of ceramic plates and photos of the owners family, one member came around and spoke to us during dinner.
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| Entree of grilled peppers |
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| Grilled prawns on a bed of salt |
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| Valencia paella |
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| Ice cream for dessert |
Horchatería el Siglo
The next morning we wanted to try a traditional breakfast as an alternative to the buffet cereal, eggs and bacon normally provided by the hotel. We visited Horchateria el Siglo, a small cafe that specializes in horchata (a drink made from tigernuts) and churros.
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| The place for a traditional breakfast |
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| Olie with his glass of horchata and churros |
Jardín del Turia (Turia Gardens)
After spending all of the first day in the Old Town, it was time for us to venture further out towards the Port. We started off our journey by taking a bus, however as the weather looked nice we decided to walk in the Turia Gardens and see the sculptures, fountains and flowers.
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| Fountains in the gardens |
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| Soaking up the March sunshine |
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| A park with interesting sculptures |
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| One of the many rose bushes in the park |
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias
The Turia Gardens ends at an area known as Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) - an entertainment and cultural area for the city, best known for its stunning architecture and the Oceanogràfic - the largest aquarium in Europe.
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| Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia - the Opera House |
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| Hemisfèric - an Imax Theatre |
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| L'Umbracle on the right |
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| The Agora |
Valencia Beach
Further on, we made it to the beach front where we discovered an area full of tourists, small cafes and people having fun in the sand even through the temperature was quite mild. We stopped off at a small restaurant that had a pet parrot that spoke a few words, for fried squid and a jug of sangria.
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| Old Government Building |
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| Esplanade (Passage de Neptune) at Valencia Beach |
La Pepica
The most popular restaurant on the Passage de Neptune was La Pepica. Ranked highly on Tripadvisor and with a celebrity photo-board including Ernest Hemingway, it soon became top of our list for another paella eating session - where we tried the lobster version washed down with champagne sangria.
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| La Pepica - get there as soon as it opens to avoid the queues |
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| Photo-board of famous faces |
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| Lobster paella |
Valencia History Museum
After a few hours hanging around the beach, we decided to get one last 'cultural' activity done before we headed home. However, we were caught out by the early closure times of most museums on a Sunday and by the time we arrived at the Valencia History Museum, it was closed for the day.
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| Closed Valencia History Museum |
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| Park near the museum |
Mahou sports bar
We headed back to the Old Town, picked up our bags from the hotel and caught the train to the airport where we relaxed at Mahou sports bar with a glass of house beer before catching our flight back home to London.
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