Valencia

Valencia was a place I was looking forward to for some time. My initial reaction is it met my expectations of a large small town. We walked across it multiple times in our wanderings enjoying the artful architecture mixed with gothic or older towers and walls. I am once again reminded about my lack of photo taking.

We stayed just outside of town, a short train ride from central Valencia, just 1.8 Euro and 10 mins away. Conveniently next door to a LIDL which we visited nearly daily (closed on Sundays, FYI).

Our first full day in Valencia we headed down to the central market (top left). The market is in the middle of the oldest part of town in a enormous hall adorned with bright color tiles and large central dome. As we walked through the stalls we heard fireworks reverberate somewhere nearby. After grabbing a few vegetables for dinner we took to the streets in attempts to discover the source of what we assumed was celebratory explosions. It was not long before we identified the smoke in the streets and followed the thickness to the main central square as we fought through throngs of people headed the other direction. We soon learned we missed the 2pm show by just a few minutes.

Curious about the excitement of a the clearly professional show in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon, our later internet research revealed the UNESCO World Heritage celebration known as Fallas (pronounced fi-yuhs) A month long celebration unique to Valencia where we happened to arrive on day 1 (March 2). Celebrations include a daily firecracker barrage in the central square. Thousands of people dutifully fill the square every day to take in the show. As we walked the various neighborhoods we saw numerous artful builds so large they shut down the block on which they are being constructed. You can see a poor photo of one on lower left. I will see if I can get some more photos of them and post them later. The weekends of Fallas involve street parties where large pots of Paella are cooked over open wood flames, seemingly everyone is in the streets celebrating the coming of spring. Apparently the biggest parties start on March 15, the day we headed to Alicante so I can't report on those parts but if the build up is any indication I can only imagine the excitement in the streets.

We enjoyed a brief time at the Valencia beach, easily reached from any part of town. It was a bit cool but a handful of people were enjoying the clear water and large clean beach.

In our Fallas research we learned of a free philharmonic show at the architecturally stunning Valencia Palace of the Arts. We planned our day to be there in time for the 7PM show, stopping at the fine art museum on the way. As we made our way to the entrance at the venue there appeared to be a protest of some kind by some musicians. We noticed but didn't think much of it and could not understand the Spanish words on the banner they were holding so we proceeding past excited for the upcoming show. We found great seats at the back center of the first section and settled in for the show. The crowd grew as showtime approached until about 5 minutes before scheduled start when an announcement was made in Spanish and about half the crowd began to gather their things and appeared to be leaving. I was confused why some were leaving and others seemingly were not until I found an usher I knew understood some English (I had requested bathroom directions earlier) who informed me that there was a protest and the show had been cancelled. The events outside seemed to be connected. We took some photos (the landscape on the header is from the top of the venue, artful top center is from the entrance) and made our way back to the festive streets of Valencia, a little disappointed about the cancellation but at least it was a free ticket so it didn't sting too badly.

In the end a fun town at arguably the most fun time of year for the town. Valencia was definitely worth the stop.