Valencia in February Day 1

On Tuesday morning we get up early and are in Plaza de la Reina before nine o’clock. It’s a nice oblong shaped square with the very attractive cathedral at the end of it. Access is free to the cathedral until about 10.30, so we go in. There’s nobody around, except some men taking in a statue and some others at the far end working on restoring the door, creating quite a lot of noise and a smell of glue. Nevertheless we can take our time exploring. The angels in the vault are striking and the dome is especially interesting. We look at some of the paintings. When we come out, we walk all around the outside. There are three portals to go into the cathedral, one is Gothic, one Romanic and one Baroque.

Plaza de la Virgen is also a nice square although the fountain representing the Rio/God Turia (the eight girls with amphorae filled with water symbolize the 8 main canals that branch off from the river to irrigate the surrounding countryside) is being renovated. Next to the cathedral and on one side of this square is the Real Basilica of the Virgen de los Desamparados, mostly Baroque in style with a painted dome.

We double back to Plaza Reina, have a look at Plaza Redonda which is still closed up, are briefly tempted by the Horchatería Santa Catalina but are mainly heading for the Mercado central which is one of the most attractive I’ve seen. It’s also still a market selling food, not just a gastronomic area.

Opposite, more or less, is La Lonja de la seda, a Unesco world heritage site so we go in just after it opens in the hope of finding the large room empty of people. There are no visitors yet but on the left there are workers setting up a stage. In the adjacent room we sit and watch the video about the building. This is advisable. It’s about ten minutes, so not too long and showed us some aspects of the building we would otherwise have missed. Apart from the transaction room with twisted columns, there’s a small chapel, the other room where you see the video, an upstairs room with an ornate carved gold gilded ceiling, a cellar and the small courtyard of orange trees. It’s also worth looking at the stone carvings outside. This was all more interesting than I expected.

When we come out we go as far as Torre Serranos, impressive but we are both feeling hungry which is distracting us. Having seen there’s nowhere better, we go to Horchatería Santa Catalina for hot chocolate and churros. Good, as usual and a nice environment. We come out fortified and continue towards Barrio del Carmen. It’s ok, but nothing irresistible, and once again too much graffiti, sometimes just writing which ruins a whole wall. We investigate a couple of places for lunch but I can’t get up any great enthusiasm, the outside is grimy, however nice it might be inside – it’s still closed so we can’t check. Anyway the hot chocolate has given us some energy so we go to Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, a spectacular building which also houses Museo Nacional de Cerámica y de las Artes Suntuarias González Martí. It’s a casa-museo and well worth the visit – the kitchen on the top floor is also interesting and unexpected and the carriage is one of the most sumptuous I’ve ever seen and while not as dense in objects the Palacio reminds us of Museo Cerralbo in Madrid.

It's time for lunch but we can’t agree on anything except that we’re hungry, like, immediately, and in Valencia we should at least eat Paella (not our favourite and I can only eat a few spoonfuls of rice for some reason).  Arrocería Ricepaella Take Away solves the problem. Portions are more than enough and I find a square with a bench in the sun, a little better than the one just outside, for our snack.

One extreme to the other, for coffee we go to Cafè de las Horas, where most people go for Agua de Valencia, a cocktail based on orange juice, white wine, gin and vodka. But the coffee is very good and we are not the only ones drinking coffee. Thus revived we go to the famous Jardines de Turia – the river Turia was diverted and the river bed is now an enormous green area and park through the city right down to the City of Arts and Sciences and the Oceanographic Aquarium. We look at the flower-covered bridge, walk a little in the park, admire the Roman bridge but now we are flagging, so sit in the sun for a while before the long walk back to the apartment. 18 kilometers today!