Valencia in February Day 2

We were undecided the evening before about what to do on our second day in Valencia. We are slow travellers and we knew that two full days in Valencia would not be enough by any means. But these are the last two days of a 34-day trip to Spain and I had decided not to squeeze any more out of our budget. Also because Valencia may be less popular and acclaimed than Sevilla and Madrid, but decent accommodation seemed to be perhaps more expensive. By the end of the first day, we’ve seen enough of the city to understand that since it is in a convenient location for combining a longer stay with a trip by car to visit some places that have long been on my agenda inland, we will be back.

So, we decide to leave City of Arts and Sciences and the Oceanographic Aquarium for a future trip when we’ll have time to do it justice. Instead we take line 7 of the underground to Maritim, where we change to line 8 to arrive to Neptu, as near to the beach as we can get. It’s very quiet by the beach and I can see why people say it’s better to stay in the city than there but the beach itself is very nice – enormous – deep in the sense there’s a long walk on the sand between the paseo and the actual shore, but the sea seems blue, transparent and shallow and the sand is pale golden and clean. We walk as far as Playa la Malvarrosa and decide we like it. 

From there we get the tram back into the centre of Valencia, aiming for Museu de Belles Arts de València which is free. There's a very interesting temporary exhibiton of paintings by Rosario de Velasco.

The medieval section is superb and that’s our favourite time span so we enjoy it very much, although, it’s getting on for lunchtime, despite crunching on a few picos.

It’s our last day, so sitting at a table being served is warranted. We choose Saona Vivers. To go there we walk through Jardines del Real y de los Viveros. Very nice indeed and with several things we will need to come back and see. On the other side we are in the University area, wide clean streets, and it’s sunny.

We haven’t made a reservation but there’s a table outside. We have the menu del dia. Excellent. Starters – one tempura, one gyoza (Japanese ravioli which seem popular in Spain at the moment), both excellent, then one chicken with a sauce – ok and one pork ribs of Iberico which is absolutely delicious – slightly glazed and it falls off the bone. Memorable. For dessert a creamy lime cheesecake sort of thing for me and banana banoffee for Andrea. We spend just under 40 euros and are very satisfied. No longer hungry and thirsty we return to the gardens, stroll around a little and then go back to Museu de Belles Arts to visit the other sections, making do with a coffee from the machine to save time. 

While we are there it rains a little but has stopped by the time we come out. We head back across the bridge Pont de la Trinitat and towards the cathedral and I realise that is the right side of Valencia to start a visit – cleaner, brighter, tidier, very pleasant.

It's getting late and we need to pack up for an early start the next day, so after a detour to some shops in the main shopping area, which we are too tired to do justice to, we plod back to our apartment. We will return to Valencia, all being well, (but in an apartment nearer to the centre).