Valencia

Welcome to Valencia
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The 3hr train from Barcelona to Valencia was quite pleasant with views of the beach and then heading inland, continual views of orchards and villas.  Upon arriving in Valencia we were immediately impressed as this is a beautiful city.  The train station is a gorgeous old building and is right in town.  Our hotel was only 5min away and was much better than expected and so we celebrated with mini-bar champagne on our balcony (we had just discovered how cheap alcohol is in Spain, even in hotel mini-bars...).

Valencia GP circuit, in shopping centre
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We had arrived in Valencia in the early evening so we wandered through the old city and fell in love with the place, it is full of beautiful buildings, really clean and just had a great atmosphere about it, it felt relaxed and not touristy at all.  We ended up in a large plaza were we joined the locals in sitting in 2 of the many cafe chairs set up and enjoyed a drink while looking out over the plaza, the fountain, church and watched kids playing, dogs walking and people just going about their Saturday evening.  We eventually moved to a restaurant for dinner (at about 10pm, everything is done late here..).

Sorry Mums and Dads, we're moving to Valencia

125 GP bike, in shopping centre
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The next day we got the bus out to the City of Arts and Sciences, this bizarre spaceage complex spread over a kilometre and filled with these super modern white buildings all surrounded by relaxing gardens and massive ponds.  We visited the aquarium and it was easily the best I've been to as it had great long tunnels filled with all sorts of fish, lots of english information, tanks for different climates, etc.

Overall we loved Valencia and we could have stayed much much longer, we even discussed moving there.... sigh...