Valencia

Left: The Science Museum. Right: the new bridge being built over the dried up River Turia
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Typical of the large cities we had visited throughout Europe, Valencia has a central old town core ringed by the remains of fortifications and watch towers. Outside of this is the usual urban sprawl of any European city. What is not typical about the city however is that the River Turia that once ran through its heart was completely rerouted to the south of the built up area in the 1950s to solve the frequent flooding problems. After 30 years of arguing about what to do with the old river bed, the city planners decided to make it into a park.

The Concert Hall. The curved upper section of roof is cantilevered from the mid-point so that no part of the nearest end touches the main building
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Today the 7km riverbed park features athletic tracks, fountains and one of the most striking clusters of modernist architecture we had ever seen at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. This group of futuristic structures includes a hemispherical planetarium with IMAX cinema, concert hall, interactive science museum, aquarium and an indoor winter garden. Most of the outer surfaces on all of these buildings are covered in white mosaic tiles, inspired by Antoni Gaudi. To the south, construction was well underway on the next structure in this series: a new bridge crossing the dried-up river featuring a modernist suspension tower.

one of the most striking clusters of modernist architecture we had ever seen

Inside the aquarium
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We had to queue for nearly 2 hours in the 38°C heat to get our tickets for the aquarium. What made it worse was that returning after lunch a couple of hours later in the mid afternoon, there was virtually no queue. We had hit the rush with typically impeccable timing. The aquarium had been tipped as one of the best in Europe and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Although very crowded with screaming kids, we enjoyed the huge tanks of tropical fish, excellent displays in multiple languages and open air wildlife tanks. The dolphin show was comparable to that of Sea World in San Diego.

Part of the park that occupies the old river bed through the centre of Valencia
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The science museum was a very hands-on affair. Three floors of interactive displays gave us hours of exploring. Afterwards we went to see an evening show at the IMAX theatre, stretched out in reclining seats with the movie projected onto the inside of a huge hemispheric dome. Continuing the aquatic theme, the movie was about tropical reefs and narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

The city’s main cathedral features distinctive blue tiled roofs and three separate entrances in the Romanesque, Baroque and Gothic styles. It also had an attached bell tower which gave us some great views all over the city. On both sides of the cathedral, wide plazas were ringed with cafes and tapas bars.

Dusk at the Concert Hall
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We had it on good advice that the paella and sangria in Valencia was the best in Spain. Needing no further encouragement, we practically lived on just that for the whole 4 days. We also had some great tapas down at one of the bars facing the acres of beaches, though it was too windy to go for a swim that day. Nearby at the port and marinas where the last America’s Cup was held, preparations were being made for the inaugural Valencia F1 Grand Prix. We had a wander along some of the tracks with the crash barriers and grandstands already in place.