Off to visit Valencia

Sept 09 - Valencia 011 (2).jpg
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24^th September

Valencia

We decided to walk to the America's Cup village this morning and set off through Turia gardens, a mammoth park that encircles the town and houses the Cite del Artes.  This is a collection of five separate buildings of awesome design that incorporates the musical, history, l'atmosperic and l'oceanographic museums that stretch for miles through the park.

After a bit of getting lost we managed to make our way down to the port and the village (not too well signposted).  Its actually pretty sad seeing the area that was supposed to be completely hectic with the America's Cup racing that was set to occur this year, be uninhabited and dead.  All of the buildings are chained up and there is hardly anyone around.  Got a couple of photos in front of the Team NZ hangar and stopped for a Mexican salad - tasty.

Mummified hand of San Vicente Martyr
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Walked back into town to visit the Holy Grail, only to find that it had shut half an hour previously and the times posted online were in fact incorrect.  Feeling rather worn out and hot (36 degree day with a pretty ferocious sun) we decided to sit for a while in the courtyard of the Cathedral which was nice.

Wandered up through the Barrio del Carrrrmen district (Carmen is getting better at rolling her spainish R's - Aileen would be most impressed) we stopped to take some photos of Iglesia y Convento del Carmen, one of the oldest, most spectacular and least visited churches in the city.

View from top of Cathedral (after 300+ stairs)
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By the time we'd walked back to the hotel we had each worn out two pairs of shoes and covered 35k's.  Slept well that night!