The Travel Buggers: Valencia, Spain

We arrived in Valencia on a sunny day, typical of this city that has an average of 300 cloudless days per year. Too bad we can't bottle up some of this year-round sunshine and bring it home with us. Once we got checked in and settled in our room, we discovered that we had an amazing view of the City of Arts and Sciences, a cultural and architectural complex that includes the largest aquarium in Europe, L'Oceanografic aquarium. Lorenzo has wanted to visit this particular aquarium for years, so we made a B-line for that area because he couldn't wait one second longer. We ended up getting aquarium tickets for the next day to ensure that we had enough time to enjoy it. After getting our tickets, we headed across the street to a shopping mall to purchase some supermarket items to make sandwiches for dinner. Buying drinks and snacks at local supermarkets is one way that we saved money on this trip. We walked back to our hotel to prepare for an exciting and fun day tomorrow at the aquarium. On our first night in Valencia, we noticed that the sun didn't set until 10pm, which confused us because we thought it was much earlier than it actually was. The next morning, we woke up later than planned and missed the noon dolphin show, so we started our aquarium visit by viewing other animals, including small colorful tropical fish, playful seals and sea lions, jellyfish, penguins, and exotic birds. We also walked through the aquarium's two 360 degree glass tunnels. Finally, we visited Lorenzo's favorite, the beluga whales, right before heading to the 3:30 pm dolphin show. The Valencia aquarium was our favorite activity and is a must see when visiting the city. After a full afternoon at the aquarium, we strolled over to the Old Town area, where much of Valencia's shopping and restaurants are located. Along the way we passed through streets lined with oranges and we saw a Brazilian Carnival styled band playing in the street to celebrate the upcoming Nations holiday. We began the next day with a visit to the Central Market, a large indoor market full of stalls selling fresh meats, seafood, and produce. Central Market was similar to La Boqueria in Barcelona, but less charming and interesting. From Central Market, we walked to the Valencia Cathedral. The Cathedral is is not only the first Christian church that we've visited in Europe, but is also the home of the Holy Grail. Following the provided audio tour, we learned about the art in the church and the human remains on display. Finally, at the end of the tour, we entered the Chapel of the Holy Grail where we saw the cup in person. According to history (or legend depending on who you ask), this is the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. Viewing the Holy Grail was the highlight of the day and we spent the rest of the day wandering around Valencia observing everyday local life before heading to the train station to purchase our tickets for the journey to Madrid. For our last day in Valencia, we went to the beach. Valencia is famous for its beaches and the beach was one of our main reasons (other than the aquarium) for adding this stop to our trip. After taking the metro and then a tram, we finally saw the palm tree lined boardwalk filled with restaurants, and beyond that, the beach. The sand is finely ground, almost dust like, and the beach was full of families and friends tanning, fishing, and playing sports in the sand. We walked along the beach and sat on the sand to enjoy the view. We really wanted to get into the water, but it was a little to cold for swimming. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Valencia. The city was cleaner, smaller, and less touristy than many of the other cities we've visited. We appreciated the slower, relaxed pace of Valencia, and luckily we are well-rested because our next stop is the big hustle bustle city of Madrid.