Sunday in Valencia

Trip Start Nov 05, 2006
1
19
48
Trip End Ongoing


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Monday, December 24, 2007

First stop this morning was OpenCor, the supermarket to buy some breakfast! I bought some fruit juice by relying on the brand, Minute Maid, and the picture of lemons. By association, this should have been the greatest idea ever, as Canadian Minute Maid still lemonade is awesome. No. This one was actual lemon juice (sqqqqueeeeeee!) with mint in it. I kid you not.
Anyhoo, I carried on to Tourist Information where I was hoping to pick up my usual round of leaflets; however this was scuppered by the fact that every single one was in Spanish. TOURIST OFFICE. For FOREIGN visitors. Honestly. The staff member I spoke to was particularly helpful and spoke to me in English and even found out if the aquarium would be open on Christmas Day for me. It is, wahey!

Valencia has nothing particular or special to do or see, nothing is a 'must see' like the Mona Lisa in Paris or the Colosseum in Rome but it is a nice place to be, with lots of beautiul architecture and green spaces everywhere. Also there are ridiculous amounts of trees; orange trees with oranges still on them, on the side of the road!,  palm trees, other trees I don't know the names of....
The space which used to be the river has been turned into gardens, and in the streets, poinsettas are potted everywhere (although I'm not sure, this might just be a Christmas thing)

Anyway, I walked down Calle Paz, stopping at the street market only to find it was kinda rubbish, and turned the other way ending up at Plaza Ayuntamiento - my point here is as this is yet another green space (albeit this time with a giant Xmas tree and fountain) you're pretty much surrounded by gardens in Valencia.
Deciding I'd better do something cultural, to contrast with last night's little Starbucks adventure, I headed to Jardin del Real Viveros, which houses a circus, zoo, the Museo Municipal de Ciercias Naturales & my destination, the Museo de Bellas Artes. You could guess that this is the Fine Arts Gallery. The ground floor has some spectacular works, mostly sizeable ceiling height pieces from the 15th century. By any stretch, I'm nowhere near an art expert, but the gallery mostly has local, ancient, religious paintings. Which are not my favourites. Even I would have to say though, works by Gherardo Starnina, with intricate gold designs, were pretty stunning. Other artists on display wouldn't be ones that you've ever heard of if you're not an art buff or studied art history...Joan de Joanes, Francesc Ribalta, Miguel March, Diego Velazquez, Antoon van Dyck, Josep de Ribera, & Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (although even I've heard of him!)

A walk down Calle Colon, passing department store El Corte Ingles, well I say passing, I did venture in and its got a huge supermercado in the basement...cheaper than OpenCor...I somehow ended up at the Plaza de Toros, which is in fact the bullfighting ring, somewhere I would usually avoid on principal. Built much like an Italian ampitheatre, I didn't venture inside, although the next bullfight is in March. For now, there's a circus inside instead.
I passed the market stalls on the corner of Calle Xativa & Avenida Marques de Sotelo & once again past Plaza Ayuntamiento towards the Mercado Centrale, which was shutting down for the evening. I settled on postcards and a brownie from posh chocolate store Xocoa. Mmmm.
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