Valencia

Thursday and Friday, 14 and 15 January
Valencia.
We had a great time here, and were completely exhausted by the end of the first day, having made a circuit on foot around the Old City. We started at the covered market which is one of the largest in Europe so great fun with fabulous stalls of everything edible.


Valencia Market entrance











Spice stall




Every kind of fish











Fish presumably
caught by mistake

it must be possible to tell the difference between
a squid, a cuttlefish and an octopus - here are two of them.



Then on to the Cathedral which was a bit disappointing





The Cathedral


but afterwards we found St John’s church which was glorious. It is described a ‘typical example of Valencian Baroque style’. It was incredibly ornate with some beautiful paintings on the ceiling and Statues of Jacob and all his sons’ around the walls. (thanks to memories of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber’ musical for helping us work out who they were!)


I did not photograph all of Joseph's brothers
he had rather a lot of them and you would be bored!

The ceiling at St John's









The Altar - I just love all this gilding!





This is a life size fully dressed 'doll' of Mary who gets taken out
on high days and holidays and paraded around the city.







There was a bit of a hurricane blowing - 80 mile an hour winds- causing a lot of damage to the city park and buildings and I had to really cling on to Alec be blown over.

Then on to the Stock exchange, more towers, and the Plaza del Virgen







Inside the old Stock Exchange






Very lovely fountain
Plaza del Virgin




Valencia Bullring, currently occupied by a circus. But only for January then back to business as usual.






and a long afternoon in the Museum of Bella Artes. There are only so many rooms of religious paintings we can take in, and this had far too many for us, but on the higher floors there were some lovely paintings from 19-20 century artists. In particular there were 2 families, called March and Benlliere Gil who seemed to have a lot of very talented offspring.

At the Museum of Belle Arte








Some of our favourites.












Mary Magdalene





As we were in Valencia it seemed essential to have a paella as this is their regional dish, so we did. It was OK but not sensational but what really spoiled it was the fact it had been sitting in a huge paella dish for several hours and wasn’t all that hot.





Friday was wall to wall blue sky, 24 degs and no wind. We put the bikes back together and cycled through the Jardin del Turia which is a park made out of the old dried up Turia riverbed. We never did discover when the river dried up or was diverted but the old restraining walls and masses of long low bridges with quite narrow arches still remain. A lot of trees had been blown down and the council was out in full force with chainsaws clearing up. It is very attractive and amazingly wide with lots of buildings, fountains and sporting sites along it.

In the dried up river bed which passes through Valencia and is now 'parkland' Through the trees is one of the old river bridges.

At the Eastern end the architect Bofill has designed several stunning modern buildings which are famous landmarks. In particular the Opera house and the Science Museum stand out as being very striking.

Various museums, opera houses

and science parks in Valencia,

not sure what Prince Charles

would make of them.

We were aiming for the Port to see the site of the America’s Cup but in good Spanish fashion it was all blocked off with road works and a railway line, so we never got there.

We also visited the home of the artist Jose Benliurre Gil . His daughter had given their home to the State on her death and it was fascinating. It is a typical 19th century townhouse on the river bank and Jose had made a studio at the end of the garden. It was stuffed full of his work and other things he had collected. The main house is still very much like a home with the upper floors being dedicated to works by his sons, one a very talented sculptor and the other an artist. It was the best 2 euros we have spent looking around something and if you are in Valencia and like paintings do visit it.

Amazing bronze of a bull, frisky and obviously just entering the bullring. Later there is another of a more tired and angry bull.

A painting presumably taken from somewhere else!

Benliurre Gils collected detritus,

this gallery well worth a visit.

We left Valencia in the afternoon and headed North towards Tortosa but stopped off at Sant Carlos de la Rapita as we wanted to explore the Ebro delta.