1/6/26 Gulliver & the city

 

    Here's an interesting park along the way into the city . I'm assuming you know Gulliver's Travels ??? , well Gulliver woke to find he'd been tied down by tiny people - this is a park based on that premise his hat and sword are off to the sides and his shoe is missing . This is a picture of the basis for the park .

And this is the giant version of that , here's his head and one hand & arm - kids can climb and slide and play all over him !! He's made of fibreglass and does get a little hot . There's steps , ropes and slides all around - you can see a viewing tower in the photo - top left , which is 3 storeys high . Check out the map view at the end .

Some interesting gargoyles ??? at one of the road bridges .

     There are 2 sets of old city gates in Valencia , here's one of them , as well as the bridge to approach them .

    Just as we got near the gate , there was protest march coming along the street , we stood back and waited and watched to see what was happening . Police cars , motorbikes and vans were escorting them every inch of the way , keeping them out of harms way - or something like that .

This was the entryway into the old city .

There are some amazing old doors around the city , all made of oak - must have been the most available timber .

Some more street art

And another doorway

More artworks

And tiling

More compact housing 

Back to the apartment and the jacaranda's now covering parts of the street .

   Here's the all important map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=19TJ9xTHTF1IrIimELXys_azr_yATT0s&usp=sharing

30/5/26 Valencia Silk Exchange

 

     Today we ventured into the old city area for a look around , first stop was the Silk Exchange , where traders have been buying & selling produce for hundreds of years 

                                 Massive doors each end of the building are impressive 

     We admired all of this with all of these other people who had the same idea .

      The spiral columns support the roof structure , with chandeliers hanging down , and marble floors .

          This is a shot of one of the panels in the ceiling of another room - plenty of work in them as well.

    That same room has these window shutter doors - all solid oak , and the 3d effect floor tiling 

    In this room beside the main hall was another amazing piece of work - this is also a ceiling . There are so many different patterns , faces , animals etc - incredible how much detail is in it !

Here's a shot to put it into some perspective , you can get a feeling for size with the people at the bottom  of the photo .

     Here's a closer view of the ceiling.

Some more street art as we wander around - interesting way to camouflage an electrical box .

                           

             Here's some of the streetscapes , with plenty of small restaurants & bars using the space available .

Plenty of buildings have some great feature tiles on them as well .

     Okay time for a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KjrOV7ZhiSgrMGM0CBCIDOFtxAdyoCk&usp=sharing

29/5/26 Valencia Oceanographic

 

   Today Isla was extra excited , we are going to Oceanographic , right beside the science centre , but so much more to see & look at . Here's a photo of them .

    There are millions of fish swimming around in the tanks and exhibits - these are Scorpion Fish - definitely not the prettiest .

     These are Giant Spider Crabs and they can move pretty fast , they're about 400mm across - one would make a decent feed !!!

    Ironically we've travelled half way round the world to check out these King Penguins from Antarctica !!

    One of the highlights for us was the Beluga Whales , unfortunately for you , they didn't photograph very well , so don't get an appearance here Sorry ! , We probably only saw about one third of the Oceanographic displays today , the place is massive . One other exhibit we went to was the shark exhibit , where there were plenty of sharks floating around , with turtles and another surprise - there were several swordfish - over 3m in length !

     Now for a change in scenery , some street art on the way to or from the beach .

    We decided to eat out after another big day out , having tapas down at a restaurant on the esplanade . We left the restaurant feeling a little like cattle going through a feedlot - we were there , ate & paid , but didn't seem to be authentic or have a lot of taste . More to come 😉

28/5/26 Valencia Science Museum

 

   Today we head to the Science Museum and all that magnificent architecture on the sites around it . We had a bus ride that dropped us about 500m walk away , then we wandered across , passed through this fountain which conveniently sprayed above us as we walked through the fountain .

 Beside the Science Center , was this large blue shell?? , which is the L'Agora - a museum , beside it was this giant curved mast with cables coming off it - it's actually the support for a 6 lane road bridge over the parkland below .

       Science Center is straight ahead , on the left is an arched garden which hides the carpark below .

     This is looking toward Hemispheric , then the larger building behind is Palau de Le Arts - performing arts centre . Both very imposing buildings !!

Here's that garden over the carpark.

The Hemispheric , performing arts centre and science centre are all surrounding by massive ponds about 1m deep 

    Inside the science centre was a drawcard for Isla and Justin , we walked around and looked at lots of different exhibits from the human genome right up to the International Space Station . The inside has 5 of these trees , which support all of the roof , amazing stuff .

    With the day taken up with wandering through here , we caught another bus home & had some dinner before heading down to the beach again . That's the joy of sunset at 9:20pm . Temperatures are generally up to 30-32 in the city , and about 5 degrees cooler at the beach . Even at 9pm it was still a pleasant 27 degrees . Stay tuned for more .

26/5/26 Valencia

 

    Monday was spent getting ourselves organised for the next part of our trip , this time we are headed to Valencia , Spain for 10 days with Justin & Isla , while she is on a 2 week mid term break from school .            So Tuesday , away we go to the train station and off to Gatwick airport for our next flight to Valencia . Flying Wizz , we were shuttled to the plane in buses . We appeared to be a distance from the airport buildings and we were being kept in the bus until everything was good to load - it's a busy airport , with lots of vehicle movements around the place .

    After an uneventful flight , we arrived in Valencia , customs & immigration negotiated , we headed out to the train station to take us into the city , about 11 stops away , then a change to a tram for the next segment , finally arriving near our accomodation about 600m away . Jacaranda's are out in flower here at the moment and make for pretty street scenery .

    After Justin and I went to the supermarket and got the required provisions , we sat and enjoyed a beer together back at the apartment , before tea was prepared . After our meal we wandered down to the beachfront for a look - it was about 800m away. There's a promenade that's about 10m wide , lined with palms , then a garden and another footpath in front of all the restaurants & shops - there were people everywhere and that was 9pm . The beach started on the other side of the promenade , where there were timber pathways going out towards the water - the beach here is over 200m of sand before you get to the waters of the Mediterranean . The timber boardwalks certainly come in handy on the hot days when you can't walk on the sand because it's too hot , but they end about 50 m from the waters edge , so there's still some hot footing it to be done !! There's plenty of people on the promenade , but equally the same still out at the beach , enjoying the water and kicking soccer balls around . The beach goes for 4 or 5klms into the distance !!

 

This gives you an idea of the amount of sand before the water .

   Next day we head into the city for a look around . We got of the tram , then train and popped up to the surface right next to the Bullring on the left and another train station on the right .

    The bullring hasn't been used for bull fighting for some time now , but it was interesting to see it - would have been even better if we could have gone inside the gates for a better look !! This is as close as I could get .

Many buildings are adorned with sculptures etc .

On our walk around the bullring , we found this street art depicting the slave trade in the fashion industry.

Across from it was this one on the walls of a coffee shop .

   There are multicoloured terracotta roofs on various buildings and domes in the city .

    Flags flying outside the city council building  .

     As well as the flags , there was also this fountain in a square nearby . We continued on through some of the city to the Central Market , and had some Empanadas for lunch . We also purchased some dried pineapple , strawberries and mango , as well as some macadamia's to snack on in the following days . It is an interesting walk through the markets , seeing all the fruit & vegetables , fresh fish & seafood , bakery items and lots more we didn't get to see .

    The bus stop was right beside the fountain , so we grabbed a bus and headed back to the apartment for a well earned rest and refreshment . Cheers , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1h2hRGdsulkJgaFRbPeA4A6zi5qfQvpg&usp=sharing