Day 70: Valencia Day 2

November 4, 2023

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Today was our day to walk out into the old city, and so to have a really close look at what to us has got to remain the "real" Valencia". We did circle as many as fifteen things on the map of the old city, but if we were to only see the cathedral and the market, it would be ok as well. As it happened we did see quite a lot, including many interesting and beautiful cityscapes.

We began on "our" street, which by virtue of being just across the Turia Park is fully a modern setting.

Once across one of the bridges over the park, we enter a much older part of town, although we are still not talking about anything medieval.

We walked past a statue labelled "Cervantes". This information did not explain why the guy's head only is being held on a shoulder.

There are two remaining city gates, the Torres de Quart and the Torres de Serranos. While searching for a bike storage place I had already been through the Quart, so this was a second time to have a look at it.

Once through the gate we began to get some very nice city images, including towers and buildings with Dodie's favourite - balconies.

We are now near Plaza de la Virgen, and the dome is from the Basilica of the Virgin (of the forsaken).

In Plaza de la Virgen this fountain is dedicated to the (banished) Turia River. It portrays eight female figures pouring water, while Neptune hangs out.

I think the virgin in the plaza name might come from the adjacent Basilica de Notra Senora de los santos inocentes martires y desamparados. That is the virgin of the forsaken.

From the same square, looking to one side, we do see part of the cathedral.

The Basilica is one of the most popular sites in town. It's a Baroque design, from 1652. The ceiling frescoes are said to be among the best in Spain.

The virgin statue is very well dressed, like that one in Toulouse.

We moved along, because a mass was starting.

But first a peek at a commemoration of Jean Paul II, and also Benedict. These were amazingly popular popes.

The overhead passage joins the Basilica to the Cathedral

Here is the back entrance to the cathedral, and also a shot of its tower.

Here now is the main entrance of the cathedral, which faces Plaza la Reina. The entrance is quite free of people, because the cathedral will not be open for another half hour. This gave us a little time to look at the plaza. With this I have to recant on some of the things I wrote yesterday, when I felt that in Valencia we did not see the "standard" church and square model, and that there was a deficiency of ice cream. Rather, the cathedral faces the square, and the square features at least four ice cream sources and at least one bakery.

Looking back toward the cathedral and its tower.

The plaza and its contents took on some "urgency" as we needed a place to use the facilities. Aha, McDonald's had been on the ball, with a branch right by the cathedral.

We stepped inside and bought a coffee, to help establish a claim to using washroom. I must say that looking at their menu struck me, almost physically. After 70 days in the splendour of European bakeries, seeing a photo of an "apple pie" is a shock. And with all the wonderful gelato, the #2 punch is the mini McFlurry. Gack, maybe we don't need that washroom after all.

If you can survive with the McFlurry, you could go on to the Bestial flavour of the new McExtreme!

We fled the McDonald's for a look at the adjacent gelato and bakery. In fact, it was not that great, except in comparison!

Better check another one, a few doors down:

Looking up (her usual mode) Dodie was intrigued by the variety of roof shapes. Perhaps they are construction from different decades.

By landing in Plaza de la Reina, we could now reasonably say that we had entered the heart of the old city. Despite this, our environment remained very open and things did not feel particularly medieval. A nearby information panel explained. In 1865 Valencia began demolishing city walls, and in 1868 it moved with demolitions in this square, to open things up. Demolitions continued up to 1963, at least. In short, we were kind of right to spot Valencia as a more modern city, even in the old town. a lot of buildings will be just a couple of hundred years old.

At the far end of the Plaza from the cathedral, instead of some little passages we find a broad street, though at least it does not have cars.

Still noodling around the plaza waiting for the cathedral to open, we see another tower, but not sure what it is. We also look at souvenirs, which Dodie has mostly resisted getting. But it's a tough struggle, since I would buy them all.

We are beginning to think about our planned paella today. How about this place?

...nice painting:

That open street nevertheless has attractive buildings.

The square also has exotic (to us) plantings, including Bird of Paradise.

The Plaza also has cartoon figures to entertain the (dumber) tourists.

Here is a guy just getting ready with his costume. These need exhaust fans to keep the operator going.

By the time we circled back around to the cathedral, it was open, and a large queue had formed. to get in. We joined the queue, and I was amused to observe queue jumpers on my flank, watching to see how they were making out. Dodie was less amused and changed sides with me. A lady with a stick is harder to push by.

The big claim to fame of this cathedral is that it has the Holy Grail! At least that is the claim elaborated in a two page handout. The handout goes over the provenance of the cup and includes this line of argument: "... it is perfectly plausible that the Holy Chalice of Valencia was in the hands of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, and that it contained the Most Precious Blood of the Redeemer. In contrast, there is no evidence that counters this position". Not to get too embroiled in this, but I seem to recall Bertrand Russell with the argument "you can't prove there is not a teapot orbiting the Sun, but it is unlikely", or something like that. Actually it's kind of irrelevant where the burden of proof lies, because I am more than willing to line up and pay my 6 euros (each, seniors rate) to enter the Cathedral of the Holy Chalice to see the darn thing!

The chalice is in its own chapel. Rather than circulate through the church first and end at the chalice, we went to it directly. That way we were the only ones there, and did not have to contend with the crowd of people who arrived shortly thereafter.

Only the plain cup is the actual chalice. It is made of agate from the region between Alexandria and Syria. The base was added for protection in the 11th century.

The cathedral also included a museum with an extensive collection of old texts. As was the custom, they are beautifully hand illustrated.

The 16th century Last Supper painting below is a little strange, because there seems to be regular bread on the table, though Jesus is holding a matzo.

For Da Vinci Code fans, does Jesus have his arm around: Mary Magdalen? Note that the artist put the chalice that the Cathedral already had back into the historical painting. Tricky!

We wondered what the panes of this window are made from.

I had suggested that if we would wait until an hour after opening the line to get in would be less. Nope.

Heading out now and looking for the Market, we stumbled into something called Placa Redona, which is a perfectly circular arrangement of houses. The photo below shows it in the 50's, and then there is our shot from today.

We found the central market, which has at least two beautiful entrances. We dove in, and found the market to be just as great as expected. It was different for instance from a great French one, lacking a little in cheese and adding lots of ham. There were fewer prepared trays of stuff, but more fruits and fruit juices. Rather than running around photographing every yummy thing, I tried to focus on items that might be unique here. Let's take a walk and see what we see:

I had seen olives like this in another market, and planned to try them. They were unique!, so flavourful. They were so unique that I questioned if the flavour was even "olive". But Dodie, who hates olives, assured me it was.

Albufera is a wetland we will go to next year.

It is said you can not get really pure olive oil in North America, but no way we can transport this.

Ham is often sliced nicely and packaged like this.

These thin beans rival the ones in France. The wide ones are standard in paella.

Artichoke - we have seen so many fields of these!

The fruits blew us away. We bought glasses and bottles of the juice.

Pomegranates and oranges are more costly here than we would have imagined.

In the seafood area, there were as usual so many creatures that seemed special to us.

It was not really so late in the day, but much of the seafood was sold out.

Back to the same fruit stand. Their juice is so good!

But look - a cup of pomegranate is 3 euros!

Unless you need some more paella equipment!

Our next stop was a building called La Lonja de la Seda - the Silk Exchange. This was built between 1482 and 1533, and was a place for traders. It's main claim to fame are twisted internal columns, gargoyles, an orange garden, and beautiful wooden ceilings. So it's just touted as a beautiful building, in Gothic style without being a church.

Lots of people posed in this doorway with light from a stained glass window.

Upstairs, with a remarkable ceiling - see below

Looking down on a cafe - you can see what is on the menu

We are heading for home - and will pass through the Serranos Towers. This was completed in 1391. It was part of the defensive structure of the city, and even played a role in the civil war.

Some models were doing a photo shoot around the towers. At first we saw only one and thought it might be a wedding, but in reality there were two.

As we walked home along the Turia park, we passed some of the playing fields. On one there was a rugby game in progress. It was the first time we have seen it. Looks very disorganized, compared to European or American football.

As we neared our hotel we batted around ideas for more fun - like going to Decathlon, or walking back to check out the museum of the "Rocas", which are floats used during religious festivals. The Rocas relate to the history and culture of Valencia. But as we trudged on, we realized that 12 km of sightseeing is plenty for us, and we were beat. But no matter, a good sleep and another 10 jammer breakfast, and we'll be ready to go again.

p.s. Our friend Michel put this in a comment:

French TV news on Friday Oct. 4th Oviedo, Strong winds from Storm Ciaran continue to fuel an aggressive wildfire in the Spanish region of Valencia on Friday. The fast-moving flames have forced around 950 people in several nearby towns to evacuate their homes, police said Friday afternoon. Hundreds more people have been told to stay indoors due to the risk of smoke inhalation. As Ciaran leaves Spain, the country's meteorological agency warned that another powerful storm named Domingos is close behind. By Saturday, the wind warnings in Valencia will lift, but on Sunday parts of the region will be under yellow alert for strong winds yet again.

We are listening to the wind howling around our building right now, at 9 p.m. Oh, oh, we'll see if we really can cycle tomorrow!

Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 3,427 km (2,128 miles)

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Karen PoretMost grateful for all of your commentary..color commentary is most appropriate here!
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6 months ago

Michel FleuranceWhat a nice city !
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Michel FleuranceWe definitely thought so. Wide streets, lots of tree plantings and great bicycle infrastructure.
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6 months ago

Janice BranhamWe really enjoyed Valencia, and appreciate following the deeper dive through your journal
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6 months ago