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| The flag of Valencia flies above the Torres de Serranos, just across the street from our hotel at an entrance to Valencia's old quarter. Its red and yellow stripes echo both the Catalan and the Spanish flag. |
The train ride from Madrid to Valencia on Saturday, April 13, was on Ave, Renfe's high-speed train, and took about two hours. Train travel in Spain, for us at least, was easy and pretty pleasant, though Madrid's Todas rail station is rather bleak. When we returned to Madrid at the end of our vacation, it was to the Atocha station near the Reina Sofia museum, which is much nicer. Unlike Madrid, Valencia seems to be bilingual (Catalan first, then Spanish). Fortunately, as elsewhere in Europe, most of the people tourists deal with speak English.
Once in Valencia, it was a snap to exit the station and grab a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Puerta Serranos, where we stayed four nights. We were on the edge of both the city's maze-like old quarter and its Jardines del Turia, a long, snaking park that was created when the Turia River was diverted after a flood in the 1950s. Our hotel was near one end of the park and the fantastical City of Arts and Sciences was at the other end. Bridges cross the park, and a bridge near our hotel led to a station where we caught a trolley to the beach.
We walked everywhere in Valencia, taking a taxi only when we arrived and then to a rental car office when we were leaving. You can easily get lost in the narrow pedestrian streets of the old quarter, but eventually you'll find what you're looking for. There's the San Nicolas church, promoted as Valencia's Sistine Chapel because of its painted ceilings and walls. There's Pasqual and Sheila, a sidewalk cafe where we twice enjoyed their burrata salad at dinner. There's the Mercado Central, a marvelous art nouveau building filled with vendors selling all sorts of meats, seafood, olives, cheeses and much more. It's entertaining to walk through even if you aren't shopping. And there's the Hotel Palacio Vallier, which has a great bartender at its intimate street-level bar. Just beyond the winding streets and broad plazas of the old quarter is a rather conventional grid of downtown streets with large commercial buildings.
Besides our dinners at Pasqual and Sheila, we also ate at Canalla Bistro, just outside the old quarter, on the recommendation of an American who lives in Valencia. We shared a nigiri duck sandwich, Iberian pork ribs and a pekin pork bun. Canalla is one of five restaurants in Valencia operated by celebrity chef Ricard Camarena, whose Ricard Camarena Restaurant is on "world's best" lists. Canalla isn't formal, but it has a bit of glam and is Michelin mentioned. Our other dinner was at La Salvaora, a tiny place in the old quarter. Here we had the tasting menu: sweet potato with fois gras jelly, mushroom soup, ham croquettes, crusted salmon, beef cheeks, and bread pudding with panecotta ice cream. And Biology, a red wine from Valencia. It was really too much food, but I persevered. Reservations are essential at Canalla and La Salvaora, as they are at most higher-end restaurants, but not at most casual places like Pasqual and Sheila.
Our other notable meal in Valencia was lunch at the beach the Sunday after we got into town. We took the trolley (you buy tickets at a machine on the station platform) to Playa del Cabanayal - las Arenas and walked along the seaside promenade to La Pepica, which has a beachfront terrace though its entrance is on the opposite side of the building. We ordered paella with rabbit and chicken. We got a pan of rice with two tiny and bony pieces of each. Even though paella originated here, I think cooks elsewhere do a better job in that they usually pack it with more protein. A mixed paella at a sidewalk place for lunch in Madrid was more satisfying than the austere version we had in Valencia, but that's on us for ordering what we thought was a more "authentic" version. The rice itself, though, was very good and we certainly finished it.
For us, Valencia was more about eating and drinking and strolling than going to museums or touring monumental cathedrals. We'd see plenty of both later in our trip.
Here are some snapshots from our time in Valencia:
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| The Ave train, operated by Renfe, got us to Valencia from Madrid (225 miles) in about two hours. |
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| One of many pleasant and well-used plazas in Valencia. |
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| A view of Calle de Serranos, which leads from the Torres de Serranos into the old quarter. |
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| A view of Calle de Serranos from atop the tower. |
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| The building that houses a ceramics museum in the old quarter is extravagantly ornate. |
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| La Salvaora provided one of our best dinners in Spain. |
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| The beachfront promenade at Cabanayal, which required a trolley ride. |
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| A waiter working at La Pepica, one of Valencia's premier paella palaces. The beach is reflected in the glass. |
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| We didn't go in, but the water must have been warm. |
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| Playa de Cabanayal was crowded on a Sunday in April. |
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| Torres de Serranos as seen from the bridge over Turia Park. The tower, built in the late 1300s, was the main gateway into the walled city. |
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| Undoubtedly, the tower's portal has shown up in countless Instagram postings. |
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| Valencia's art nouveau Mercado Central was completed in the 1920s and is still going strong a century later. |
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| It seems that sardines are on almost every menu in Spain, and here they are if you want to prepare them yourself. Three would be enough for a serving; 1.50 euros would be less than $2 U.S. |
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| Fresh fruits and vegetables at the mercado. Meats include chicken, duck, rabbits, pork, beef, lamb and goat. Plus loads of all kinds of seafood. No need for Whole Foods here. |
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| Fountains adorn most plazas and many other public spaces in Valencia. |
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| Another fountain, which we saw being used as a background for bridal photos. |
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| Residents are starting their day on Calle de Caballeros. |
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| Torres de Quart is another gateway connecting the old quarter with the busy streets that encircle it. |
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| The ceilings and walls of the Church of Saint Nicolas (yes, the guy who morphed into Santa Claus) and Saint Peter Martyr were painted in the baroque style at the end of the 17th century. The building itself is in the gothic style and dates to 13th century, but much of what we see today is from 15th century. The melding of the two very different styles has created an enchanting interior. The exterior, hidden behind other buildings, is hard to discern. |
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| The ceiling above the altar at San Nicolas. |
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| When we walked along the Turia from Serranos to the City of Arts and Sciences, we encountered many bridges over the park, which was once the Turia River. This is the Flower Bridge. |
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| The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciences is just byond the southeastern end of the Turia Park. The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (the Milwaukee Art Museum, the post-9/11 rail station at the World Trade Center in New York) is responsible for its futuristic design. The project includes an opera house, an IMAX cinema, a planetarium, an interactive science museum, a landscaped walk and sculpture garden, and a multi-acre aquarium with aviaries and wetlands. We saw the exteriors of all the buildings but visited only the Oceanografic (aquarium). |
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| Wetlands at the Oceanographic. |
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| These water tunnels are becoming common at major aquariums, but they're always amazing. |
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| The aviaries at Oceanografic offer rain ponchos to protect visitors from bird poop. Here are a scarlet ibis, a roseate spoonbill and a white bird that I cannot identify, |
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