Valencia, a tale of two cities.

Here we are in Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, with a population of just under 800,000. We arrived yesterday by train, and what a comfortable trip it was. We covered the 380 kms in one hour and forty minutes, which is the equivalent of travelling from Wangaratta to Sydney in three and a half hours, instead of the nine hours it takes travelling with NSW Rail. Our maximum speed reached 301 kph, but you’d never know it as the carriages remained virtually motionless. The more we travel through Europe the more it becomes evident that Australia simply does not value public transport infrastructure investment. In fact, being over here really makes you fear for the future of our country, we seem so backward in our thinking. Thank god we can continue to rip up coal and iron ore to sustain our lifestyles, as I don’t believe we could continue to do so based solely on our innovation or vision. We might once have been the lucky country, but we are very much becoming dependent on what worked for us in the past.

The old part of the city contains the remains of walls, obviously once part of the city's defenses.

The Catedral in Plaza de La Virgen (nope, this is the correct spelling).

Part of the old city. The McDonalds here is said to be centuries old (lol). 

Valencia is a city of two halves; the old section and the new. The former is made up of buildings from many centuries past, right back to Roman occupation, while the newer parts of the city reflect modern Spain, including some very futuristic buildings. We took a bus this morning down to the waterfront area, which boasts one of the longest beach fronts we’ve seen anywhere. It is basically a straight stretch of beach which seems to stretch on forever. These beaches are very popular with the locals, and I imagine they would be unbearably crowded in summer. I gather Valencia is a very outdoors type of city, and why wouldn’t it be with beaches such as these on offer.

Plaza de La Virgen

Plaza del Ayuntamiento

Catedral 

The old section of the city contains some very old churches, archways and lots of plazas, what we would call squares. These are usually at the junction of very narrow, stone-paved laneways and roads, which join at a variety of angles. These days, most of these plazas contain a myriad of restaurants and cafes, serving traditional Spanish dishes and drinks to locals and tourists alike.

Where we are staying is a stone’s throw from what used to be a river which ran right through Valencia, only these days it is a continuous park. Apparently, the river was diverted away from the city in the 1950s, following a devastating flood. It seems a shame to lose a river, but I guess acquiring a huge park is not a bad consolation prize.

We have now been to Spain’s three biggest cities, and we find all of them to be unique in their feel. Madrid is very much the modern metropolis, Barcelona a mecca for lovers of art, culture and architecture and Valencia is, well to be honest, quite difficult to categorize. It certainly has a bit of a North African feel to it, but this is going to become more pronounced to us as we venture further south over the next two weeks. Although it is still very Catholic here, you can see a fair bit of Moorish influence in some of the buildings.

The weather has turned a little today, no rain but very cloudy, which has kept the temperatures down in the mid-twenties. Tomorrow, if it clears up, we'll try swimming with the locals. If that fails, there's always Malaga over the next week or so.

That's Alison looking very Spanish. This was a beautiful little arcade.

Post Script: We received news yesterday that we welcomed a new member to our family. No, not another baby, a doctor. Congratulations Dr. Imogen Evans, you have our undying admiration and our love.