Valencia Echoes of Opulence Past
IT’S LIKE IF FLORIDA HAD WHISPERS OF AN EXTREMELY WEALTHY 15TH CENTURY
Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and is one of the busiest port cities in Europe. Like most of Southern Spain and Portugal, the city has a history of Roman and Islamic rule. However, the Valencian Golden Age was in the Middle Ages, during the 15th and 16th century, and that’s what is most prominent and striking as you walk around. Well that and it rerouted a fucking river out of the city and turned the river bed into a five mile continuous park . . .
Walking around Valencia for me felt sometimes like walking through Venice - with architecture dripping in merchant-class wealth - and sometimes like walking around Florida - so a fitting place to drop an amusement park in. While I’m happy to have stopped in Valencia on my way to Barcelona, I also didn’t find the city particularly memorable as a tourist stop. To be fair, it did strike me as quite liveable, and I found it very easy to pass time peacefully throughout the city.
WANDER AROUND EL CARME - THE OLD DISTRICT
El Carme (the old district) is home to most of the city’s most famous sites, including La Lonja de la Seda (The Silk Exchange), The Valencian Cathedral, and Porto de Serrans. It’s hard not to feel like the neighborhood drips in wealth past; the architecture is fabulous and the neighborhood somehow echoes of rich, opulent lives past - even if the atmosphere is more common today.
La Lonja de la Seda (The Silk Exchange) is free to enter and is truly magnificent for a building of its time. While the building did house a silk exchange, what I found cooler was that it also held a public bank (500 years ago). I loved that the building started as a public venue and remains one today.
WALK ALONG THE JARDINS DEL TURIA
In the mid-20th century, Valencia had severe flooding from its river. Their solution was TO REROUTE THE FUCKING RIVER. That’s right, they just removed the river from the city center and it now flows south of the city. The river bed, which is still below the level of the city and crossed by bridges throughout, is now a 5 mile continuous park. The overall effect is remarkable. Most major cities in Europe have a major river cutting through the city - and Valencia instead has a stunning, peaceful park in a river shape.
It’s a great space to go for a bike ride, a run, a walk, or to just sit down. The style of garden and art installations varies as you go, so you get diverse experiences as you go through it. One of the my favorite sections of the park was the Art and Sciences City, a futuristic complex of museums and buildings celebrating . . . arts and sciences. It’s a very cool area to spend time in.
OTHER THINGS TO DO
Valencia is an easy city to spend time in. Here were some of my favorites and other common things to do:
Ride a Bike - Valencia is very bikeable, and pretty much every other backpacker I spoke to gave the same pice of advice for Valencia - rent a bike.
Go to the Beach - There are two beaches in Valencia and both are nice (and surprisingly calm) for urban beaches.
Drink Horxata - Tiger nut milk is a regional delicacy. It can be a bit polarizing, but I really loved it.
Eat Valencia Oranges - They’re so cheap and so delicious. I ate like six a day, and honestly should’ve eaten more. They were like $.30 a pound.
Shop at the Central Market of Valencia - Across from the silk exchange, the Central Market is a large indoor food market.
See the Holy Grail, Maybe - The Valencia Cathedral boasts that it has the holy grail (which is of course a claim hard to verify).