Valencia: Parties and Fish

We woke and checked out of the Reina Sofia hotel in favor of the cheaper, but just as nice Hotel Continental which was going to be 74€ for the second night in Valencia. We dropped our bags off at the second hotel, then headed out to find breakfast and the car. Where the car was parked, next to an El Corte Ingles, we also found a small breakfast shop where Jeanette was able to get a tortilla espagnola and I had a couple of pastries.

We headed out to find L´Oceanogràfic, the new aquarium in Valencia that is also the largest in Europe. I had seen it on TV a couple of years ago and it was one of the reasons that I pushed us to head to the town. After the drive around the whole town the night before, we didn't have much trouble finding the aquarium complex, though it did take us about 30 minutes to find parking. Busy town this time of year!

We went through the aquarium and were both impressed. The aquarium is based around 5 huge tanks of water that each offers a different habitat. The belugas, penguins and other arctic critters were very cool. One of the belugas kept crying out and the parabolic dome that they built over the exhibit echoes the sound around fantastically. We watch the dolphin show and got some good photos. Some of the apartments in the distance can watch the show regularly! We also liked the shark exhibit. The complex is amazing and I've read that there is much more that goes on in their research labs than is visible to the public. Very cool.

After L'Oceanogràfic, we walked around some of the rest of the museum complex. Several years ago, Valencia decided to divert a large river that seasonally flooded around the city. In opposition to industrial interests, the city government decided to turn the dry river bed into an educational and architectural landmark to set Valencia apart from Madrid, Barcelona, and other Spanish cities. They've definitely accomplished that. Santiago Calatrava, a native son of Valencia who trained and worked in Paris and the United States, returned to Valencia to design a beautiful, ultramodern complex of buildings, each as interesting as its contents. We strolled around the buildings for a while, taking photos and enjoying the sunny weather, before deciding to head out to the beach to check it out. We were on the Mediterranean, after all!

We found the beach, which was actually fairly crowded with people, and walked down it a bit. We also, unfortunately found a flat tire on the car. It wasn't bad to change, just annoying. Plus, we were left with a temporary tire so we'd have to change it out before heading to Barcelona. We drove back into town and checked into the Hotel Continental, then finally found some food for Jeanette, who was starving by that point.

After freshening up, we strolled around the old town area at length, checking out as many Fallas statues as we could. The variety and styles, not to mention the subjects, were astounding. From statues of Hollywood Oscar, to prostitutes, to large anthropomorphic containers of milk, each statue had its own morality message. At one place we had some so-so tapas and a slice of pizza at another. We climbed into an old fort that was at one of the entrances to the city and had a good view of some of the Fallas statues and the massive amounts of construction going on around the city. Valencia is sprucing up in preparation for the America's Cup race next year, I believe.

At the end of the evening we ended up at a paella restaurant that supposedly had 'great, authentic Valencian paella.' Valencia is the home of paella, you know. It's probably good for them that we'd had a bit to drink by that point at night because the paella sucked and seemed to have come out of a can. We had our fill and left, disappointed that we were not to have decent paella in Valencia.

On our stroll back to the hotel, the culinary side of the evening was saved a little by some horchata (a ground nut drink) and selva negra helado that we found along the way. At least we had something sweet and good to finish off the day.