Valencia

Happy Saturday everyone!

In this first post of this new blog, I want to tell you about the experience I had on my trip to Valencia, a city I had the pleasure of visiting twice, during a cruise of West Mediterranean sea: the first time was Wednesday 31st July 2008, whereas the second was Thursday 6th August 2015.

Valencia is a wonderful city of Eastern Spain, that surprised me especially because of its beautiful old palaces built in Gothic style.

Wednesday 31/07/2008

On my first visit I took a panoramic bus tour through the streets and main squares of this magnificent city, in which during the stopover, I had the opportunity to go on an organised excursion and visit the Coves de Sant Josep, or the underground caverns through which flows a river of water, which is found in the vicinity of the district of La Vall d'Uixò, 50km (31 miles) from Valencia.

In this underground river which is the longest in Europe, I had the pleasure of sailing on board a small boat. The visit was around 40 minutes and the route also included a footpath to walk through a gallery.

Unfortunately visitors were prohibited from taking photos of the caverns.

Thursday 06/08/2015

During the second visit, I spent 4 hours touring Valencia, and I took an interesting walk by foot through the city centre, armed with a map and the unforgettable camera.

Once I'd left the boat, I took the no. 4 bus that took me from the Estación Marítima del Puerto to Plaza de la Reina, the centre of the historic city, in 20 minutes. There the Seu appears, otherwise known as the Cathedral of Valencia, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

And now click!

A little further from the Cathedral, in Plaza de la Verge another interesting church can be found, the Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados, i. e. the Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken, the patroness of Valencia.

Here's a photo for you of the external facade of the church:

Leaving this square, heading southwards, in around 10 minutes you'll reach the main square of Valencia, Plaza Ayuntamiento, the based of the Town Hall.

It's a very lively square, gifted with a lovely fountain in the centre and surrounded by many beautiful palaces, like that of the Post Office, known as the Edificio de Correos.

Here's a photo of this square:

Finally, don't forget that Valencia was a colony of the Ancient Roman Empire, evidenced by it's two fortified gates, their legacy in the city walls built on Roman foundations. They take the name “Torres de los Serranos". As you can see in the attached photo that follows, they have a high aesthetic value and are well preserved.

I hope you liked my account of my trip to Valencia. I'll see you in another post in which I'll tell you about another city of the splendid country of Spain that I was lucky to have visited.

See you soon! (A presto! )

Photo gallery