Next trip Valencia Spain

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m going to be traveling to Valencia the end of February. I’m there for business and will be staying somewhere close to the Ciudad de Las Artes y Ciencias. I am only speak English so I have standard dumb American limitations. My last trip to Spain was Barcelona and I loved it.

I don’t have a lot of personal time while I’m there so I’m gathering ideas of what the must see things are.

I like standard tourist stuff, architecture and good meals.

Has anyone been? What do you recommend?

2

Moved Cafe Society to IMHO.

3

For the food, evidently “try the rice”. When going out for dinner, you may be best served avoiding restaurants (which are likely to serve dinner later than you’re used to) and looking for bars instead. Most bars will have tapas and raciones (“portions”). A plato combinado will include some source of protein (meat, eggs, cuttlefish) plus rice or potatoes plus something non-starchy and vegetable (salad, green peppers).

Some architectural/museistic highlights include:

  • the train station (modernisme), next door to an old bullring in the false-moorish style which was all over the place c. 1900
  • the lonja (market), one of the best examples of civil Gothic in Spain
  • the cathedral (no surprises there); the collection of religious art is very wide-ranging and includes among other things a cup made in the middle ages from a bowl+dish set which is said to be the Grail (the jewelry part is middle ages, the dish became the foot and the bowl is the bowl; the material and workmanship are correct for “first century Palestine”)
  • the Museum del Ninot hosts those papier-mache dolls which have been saved from the yearly Fallas fires

Will you be there for the weekend or weekdays only?

4

Go to pretty much any bar and order Agua de Valencia. It’s fresh-squeezed Valencian orange juice, a few kinds of alcohol, and a little sugar. It packs more of a punch than you’d think, but I’m kind of a lightweight.

5

Sorry for the DP, but I had to look up a name. If the weather is nice, walk along the Jardin del Turia. It’s a park that runs through the city in an old river bed. You can walk through the park itself, or on the streets that run alongside and above the park, or stand on one of the pedestrian bridges and people watch. Especially on the weekend, you’ll find artists and musicians on the pedestrian bridges. I remember the park being within walking distance of the cathedral, but there are lots of places you can see it from.

IIRC, Valencia is where paella was created, so try some paella if you get a chance.

6

I remember visiting the Holy Grail at the Cathedral. It was pretty cool. I even bought a replica for like 5 Euros.

http://www.catedraldevalencia.es/imagenes/santocaliz/historia/grandes/santocaliz.jpg

7

Food. Here are a few sites to look at, assuming you’ve got time to find a comprehensible reference to something in your proximity:

This one divides places into zones:
http://www.irdetapasporvalencia.es/

This one starts with a list of the top-ranked places. Click “ver en el mapa” to see locations:
http://www.atapear.com/guia-de-bares-de-tapas/provincia-de-valencia/valencia

This one features places in Valencia capital and nearby towns. Again, click “ver mapa” to see locations:
http://www.vamonosdetapas.com/de-tapas-por/espana/comunidad-valencia/valencia-valencia/