Vamos a la playa

Valencia, February 12th – February 14th

My first weekend trip was a success! Here is an overview of our time in Valencia:

On Friday afternoon, I went to the Museo del Prado in Madrid with my Master Painters of Spain class. After that, Chalena and I met up with Karlie and Emily in the bus station. We took a late bus from Madrid Friday night so didn’t arrive to Valencia until 2 a.m. – praise God that we were able to find our hostel easy and then go right to bed!

Our adventure started Saturday morning with a free guided tour of Valencia – our tour guide Helena was so great though so we made sure to tip her at the end. I think the tour was my favorite part of the weekend because we got to see so many different places of the city and learn about them. We started in the Plaza de la Virgen where there is a beautiful fountain as well as the basilica and the cathedral side by side.

During the tour we learned about the history of the city; how it was founded by the romans and how Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike lived in harmony many times throughout history. These influences can be seen in the architecture throughout the buildings – one such being the rose windows of many of the churches. See the influence of the Jews amongst this Christian building with the presence of the Jewish star?

Some of the highlights of the walking tour include:

The orange trees in the plaza – Valencia is known for its oranges! Although the ones in the city square aren’t the best tasting ones, you are allowed to just pick an orange from the tree and take it if you want!

Inside of the Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados (this name is the patron saint of the city):

There are three main churches in Valencia: San Juan, San Nicholas and Santa Catalina. We went inside of San Nicholas:

The Market! It was huge! We bought our lunch here after the tour!

La plaza redonda (“The round square”) (love the juxtaposition here). You can see the top of Santa Catalina from here and from many other parts of the city:

La Lonja – This building was very important for business and trade transactions in the fifteenth century. On our tour, we just saw it from the outside, but on Sunday, we returned and went in (for free!) to see the inside. We were amazed by the size of the building, especially the largest room called the trading hall where many of these trading transactions took place. Also, fun fact, the top tower of the building was a temporary prison.

The buildings in Valencia were so colorful and pretty. Do you see the red part of this building? A family used to live here and it used to be the smallest house in Europe – I can’t even imagine living in such a tiny space! Now it has been converted into a restaurant and they combined the space with the pink and yellow part around it.

 Another noteworthy adventure on Saturday was going to the beach!  We brought our lunch that we bought from the market – lots of fruit and bread – and ate it right by the beach. After we walked by the water. It was a windy day, but still very relaxing and so refreshing to dip my toes into the sea.

On Sunday, we went to the Cathedral for mass so we were able to see the inside as well, it was so beautiful. After church, we climbed up to the top of the bell tower and had a view of the whole city!

We also went back to the plaza on Sunday and we saw woman and girls dressed up in really fancy and intricate (and may I add homemade) dresses dancing in the streets. This is a very typical event here. These women and girls are called “las falleres.”

Before we left Valencia, we treated ourselves to a three course lunch: salad, paella (very typical food of Spain) and dessert. I chose the cheesecake for dessert and it was scrumptious!

We had a very nice time in Valencia, and I am so glad I got to visit this city during my time in Spain. More travels to come!

Until next time,

Sarah