November 2017

Valencia. Vibrant. And, yah! Paella.

Valencia was our first stop after launching our trans-Atlantic cruise in Civitavecchia(Rome) 2 days prior, and we planned to just walk off the ship & “see what happens.” Surprisingly, an army of young volunteers clad in red t-shirts approached us as we left the dock area and walked towards the ferry terminal area.  They gave us what I really wanted: a bus map to the city center! It was welcoming to notice the friendly price of Euro 1.50 for a bus ride either on #4 or #95. “Where do we get on?”  A red-shirted lady pointed a crosswalk and a bus stop to us.

15 minutes later, we got off the #4 bus at Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the city hall area. There were some beautiful buildings around the square.  Florists were setting up their displays.

It was only around 10 AM, and it seemed that the city was slowly waking up. We followed the signs to our next stop, Mercado Central. I loved the fruit stores showing off a great collection of plump and fresh-looking fruits.

Across the street on NE side of the Market lay La Lonja, an old silk exchange building with ornate ceilings. By now we were a bit thirsty & ready for some snacks. ‘Horchata is a sweet, opaque, very Valencian drink made from pressed chufas (tiger nuts), into which you dip large finger-shaped buns called fartón(says Lonely Planet)’ & we head to Horchateria Santa Catalina, which has been making this drink for over 100 years. Delicious! It was fun walking through narrow alleyways turning this way and that as we searched for it.

It was pretty much like that from here on.

We had heard about the artistic murals in Valencia, so we set out to see some of them.  On the way, we stopped at the Gothic 13th-century San Nicolas Church, about which some people say is more beautiful than Sistine Chapel of Vatican. What did we think? Smaller, but, yes! Quite beautiful.

Plazza del Tossal had some murals around it, and we walked toward Calle de Los Colores area discovering more colorful murals. We loved this 3-dimensional mural passageway for cats.

Torres de Serranos, a tower on the ancient city wall, is a stone’s throw from there. We climbed up the tower to see the view of the city and, even though it was not that high, we panted.

We wanted lunch right about then. We always associated paella with seafood, but the original ones are made with rabbit and chicken, and the birthplace of this national dish of Spain is none other than Valencia. So we headed to La Cignora down the street from the tower. Nope, not open till 13:30. So we looked for a place to sit down and wait, and Beer & Travels seemed to be open. Interesting collections of beers.

Paella was, indeed, really good at La Cignora. It looked huge when it first arrived at our table, but we managed to eat most of it. 

With bellies full, walking was necessary for digestion so that we could eat more if we saw something we wanted to try. By the Cathedral, we found a little gelato place called Veneta, Well, we did not have a dessert at lunch, did we? Excellent gelato there.

We did not feel like going into a church at the moment, thus, we just browsed the neighborhood & came across this street artist/performer. She was so inventive & cute that we put some coins in her collection can – and she winked at us!

By now we were tired enough that we decided to head back. If we had more energy, we could have gotten on #95 bus at the stop right outside of Serranos Tower & off at Oceanografic stop to visit the area full of attractive architectures including the concert hall and the art center. Instead, we hopped back on #4 bus & went back to the ship.