Monday 28 March

Valencia

24C Sunny

Woke this morning at 9am and got to the restaurant just in time for breaky. After breaky we had time for personal sightseeing before our Blue Lagoon and dinner excursion at 3pm. We set off to try to find the silk markets but got sidetracked with a street market which was really good. We saw some humungous paella pans for sale. We saw the Mercado Central which is a building holding the central market and constructed between 1916 and 1926 over a surface area of 8,000 square metres. In front of the market is the Lonja, one of the most exceptional examples of european gothic civil architecture and is a world heritage site. It dates from the end of the 15th century and housed the first public bank. After a nice long cold drink of freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice we headed off to City Hall Square where we thought we'd find the Cathedral but instead we found City Hall and a nice fountain. Mum asked a flower seller where the Cathedral was and we were going in totally the opposite direction so we turned around and headed for Plaza de la Virgen which is the heart of the historical quarter if Valencia. This is where the Roman forum was situated in it's day. La Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados stands here and was built between 1652 and 1667. We couldn't go inside 'cause it's Monday and most things are not open on Mondays but inside is a gothic statue of the Virgin accompanied by another two Valencian co-patron saints. Threre is a modern fountain situated in the plaza and represents the river Turia and the 8 irrigation channels which supply the fertile region of Valencia. We finally came across the Valencia Cathedral which is awesome. Work begun in 1261 over an old Moorish mosque, which, in its turn, occupied the site of a roman temple. We saw 2 of the 3 entrance doorways and the inside was fantastic. You could climb up the tower but we didn't. After our visit to the cathdral we hightailed it back to the hotel to hop on the bus for the lagoon and dinner tour. We went to Albufera which is a unique nature area where we went for a walk and our guide, Anna, showed us local native plants, the mediterranian sea where the Americas Cup was once held and then we went on a boat trip on a lagoon to see the migrating birds nesting. After that we had dinner in a restuarant with local specialties like mussles...yuck, and eel....yuck and paella....not so bad. We arrived back at the hotel around 9pm. The weather has been really warm today, l saw 26 on one of the weather boards, and tonight is quite mild. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same.