Port 64 Valencia, Spain

Buenos dias!

It was raining and it was cold when we arrived in Valencia on May 3rd, 2022. Valencia, like Barcelona, is properly pronounced with the “c” sounding like “th”. Vah-len-thih-yah.

We passed through the breakwater while we were at breakfast…

…and pulled up to the pier shortly after. 52 degrees, raining. Yecch!

We have separate tours today. I’m on a “Valencia Highlights & Oceanography” tour. Joy is on “Valencia at a Glance & Wine Tasting”! Here’s my view from the bus as my tour boards.

On the drive from the port we learn the roads around the port area were used for Formula 1 racing. We could see the pit row positions for the race teams, the turn bridge where the cars had to double back on the course, and the start/finish line! Of course, this was all in the rain and the photos aren’t worth showing, but I thought I would at least tell you about this. Valencia is on contract to host seven Formula 1 events. They hosted five, then offered to take a break when the Formula 1 schedule had extra courses to choose from. Two to go, so they keep the course in good shape!

OK, back to the rest of the tour! We arrive at the City of Arts and Sciences! We’re doing the Oceanography part of the tour first.

We drive past some amazing architecture! I know this is a sucky photo, but thought you could see enough to appreciate what I saw! All of the next series of buildings were designed by Santiago Calatrava. This is the Museum of Science!

I am pleasantly surprised this picture wasn’t obscured by rain! We’re looking down the line of several of Calatrava’s buildings in the City of Arts and Science – the Museum of Science is in the forground, the Hemisphere in the distant center, and the Reina Sofia in the background. We’ll drive under the arched park on the left and get a better look!

We didn’t go into these, but just got a glance at the architecture. The Museum of Science is amazing! What you see on the left are stairs up to the upper level. I hope people only have to come down those stairs!

This is the Serreria Bridge on the eastern end of the City of Arts and Science, a suspension bridge like I’ve never seen before! The building behind the bridge is the Agora – a large soaring open structure for large gatherings.

Someone left some heads on the plaza!

On the far end is the Palau de les Art Reina Sofia. This is the Opera House!

And in between the Museum of Science and Opera House is this, the Hemisferic. This is the IMAX Theater! This small spherical structure inside is the actual theater accommodating the standard IMAX curved screen. The rest of the structure is an eye with the eyelid. At night the reflection on the water is supposed to form a complete eye!

Next, we move to the Oceanography center – it’s just on the opposite side of the Agora.

The lobby has this beautiful life-size scuplture in wood of a Beluga whale! It is supended over the escalators that lead to the display area below.

And below is an open pool with a few sharks, rays and turtles meandering around!

The lower deck has this amazing display area! Caribbean fish and reef on the right, Pacific on the left.

I want this aquarium in our condo!

At the far end of the room is this display of colorful corals! Beautiful! Corals get their color not from the animals that build the coral, but from the symbiotic creatures that live on the coral. When these die, the coral turns white – this is called bleaching – and the actual coral dies. Help keep the coral colorful and alive! Don’t polute the water!

The Oceanarium has a long underwater tunnel! It’s fun to walk through with fish all around! But I think I like the underwater tunnel in the Atlanta Aquarium better – I don’t remember the distortion there that I see here.

I love this tank! A cluster of clown fish – like Nemo – are gathered in this anemone. I learned that clown fish can be orange and white like Nemo, or black and white, or something in between with orange and black and white! Take a look at these!

My parting shot from this place is a this look at a seahorse that appears to be very pregnant, and a couple of sea dragons!

We slogged through the rain to the bus, and headed into old Valencia. This is Serrano Towers, a regular meeting place for locals, and starting point for tourists!

The backside of the Serrano Towers is curiously interesting!

One of the first buildings we saw was showing support for Ukraine! Nice! Gracias!

In the Placa de la Mare de Deu, Plaza of the Sea God, are two churches side by side! On the left is the Basílica de la Mare de Déu dels Desamparats, and on the right is the Valencia cathedral!

We will take refuge from the rain in the cover offered by that large entrance of the cathedral!

This interior is unique in that it is the first church in the round that we have seen! It is beautiful! But the ceiling…

… Wow! I want to lay on my back for 20 minutes to digest this! But since that can’t happen I have to settle for a photo I can study later. But laying in the cathedral would be better!

Around the corner is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Valencia in Spain. This is another gorgeous building!

And in the middle of the square is the Sea God fountain for which this square is named – Placa de la Mare de Deu.

At this point I will conclude the tour. I took the bus back to the ship, then Joy and I rode the shuttle back to this part of town so I could buy my Hard Rock tshirt! We spotted this beautiful edifice!

The doorway caught my attention, with this interesting watcher keeping an eye on everyong who enters!

Another square has this jewel!  This is the first of a three-part display…

…a tactile display for the blind! There are two pages of braille to the left of this – not very visible with the rain, so I cropped them off.

This is the third part, and again, there are two more pages of braille to the left. This is a wonderful exhibit!

A river once ran through the middle of town. When Franco was the dictator he wanted to change it to a multi-lane highway for trucks to access the port and connect Valencia’s port to Madrid. There was such an uproar about this Franco conceded and authorized this River Park to be built here instead of the highway!

While we waited for the shuttle back to the ship, Joy spotted this across the road and asked me what the plaque at the bottom showed. So I took a walk.

This is the Royal Parrish of the Savior and Saint Mary, and the plaque is celebrating the arrival of Saint Vincent.

On our way back to the ship we found another cache of oligarch yachts! OK, just kidding. We don’t know who owns these, but…?

This building was created to support the race teams for the Formula 1 races. It is known by the locals as the “Sandwich” building.

More rain pours down as we pull away from the pier!

We weave our way back and forth out of the breakwaters and head out to sea!

My sneakers are set out to dry – it’ll take a few days!

We bid adios to Valencia! Next port – Cartagena, but Spain this time, not Colombia!