Written by Kim
We had a small group tour for 10 of us in Valencia by Top Day Tours. After taking a short shuttle from the port to the terminal we got in taxis to head to the City of Arts and Sciences cultural center. This is a big park which is built in the area where the Turia River used to be. The river was rerouted after flooding in 1957. This area was Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, famous architects from Valencia. The wanted it to be beautiful architecturally and represent living things. They believe architecture is art
The hemisphere represents the eye. It has an IMAX theater and planetarium. You can rent it for weddings and they will drain the pool outside to setup tables.
The opera house kind of looks like a Roman Helmet. It has 4 auditoriums and cost $360M to build
The Science center looks like a whale. It has lots of interactive exhibits for kids much like Liberty Science Center in NJ
The Umbracle (which means nest) was designed to be a garden and actually recently opened as an outdoor nightclub with a botanical garden beside it.
The cultural center hosts various exhibits usually of sculpture and for about 6 months. Throughout the center, sculptures from Igor Mitoraj, a Polish artist depicting Holocaust inspired works
Our second stop was Old Town. Valencia was originally settled by the Romans in 138 BC. It’s one of the oldest cities in Spain. In the 700s the Moors came they built a wall around the city. The Moors also brought the oranges. In the 13th century the Christians came
We visited the square, Plaza de la Virgin, or church for the needy which had 2 very different style churches side by side
After a walk through Old Town we arrived at our tapas and wine tasting
Tomorrow we go to our last port, Palma de Mallorca. Until then….
