Having satiated ourselves with Madrid culture we caught the fast train to Valencia, arriving there in the late afternoon.
We decided to walk to our accommodation from the train estacion and passed first through wide streets heading for the family run hotel called...Hostal Antigua Morella at 2 Calle de En Bou....We walked and walked dragging our bags over pavements and streets....passing other travellers who looked like they knew where they were going....and there are LOTS of peopletravelling in Spain...
And we went round and round an ancient sandstone church....we got lost in a maize of little streets with tall old buildings
Until in hot (the temperature in high 30s) desperation we stopped a police car and they directed us to Calle de En Bou.
Our hotel turned out to be in an ancient street overlooking a ruin of old buildings which had caved in from old age and suffered the egregious indignation of having a vagrant accidentally set the site on fire, leaving the remaining walls graffitied out of historical existence; apparently the community is stuck in a stale mate as to whether to turn it into a garden or build another building.
Our hotel window....
Which overlooked...
But just down the road ....
Santa Catalina is one of the oldest churches in Valencia. The church dates from the Middle Ages, and is built on the site of a former mosque. A large part of the building was rebuilt in the 16th century after being destroyed by a fire. The outstanding bell tower which literally towers over the area dates from the 17th century and is Baroque in style. It is hexagonal inplan, with five levels, and is topped by a niche and a small dome. Santa Catalina Tower marks the entrance to the well-known Mercat neighbourhood. The church has other buildings built right up against it....and it has many sides to it...you pass shops and there it is again merging from between them....with its great tower...
Valencia is famous for its Cathedral which is undergoing extensive renovations - this is true
of a great many buildings in Spain, especially Valencia- ....alternatively known as Saint Mary's, the Cathedral, was built over a site of a former Visigothic cathedral which had then been turned into a mosque under the Moors. Its architecture is a curious mix, Gothic Catalan style with elements of the Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical. It is famed for housing one of the supposed Holy Chalices of the world, known as the Holy Grial and believed to be the cup used at the Last Supper. The chalice dates from the 1st century and was given to the cathedral by King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1436.
Valencia is in the heart of the agricultural region of Spain and it has the most exciting food market called Mercado Central. Situated in a fascinating Moorish/Spainish style building (designed in 1914 by Francisco Guardia and Alejandro Soler and inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII in 1928) it has a surface area of over 8000 square meters, with more than 1000 selling posts. We found it on the Sunday when it was closed and took pictures of the tiles and exterior details that decorate it, and then when it was open on Monday, we were able to relish its inside food delights. Open from Monday to Saturday, from 7:30 to 14:30.
It was very hot...high 30s...what those fans are for....!!
