Valencia Off The Beaten Path

In this beautiful building located by the river bank, near the Serrano Towers is the Fine Arts Museum of Valencia.

At the right side of the building you can find some beautiful gardens where you can have a quiet walk surrounded by some huge trees brought directly from South America in the years that followed the Spanish Discovery of the continent.

One of the most modern bridges over the dry bed of the Turia river has been designed by Spanish architect Santiago de Calatrava.
Is very similar to that he designed near the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

El Perell? is a beach resort in one of the mouths of the lake into the sea. Its buildings totally lack of good taste and the water on the beach is not the cleanest, as the polluted waters from the Albufera are drained in their vicinity. However, you may want to check the hydraulic engines that regulate the flow of water between the lake and the sea.

Anyway, as you can see in the picture, El Perelló and other similar neighborhoods look much better from the distance than when you are actually there.

L'Albufera is a large sweetwater lake a few kilometers south of Valencia. Its importance as wetland for the conservation of birds has protected it to a certain extent from the numerous threats it must face: overconstruction, intensive agriculture, drainage works...

You can see more pictures in the El Palmar pages.

Valencia is situated in a very fertile aluvial plain. Smart irrigation methods since the time of the Moorish domination have allowed the production of aboundant high quality vegetables and fruits. That is the reason why the area that surrounds the city is known as L'Horta (Orchards).

Currently, this traditional way of cultivating the land is threatened by the expansion of the city.

A natural park, comprising one of the biggest bodies of freshwater in Spain. It is located just south of the city of Valencia. Its the place to see the many migratory birds and waterfowl, along with many rare plants at this picturesque location.

While we were there we did a boat trip out onto the lagoon, seeing many Herons and different species of ducks.

The urban beach of Valencia is la Malvarrosa, but the coastline of this region is low and sandy, with very long beaches. Some of them are kept in a relatively wild state, like El Saler, others are completely built up, like Alboraia.

The botanical garden has more than 200 years of history, it's the anciest garden in the city. Created in 1802 by the valencian naturalist Antonio Jose Cavanilles, was used in the beggining for experimenting with new plantations. There are more than 7000 species, including trees, palm trees, bushes, tropical flowers. If you have university card the entrance in free, otherwise the price is only 30cents of Euro (very cheap if you compare with the 6 euros of Madrid's). Because of this cheap price is a great place just for walking, reading and sharing your time with the trees and the many many beautiful and friendly cats that live inside.

There are rivers of tomato juice in the village. They say it's very good for the skin! Don't wear your best clothes, and swimming glasses are a good idea too! After the battle there are places where you can wash yourself with water.

Every summer in the village of Buñol (not so far away from Valencia) there is the craziest tomato battle in the world. Six trucks with tons of tomatos crosses the village and give tomatos to the thousands of people that go to village for this big tomato battle. If you plan to go, be sure to go with swimming suit and cheap shoes, because you will be COMPLETELLY full of tomato juice (you can check on the pictures).Before the battle people use to break the t-shirts from other people in order of making a war of wet shirts, so be sure of taking it off, or they will break it off!!!