Saturday afternoon in Valencia

The flags of Spain, Valencia Province, and the European Union

I've never been to Valencia before, because until about twenty years ago, there wasn't much going on here but heavy shipping and other things of non-interest to tourists.  But with a metro area of about two million people, it is the third largest city in Spain.

















When Spain experienced an economic boom in the 80s and 90s, Valencia made big strides in business development, transportation and communications.  And in the last two years, the bullet train opened between here and Madrid.

 Consistent with their newly found place in the world, they built the City of Arts and Sciences near the mouth of what was the river emptying into the sea.  Now this is the Spanish architecture that I was hoping to find in Madrid!  The campus of the "city" has individual buildings for the arts and sciences, and  Chris and I walked around the outside of the buildings today to experience the "space".  These are photos of what we saw.

Along with a lot of new high and mid-rise buildings, this new centerpiece area gave this frumpy old port city and decidedly new image.  The juxtaposition of the old and new, together with a more relaxed pace, make Valencia a great, livable city!  Tomorrow we're going back to Madrid, but before we go, we're going to see the heart of the old city ....