Valencia's old city

Valencia has always been an important port city for Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.  The Torres de Serranos was completed in 1398 and was one of the old gates to the medieval city.  The walls of the city have long since been lost, but the gate remains not only in tact, it's in excellent condition.  Chris and I were able to tour the whole fortification, climbing it all the way to the top and getting some great pictures.  It was fascinating to see how the gate had redundant securities to fend off invaders.  Trying to charge the gate would have been virtually impossible.

View down the front of the city gate

View from atop the city gate

Walking around the old city was a lot like seeing Madrid's old city, but more intact, because Valencia didn't experience the growth over the centuries that Madrid did.  However, like medieval cities everywhere, all of the less important buildings were torn down and replaced over the years.  What remains are almost exclusively churches and government buildings.  

We toured a couple of churches; one while mass was going on.  Unlike Madrid, the ribbed vaulted ceilings, walls, and gothic columns inside the churches are the original raw stone instead of elaborately decorated plaster.  They're really quite beautiful in their rustic finish.  As with all of these things, a photograph doesn't adequately capture the experience.  In the cathedral, a priest was sitting in an old-fashioned confessional, awaiting a customer.  As we walked by, I contemplated the advantages of confessing to a priest who doesn't speak English.  One could really unload some major stuff ...

Since Valencia invented paella, Chris and I had to have it for dinner at least one night while we were there.  So last night we had our ceremonial, traditional meal of chicken and rabbit paella among the faithful.  Unfortunately, we left the camera's memory card back in the hotel room, still in the laptop ... sigh.  I don't think that I was made for this century ...

Next weekend is Las Fallas in Valencia, which is a Mardi Gras-like festival where neighborhoods in competition with each other, build wood and papier mâché sculptures.  They satire political figures or are simply make cartoon characters, but the design and execution of the sculptures are very good.  In the end, the winner of the competition is named and the rest are heaped into bon fires.  This weekend however, they were busy erecting their caricatures all over town.  As we watched the lengths at which the citizenry was going to put on this production, and all of the food and beer vendors that were setting up in the plazas, Chris and I were glad we weren't going to be there for the event!  The festivities hadn't even started and cherry bombs were going off all over the place ...

At 4:10 P.M., we hopped on the AVE bullet train and headed back to Madrid.  It was a great weekend, but like all weekend excursions, it's always good to get back "home".