Day Three in Valencia - Mercado Central, Valencia Cathedral and Serranos Towers

Our third day was perhaps the hottest day of the entire trip. It feels like every year gets hotter than the last, so we were bound to set new records. We started walking towards the center. We came out onto a wide, green avenue. The surrounding buildings looked very unusual, while the floor tiles reflected the water wonderfuly. The neighboring buildings were also trying their best to match the futuristic vibe of the arts and sciences complex we visited the day before. The only thing missing from this massive complex was drinking water. In Spain there are usually fountains everywhere, but here in this huge complex, we could only find one and that was just for filling bottles. Looked at from certain angles, the buildings resembled a real spaceship due to their curved structure.

The avenue leading to the center was incredibly wide. Our main goal was to hop over to a spot with shops and buy some water. Fruit juice would be too heavy in the heat, so a few bottles of cold water would do the job. And of course, by Murphy Law the moment we bought the water, fountains started appearing every few steps. 😄 It is always like that anyway. The avenue was a super typical, green and beautiful Spanish street. Here my phone camera failed to focus and blurred the image, but luckily I managed to save the shots. The broken buton on my phone also started working properly once I stopped complaining about it.

We moved towards the center. We decided to stop by the Burger King next to the Bullring on the way to eat a decent hamburger. We had seen burgers sold at the supermarket for three euros. But they were all squished as if they had just come out of a packed minibus. We joked a bit about the local cheeseburgers that looked like pastries while eating our meal.

After filling our stomachs, we came out onto one of the pedestrian streets. There were cute shops, historical buildings and magnificent doors around. At this point we were thoroughly exhausted. I always say I love the heat, but in practice, hot weather sometimes brings a person to the point of exhaustion. Though we had not actualy walked that much up to that moment. we had taken about 18.000 steps.

Valencia is not just about modern future architecture. Its classic historical fabric is also very rich. I used to have an ungrounded prejudice against the city, maybe because I associated it with Malaga. Malaga is beautiful, but a bit more modest. Valencia on the other hand, reminded me more of Barcelona, where our Spanish adventure began. Everywhere you looked, there was an eyecatching detail.

The floor coverings were also remarkable. A distinct stone resembling polished tuff or marble was used. Further ahead, a large square lined with grand buildings and plane trees appeared. I approached one of the fountains there. Its mechanism was interesting, you pressed the bottle against it to fill it, but washing your face was impossible. Behind the trees rose a beautiful building with towers, which turned out to be the city hall and a little further down was the train station.

Before long we reached the Central Market, Mercado Central. The massive domed building made of red brick looked magnificent. This place is a total tourist magnet with thousands of reviews. Visiting markets in Spain is a tradition and tourists are directed here first.

Right next to it was the Silk Exchange or La Lonja de la Seda. In the market square we were right in the middle of historical facades and narrow streets. Our plan was simple. Slip through the side streets to reach the Valencia Cathedral, where the famous Miguelete Tower built in 1262 is located and then return to the hotel to rest for a bit.

The narrow European streets protected us with their shade, but with 85 percent humidity, the heat was still felt. Still even in such a popular tourist destination, it was possible to find peaceful streets where you could step away from the crowds and calmly watch the architecture.

Finaly we reached the Serranos Towers, Torres de Serranos. This is the remnant of the old city walls dating from the late fifteenth century. The walls themselves were demolished in the nineteenth century, but these towers were left as the symbol of the city. The scale of the structure was incredible. Compared to the cars and people passing beneath, the base of the towers was huge. We paced through the passageway. It was about 17 average steps wide. I do not remember ever seeing such a grand city gate before.

Once past the gate we found ourselves on an old bridge. Underneath, instead of water, ran a lush green park area, the dried bed of the Turia River. From the old town, we caught the tram and headed back to the hotel. Our goal was to get through the hottest hours of the day and return to the City of Arts and Sciences at sunset.

When we arrived at the complex in the evening, the sun was about to set and the water in the pools was slowly receding, likely drained periodically for cleaning or maintenance. The evening colors looked even more impressive. I started waiting for the lights to turn on. In the twilight, Calatrava futuristic buildings looked mesmerizing. You could enter most of the buildings with an entrance ticket, about 10 euros for the museum, but the visual feast it offered from the outside was more than enough for me.

Although the building at the far end of the complex looked a bit strange and disproportionate from the front, it offered a magnificent angle once you moved to its side. Its upper roof was designed as if it was not connected to anywhere, floating in the air on a single column.

Toward nine o'clock, the night lights finally came on. Everything instantly took on a completely different atmosphere! If the water had been perfectly still, the reflections would have been flawless, but even like this, it was breathtaking. And at 10:00 pm sharp. all the lights went out suddenly! The illumination had stayed on for barely 15 minutes! They only left dim lights in the futuristic parking garage and along a few lines of the buildings.

A tourist woman and her child passing next to me voiced out loud the exact thought in my mind. Are you serious? At 10 o'clock sharp?! It was really an unexpected and somewhat disappointing situation. I did not get a chance to photograph a few beautiful angles under the lights.

Still the third day was extremely full and enjoyable. Valencia surprised me greatly with its architecture, contrasts and atmosphere. Our city tour did not end here, of course. The next day we continued exploring the old city center.