Today while Dan worked I explored downtown Valencia.
Important note: Valencia oranges come from Valencia, California NOT Valencia, Spain.
Valencia's bull fighting arena.
I saw a bull fight once when I was about 15.
I did not enjoy it. I feel no need to ever attend another bull fight.
Downtown Valencia.
Flower market.
Ayuntamiento de Valencia, or basically the Valencia Town Hall.
The Grand Market. I wandered in as they were closing up for the day (unfortuantely).
And I did not get a chance to make it back when they were in full swing (double sad face).
Valencia has some very talented graffiti artists:
These guys were all over the city.
Part of the old town.
More graffiti:
I found a tower to climb!
These are the Torres de Quart. They were built in the mid 1400's and were used as an entrance to city back in the day. They are remnants of the wall that used to surround Valencia.
To access the towers you must first buy a ticket from a bored and grumpy Spanish man.
Stairs!
Old doors, new city.
Big open space.
Maybe a guard room? There wasn't any information about the towers.
Ye olde graffiti.
Two tower access! You can only go up to the right tower though. The left tower is closed.
Neat gate decoration.
Yup. That's Valencia.
A fun key hole.
All the colors the wall has been painted over the years.
The far left is the "current" color and the far right is the bare stone.
This is where the gate hung out when it wasn't down blocking intruders.
As far as climbable things, the Torres de Quart were mediocre.
Onward to the Valencia Cathedral.
Burger King delivers here. Well, they were trying to anyway, this guy was lost.
Església Catedral-Basílica Metropolitana de l'Assumpcío de la Nostra Senyora de València
also known as Saint Mary's Cathedral.
Naturally I climbed the bell tower first.
Blue roof tiles!
Views from the top:
In the middle in the back there are the Torres de Quart.
Some other Torres. That one is much more popular apparently.
Those weird buildings in the middle background are the City of Science and Art.
I ran into a French (I think) lady who had also climbed the Torres de Quart while I was there. We chatted on the way down about all the things we've climbed. She commented that it was 2 euro to climb, but maybe more people would climb if the told you how many calories it burned.
On to the church!
Construction started in the 13th century.
Ornate stamped doors.
Main aisle.
St. Joseph's Chapel.
The super fancy monstrance and .....monstrance house.
This is in the St. Joseph Chapel.
The dome of St. Joseph's Chapel.
Looking down the aisle toward the front doors.
The dome above the alter.
The altar.
Upper altar details.
ENHANCE.
Rose window.
Bell ringing device thingie?
Supposedly pregnant women pay homage to this statue of Mary and infant Jesus.
They then walk nine times around the cathedral to represent the nine months of pregnancy.
This is some Saint's arm. It's weird.
Two different styles of chapels from the cathedral's history (above and below).
Random neat architectural device.
Random Art Chapel.
This is a Goya.
The cathedral also houses the Holy Chalice Chapel.
It's home to the Holy Grail.
The golden bottom bits were added in the middle ages.
The original grail is the simple agate cup (the dark bit).
As you have seen, the cathedral is a crazy hodgepodge of styles, but I really liked it.
I left the cathedral and wandered off to meet up with Dan for more wandering and dinner.
Wandering:
We went to a modern art gallery where I once again realized that I don't understand modern art.
I liked this one.
15 Variations on a Theme by Max Bill.
And this one.
The Next Call by H.N. Werkman
And these were kind of neat.
various bronze work by Julio González
But when we got to this room (all of which was one installation):
We decided it was time to go.
We found a small burger place, grabbed dinner, and headed home for the night.
This concludes our adventures for today.
