Valencia, beyond the market.

 The first time we visited Valencia in 2014 we walked for miles over two days covering most of the central area and the amazing contemporary architecture at the City of Arts and Sciences. This time we spent three hours in the market. Outside it was drizzly, we had a Giant 'bag for life' full of goodies we had bought in the marke, so another urban hike was out of the question. Nevertheless, we did not head straight back to the Angel Gomera metro station but took a slightly circuitous route via the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and the Estación del Norte.

Estacion del Norte:

This was enough to remind us that the city has a clutch of beautiful modernista buildings, enough to rival Barcelona's claim to be the styles' capital. I suppose what Valencia lacks is the Catalan capital's Gaudi masterpieces. To me, however, Valencia is more relaxed and convivial, less obviously a hen party heaven and considerably safer. It may be purely coincidence, but both times we have been to Barcelona we have witnessed street crime. Anyway, Valencia beyond the market, it's a lovely city, a must see place in my opinion. It certainly is somewhere that will tempt us to break our rule of thumb about always going somewhere new. If nothing else, the platter of verdura tempura shared by the group office workers sitting beside us in Bar Central which we foolishly failed to choose off the 'specials' menu is reason enough to return in itself.

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