Valencia Day 2 – Parks and Paella

I woke up feeling slightly bleary, and after breakfast we went to a 200 year old horchateria called Siglo where I sampled another local speciality. Horchata is a chilled milky drink flavoured with tiger nuts. It is very refreshing, and quickly perked me up. As is tradition, it was accompanied with fartons (snigger). These are delicious soft buns dusted with icing sugar.

Jardines del Real

Re-energised for sightseeing, we went and had a look at one of the old city gates which is a huge structure that also doubled as a prison in medieval times. From there we crossed the river and walked along the Jardines del Turia. This is the old river bed which has been converted into a 7 kilometre long park after the river was diverted. The temperature hit 20 degrees today and the sun felt quite warm as we strolled through the park. It’s planted with trees and also has some benches and ponds. It must be a very welcome oasis when the summer really hits.

After a while we came across a larger more formal landscaped garden called the Jardines del Real and we walked through there and found a cafe where we sat and had a cold drink. There’s a brand of still lemonade you can get everywhere in Spain called Aquarius which I am quite partial to.

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

We returned to the river park and continued round until we reached the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències. This is an incredible futuristic museum and cultural complex surrounded by lakes. It couldn’t have been more different to the medieval city, the curving white organic forms of the buildings in sharp relief against the pure blue sky. There was a waterside cafe where we had a sandwich and a drink while soaking up some more sun.

Our minds well and truly boggled by the architecture of the Ciutat, we took a bus back to the old town as we had walked for many miles by now and our feet were getting a bit tired.

Today was Julie’s birthday and we needed to make sure we found a good restaurant for her birthday dinner. Valencia is famous as the home of paella, so we had a look around town and found a nice looking place called Bodego de La Sarieta that did various paellas including a vegetarian one which looked perfect. In keeping with the Spanish tradition of late eating, they didn’t open until 9. So after a siesta at the apartment we got changed and went out about 8 for some drinks before dinner. We found a welcoming, sociable little bar called Cava del Negret and I had my usual rum and coke which came with the expected generous Spanish measure of rum!

Paella

We got to Bodego de La Sarieta at about 9:30 and it wasn’t that busy so we got a good table. We ordered some grilled asparagus and wine to keep us going while we waited for our paellas. Proper paella takes 30-40 minutes to cook, so anywhere that can give it to you in less than that isn’t doing it properly from fresh ingredients. I ordered a seafood one, and Julie went for the vegetarian one. When the paellas came they looked beautifully golden and savoury, piping hot in the metal pan straight out of the kitchen. They tasted as good as they looked, and I also managed to squeeze in a spongey creamy dessert afterwards. A perfect end to a perfect day, which was to be our last day in Valencia as tomorrow we had to start the train journey home.