Saturday March 14 was a beautiful sunny day with a high of 19C. We had been told that the Central Market would still be open, even though all restaurants and bars, museums and cultural buildings are closed for two weeks. We went over to the Market in the late morning to get some salmon for dinner and a few treats for the train trip. We are sad that we won't be able to take the paella making course we had scheduled nor will we be able to go out to eat paella as ALL restaurants are closed.
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| Careful detail to cutting fish for clients |
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| The market still had a fair number of people |
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| We got some almonds for the train/plane rides |
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| We will miss having this incredible market two minutes away. Unfortunately, it will not be open tomorrow (Sunday) as it always closed on Sundays. |
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| Very disappointed to not be able to visit The Silk Exchange building-- we peered in at the beautiful orange tree courtyard. |
We had lunch back at the apartment and decided to go for a long walk through the Turia Gardens to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences), a complex of a number of Arts and Science buildings.
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| All the bars were boarded up and there were not many people in the streets |
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| A lone hipster |
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| Deserted square with iron replica of the Silk Exchange building |
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| Very eerie walking down deserted streets |
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| We passed the National Museum of Ceramics - housed in an amazing Baroque building |
The Turia Gardens are a 9 km long green space with a mix of playing fields, cycling, jogging and walking paths and playgrounds.
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| Lots of the old bridges still span the gardens |
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| Gorgeous spot for jogging/biking |
We first came across the Palau de la Música (not part of the Ciudad), a beautiful concert hall inaugurated in 1987. It has an enormous glass dome that runs parallel to the Turia River-bed Park.
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| Spectacular building- Palau de Música |
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| Finally some folks enjoying the sun |
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| Almost looks like a normal day in the Park |
We then got to the Ciudad de las Artes y les Ciencias- an incredible complex of arts and science buildings taking up 350,000 square metres of the old Turia River bed. Designed by Valencian Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, the project began construction in July 1996 and was inaugurated on April 16, 1998 with the opening of L'Hemisfèric. The last major component of the project was the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opened on October 9, 2005.
The first building we saw was the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofía. It is a venue for theatre, opera and music. The Chick Corea Trilogy we saw in Madrid had played there a few days before the Madrid concert.
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| View from afar |
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| Getting closer |
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| List of all the performances at the Palau de Les Arts |
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| Amazing series of cones near the Palau de les Arts |
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| Amazing architecture |
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| Looks like an interesting green space half way up the building |
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| View to the science buildings up ahead |
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| The Palau de les Arts definitely looks like a fish from some angles. Alano checking it out. |
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| Signage for buildings in the Ciudad de les Artes y las Ciencias (Arts and Sciences) |
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L'Umbracle (2001)- an open structure with plant species indigenous to Valencia.
It has a number of sculptures in its interior |
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| More buildings in the complex |
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| Hemisfèric (1998)- an IMAX Cinema, planetarium and laserium- represents a giant eye |
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| Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (2000)- an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale |
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| Oceanogràfic-- one can see the port in the distance |
Totally amazing series of buildings and all were closed and deserted. Very eerie walking here today.
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| Lots of water features between the buildings |
We headed back to the apartment. It was about a 45 - 50 minute walk each way.
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| Lovely trees starting to bloom |
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| Figure on one of the bridges |
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| Alano posing under the narrowest house in Valencia |
We returned for a late salmon dinner. We then read that Spain is closing all restaurants and shops in the entire country on Monday. We are anxious to leave. We take the 11:15 a.m. train to Barcelona arriving at 1:55 pm. We have a hotel booking for the night and then fly out on Monday at 1:50 p.m. I will probably do one more short post for this adventure. I expect we'll be in a 14 day self-isolation when we return.
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