Valencia, Spain

 Valencia, Spain                                                                                            May 3, 2022 

Rain.  Heavy rain.  We have been so lucky for a huge portion of this trip as far as sightseeing in great conditions.  Not so today.  Our guide was apologetic.  “It only rains 30 days a year in Valencia.  It almost never rains like this.”  Well, there you go.  It rained hard through our entire tour. 

Valencia has about 800,000 people and is the third largest city in Spain.  The port was established in 138 BC and is now the largest industrial harbor in Spain.  The town was not established on the sea, but was four kilometers inland.  To get into town we drove along the route of the Formula 1 race track.  This was obviously important to the tour guide as she gave us many details of the race and pointed out numerous things associated with the race.  The bus driver dutifully sped up as he crossed the start/finish line getting a hearty laugh from the bus as they realized what he was doing.  In direct opposition to the race we were also informed that the city contains the most stop lights per capita in Europe. 



Anyway, our first stop this morning was at the City of Arts and Sciences.  It is a very modern complex of buildings covering a multitude of art and science pursuits.  Most buildings were done by one local architect, went substantially over budget, were all white, and were based on human physiology.  The half eye with eyelid that when reflected in the reflecting pool becomes a whole eye.  The tall twisting building representing the twist of the spine.  You get the idea.  The opera theater had some problems.  The stories get a little mixed up about which building had which problems, but I think our guide explained that it started as something else but because of poor foundational soil they had to change it.  They looked around for what the city still needed and came up with Opera house.  



The spectacular building that came was way over budget.  Fairly soon after opening a heavy rain somehow flooded the air conditioning system coming into the main seating area.  Several years later pieces started to fall off the façade because the wrong glue was used.  It is a spectacular building. It has had a few problems.  Apparently the architect has been sued for several projects for various problems.  It is a spectacular building. 

We went to the aquarium.  It was pouring rain but we were mostly inside.  It was in several buildings, sort of like a Sea World without rides.  It was very well done, several of the passages were under the aquariums so tunnels with aquarium on all sides.  We watched the dolphin show in a semi covered stadium.  We were lucky to find two dry seats.  Dolphin shows now seem to be the same the world over with trainers having dolphins do what they do in nature.  They are a little dull after you’ve seen one.  Dolphins are still cool.


Jellyfish

Giant Crab



Jerry in front of a Blue Whale - though not life-size.

After the dolphin show we hopped back on the bus and went downtown.  Walking in pouring rain is not very fun anywhere, but about half the bus decided to do the walking tour.  It looks like it would be a very nice place to visit when sunny.  We saw a church with a beautiful ceiling and some nice buildings but the nugget from this tour was to see and learn about the Holy Grail of Valencia.  I suspect you may be unaware of this.  Apparently there are a whole bunch of vessels claiming to be the Holy Grail but only two have not been proven to be false ones, at least according to our guide.  One of the two resides in Valencia.  The materials used for the cup are correct for a Jewish ceremony and can be found in southern Israel and the cup has been dated to the right time frame.  It has a story as to how the cup arrived in Valencia which while it can’t be confirmed has the feel of possibility.  Of course it all assumes that Peter would think it important to keep the cup after the last supper and carry it with him.  This is the most challenging part of every “Grail” story.  Interesting to me is that the Indiana Jones choice of cup was unlikely to be correct because that cup would not have met the Jewish rules regarding what would need to be used in a ritual meal.  Huh.  If you would like to find out more here is a link Is the Holy Grail really in the Valencia Cathedral in Spain? | Crux (cruxnow.com) or you can go ahead and google “Holy Grail of Valencia”.



Church Alter

Ceiling of Church

We finished the story in the closed doorway of the church with just enough overhang to keep us mostly protected from what turns out to be record rainfall for a single day in May in Valencia since records started being kept in 1871.  Over 8 inches in a twenty-four hour period.  We trudged back to the bus in our sodden shoes and wet rat outfits and headed back to the ship and a warm shower.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ranigroa

Image
  Rangiroa, French Polynesia The dictionary definition of an atoll is a ring-shaped reef, island, or chain of islands formed of coral.   Use Google Earth to get a sense of this unique structure that is Rangiroa. Rangiroa actually means "immense sky" in the local language.   Rangiroa is quite possibly the world's most immense natural aquarium, the largest of the Tuamotu Atolls and the second largest in the world.   If you want to see a place that is going to be impacted by global warming causing a rise in sea level, this is one of those places.  If sea level rises five or six feet, there will be nothing left. We had signed on to a tour of Reef Island, but the night before we arrived we were sent a message on e-mail that it was cancelled since we were the only two people who signed up.   They offered us an excursion to the Green Lagoon which was definitely going so we said yes.   The ship anchored and we found ourselves on the first tender ashore....
Read more

Finishinig Orlando

 We've had four full days in the Orlando area visiting four top tourist destinations: Kennedy Space Center, Universal studios, Disney's Magic Kingdom, and Sea World.  They are four very different venues.  It is time for some thoughtful observations.  We have ranked the four theme parks in order of preference.  Yes, you can quibble with my listing of the KSC (Kennedy Space Center) as a theme park, but it is more like a theme park than it is a regular National Historic Park so I'm going with it.  I'll hold the rankings for a while, hopefully to build suspense.   Observations.  Most theme parks are really not built for senior citizens.  KSC is probably best for older individuals as far the entire set-up.  Sea World is mostly shows in huge auditoriums both inside and outside as well as walk through exhibits.  Although it is supposed to be a mix of thrill rides interspersed with those other venues only two coasters were running and ...
Read more
 Hello Friends,   We are busily preparing for our departure.  Four bags are shipped to our stateroom on board our ship Insignia and they leave on Thursday the 9th.  Jen has been working at this for months and as you can see from the picture we still have a ways to go.  Today I spent over an hour with the 7 page long Indian electronic visa application with little success.  I'll try again tomorrow.  We leave Le Claire for Miami on the 15th of this month.  We are excited to share our journey with you.  Thanks to our niece Nicole who has set this up to be shared in a way that is totally unique to the internet and computer age.  This first post is mostly about doing a trial run to make sure things are working and that we have some idea of what we are doing.   Wish us luck.
Read more