Valencia!

Update: Click here to see photos.

We took the train from Madrid to Valencia on Tuesday. When we arrived at the train station their was a small lagoon of little turtles in the middle-too cute! The train took an hour and a half and was moving at a rate of about 300 kilometers an hour. When we arrived in Valencia we took a taxi to our hotel, the Aqua 3, which is right on top of a 4 level shopping center. It is very modern and we are close to the port, beach, and the main attraction, the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Science).

Valencia has a wonderful bike share, so we each bought a week pass so we can hop on and off bikes to move around the city. We biked to the beach and bought a tourist pass that allows us to enter many of the museums and get a reduced price on other tourist attractions. With our pass we got on the bus and rode to the heart of the city, that is the historical region. We visited two medieval gates and the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM). For lunch we found a very quaint cafe, where Tim had pinchos de morunes (pork kabob) and Rachael had bocadillo de tortilla de patatas (egg/veggie sandwich). YUM! One of our best places to eat yet!

We then got on a double decker tourist bus that took us all around the city. The city has a beautiful green way which has a couple of soccer fields and lots of space to play or ride your bike. It is also a lot hotter, stickier, and more humid here than in Madrid (around 32 degrees C).

Today we walked around the most exciting part of the city-the Arts and Science Buildings which were built by a famous Valencian Architect, Santiago Calitrava. He designed three buildings and a bridge that are all next to each other, creating an incredible sight! The buildings are surrounded by a small shallow reflecting pool which are not only beautiful but had the opportunity for us to get into large plastic bubbles and walk on the water! So much fun!!!

We went into the most impressive building, "the eye", where we watched an IMAX movie about two turtles (stressing the importance to take care of the environment) and the french children's fairy tale, The Little Prince. They had special headsets so that we could listen in English.

For lunch I tried Valencian Paella, which is different because they don't use sea food (even though we are right next to the sea), they use carne, or different meats. Mine today had chicken, lima beans, and green beans. It was delicious! For dessert our waiter suggested the orange cake, since Valencia is known for their oranges-it tasted like sponge cake with orange in it-mmhh not bad!

On  the way back to the hotel we played Name that Flag. There were different art pieces/small statues in the shape of candies that displayed different countries with the colors used in the art. Tim cheated...I'm sure of it! There is no way he could beat a teacher at this game but he did.