Valencia and the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

Zagan the motorhome’s wedged into a pitch at Camping Coll Vert, about 4 to 5 miles south of Valencia and a short walk to the beach (N39.39800, W0.33301). There’s a good choice of camper stops (aires), camp sites and free camps around Valencia, but we opted for this place as (a) it’s a campsite out of the city so offers good security, (b) it’s only €14 a night out of season with ACSI CampingCard, (c) after about 300m on road, there’s an off-road cycle path all the way into the city and (d) if you don’t fancy riding, there’s a bus stop right outside which goes past the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias and into the old town for €1.50 a person, each way. The showers are hot, the electricity is all of about 6 Amps, there’s a noisy road alongside us and we’re happy campers.

We were well and truly settled in up in Peñíscola folks. Life was good, the town was inviting and the nature park to the south drew me into a clutch of long(ish) hilly runs, 17, 18 and 19 miles, one of which took me through the centre of a hunt, a slightly nerve-wracking experience even though I’d clearly been spotted by the gunmen. After a couple of weeks we felt we aught to move though, more from the knowledge there’s always something new around the corner than from a desire to actually pack up. Eyeballing the map, Valencia was the obvious next stop, but being a city, didn’t hold much attraction for me. Cities seem to me primarily shopping meccas, and I’m not much of a shopper, but they’re more than that of course. This one, for example, has the City of Arts and Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias), which itself holds the Oceanogràfic. It was the Oceanogràfic which finally got me wanting to move, a monumental ocean aquarium holding more than 45,000 animals. Wow. I’ve long loved to snorkel and have had the great privilege swim on the Great Barrier Reef, the Maldives, in the Atlantic, Adriatic, Aegean and Arctic oceans and a bunch more beautiful places besides, and love seeing animals in the sea, seemingly another world to our own.

There was a problem though. The Oceanogràfic keeps cetaceans: Beluga Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins (among other large animals). This isn’t legal in the UK, and has been phased out in a number of other countries, but it remains legal here in Spain and I wasn’t too chuffed about it. Admittedly taken from a short amount of reading, but from what I can tell the scientific community is against keeping these species in captivity: the profit motive, scientific research can be done more accurately in the wild, the captive animals live shorter lives and probably have mental health issues over being constrained in relatively small spaces with unnatural social grouping. The main arguments for appear to be the ability to help sway public opinion towards the plight of the oceans, and the ability to complete scientific study.

As we drove south, through the pink almond blossom and orange orchards, I was conflicted on whether to visit the Oceanogràfic or not. In the end the magnificent architecture and scale of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias swayed me as we drove right through the centre of the city, awed first by the buildings, and then the mayhem of seven-vehicle-wide, zero-marked-lane roundabouts. With relief we exited the city leaving the busy port cranes in our mirrors and rolled into the campsite here. A 78 point turn eased us into place, leaving just the one irate fellow camper who’d decided Ju wasn’t capable of guiding the van into position. As he stood sweating and shirtless, waving his arms about, I completely ignored him, not out of ignorance (honestly) but just because I can’t handle two concurrent sets of information. But it does irritate me old blokes think Ju can’t handle the parking process, which we’ve done well over 1000 times goddamit it!!! Once we’d parked up he disappeared, perhaps in a huff, I dunno.

We’ve since been into the city twice, once on our bikes and once on the bus. I probably preferred the bikes, as the bus was a tad cramped, but both were quick and easy. The Oceanogràfic was simply magnificent, and I left less conflicted than when I arrived. It’s just shy of €31 each to get in, and we were in there for hours! Six of ’em to be precise, and well spent too. The rule not to take your own food was shamelessly ignored (by us), resulting in some daft childish sneaking of grub in various dark or quiet parts of the park to sustain ourselves without being forced to buy the captive-human food (you’re not allowed out and back in unless you have a more expensive ticket).

We watched the dolphin show complete with feel-good music and corporate-slick videos, and I came away with a deep sense of joy at having witnessed the dolphins close up, mixed with a sense that the whole show thing really did nothing to fight the anything-for-profit argument. Lots of (impressive) splashing and leaping, and only a bit of (boring) education stuff. The Belugas (there’s a family of three) were also very beautiful creatures, and an honour to be able to look at them close up. The tank, like the rest of the park, looked clean but rather small compared with the Arctic ocean the adult whales were captured in. A couple of handlers gently feeding one of the whales looked careful and kind. The Oceanogràfic claimed the young whale had saved the lives of hundreds of wild whales in one of the videos, but showed nothing to explain how.

My gut feeling is retaining these animals in zoos will eventually become a thing of the past, as will bullfighting (Valencia still has a very active bull ring). Perhaps until then the best possible thing a place like Oceanogràfic can do, in my humble opinion (this is an amateur travel blog, not a broadsheet folks), is to instill a sense of joy and protection in its visitors, especially the younger ones. That said, the lady smiling and posing next to a model of a huge dead shark (alongside a large notice board about sharks being killed for their fins), had me pondering whether it stood a chance.

More photos of the animals in Oceanogràfic:

On our second visit into the city we got off the bus at the Oceanogràfic again, and then walked along through the other buildings of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. You’ve probably seen the photos before: enormous, out-sized sweeps of white reflected in blue waters? Great arches across a blue sky, silent, alien-inspired mountains? Yep? That’ll be the City, and what a wonderful place it was to walk to, as impressive if not more so than Paris’ La Defence.

Just as wondrous is the fact the whole place is built in a river bed. Looking at a map of Valencia, the snaking bends of a green river now flow through the city, under bridges which once crossed the River Turia until an awful flood in 1957 saw it being diverted south. A billionish Euros later and voila, the City. It was only supposed to cost a third that, but from my short time in project management, I’m a bit cynical about initial budgets. They always seem to be forced ever downwards to get the project signed off, then drift upwards once it’s well underway. Human nature perhaps. Seeing just how much of the vast surface has been painstakingly assembled by hand using broken tiles, I wondered that got it done for a mere billion.

After a mile of walking through lush parks with locals legging it about, working with personal trainers and generally enjoying the sunshine and greenery, we drifted up a ramp and into the old town. Which is rather nice, pleasant to walk around, with lots of boulevards and old buildings with ornate facades and a fast-but-traditional living sort of feel to them. After a few miles of walking we sat outside the town’s old marketplace, munching on a couple of €1 savory pastries and feeling the warmth of the sun having eyeballed the usual array of cured hams, cheeses, dried fruits, a couple of pigs heads, fresh vegetables and arrays of inscrutable packets. In an abandoned newspaper we saw photos of the Catalan politicians currently being tried for rebellion after last year’s separatist referendum, and Ju later spotted Spain’s government may have to call a snap election having failed to get its budget approved when Catalonia refused to support it. Interesting times, not that there’s any sign of this in day-to-day life on the streets of Valencia.

Not much else to report from Team Zagan. Only the fact we’ve a hollow sound coming from our driver’s side front wheel, the one which had a new wheel bearing out in France last year. All the brakes were done before we set off, so it seems unlikely to be either the bearings (the wheel isn’t getting hot) or the brakes. We’ll keep and ear on it and find a Spanish garage to have a look at it further south.

Right, enough typing. The sun’s going down and with it comes the cold. About 16°C is dropping to 3°C at night, and we’re still down on the coast here at Valencia. Looking at the map, I suspect we’ll end up nipping inland in the coming days, so we’ll see some cooler nights still. We’ve plenty of gas though, and as long as the sun shines our batteries will stay topped up (they’re brimming at the moment, having been on hook-up for over 2 weeks).

OK, that’s it! Happy travels folks. Jay