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Valencia
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first amongst equals
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When Valencia’s stylish mayor Rita Barbera announced her city’s successful bid to host the 2007 America’s Cup, she looked like the cat that had not  only gotten her cream but the entire diary. And rightly so. The coup has done much for the self-esteem of Spain’s ‘third’ city and been hailed as a rare example of team effort between city, state and central governments. One and a half billion euros have been spent on a new marina as well as a bigger airport and high-speed train link to the capital. Also, on 10 May 2007, Bernie Ecclestone announced that Valencia will be the host of an urban circuit of F1, beginning in 2008, and on 1st June 2007 the contract was signed in the F1 headquarters. |
General information of Valencia
Founded in 137 BC, Valencia, meaning Strenght in Latin, is now the third largest city in Spain. Located at the Costa Blanca, the city has been occupied by the Visigoths, Moors and the Aragonese. During the Spanish Civil War, the capital of the Republic was moved to Valencia. During the Franco years, speaking or teaching Valencian was prohibited (in a significant reversal it is now compulsory for every child studying in Valencia). 
Valencia has enjoyed strong economic growth over the last decade, much of it spurred by Costa Blanca tourism and the construction industry.
Valencia’s surrounding area has the highest rural density in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of agrarian workers are needed to toil the region’s rich and expansive huerta; a word that can only be (inadequately) translated into English as vegetable patch or crop.
It is said that the Moors first introduced rice to Spain and just to the south of Valencia, on the Orange Blossom Coastlines the Albufera, a huge lagoon covered in rice paddies.
Valencia’s port is one of the busiest on the Mediterranean coast and the first of Spain, handling 20% of Spain’s exports. |
Sights & Things to do in Valencia
Less full of itself than Barcelona or even Madrid, Valencia still retains old school touches. Retro billboards dot the city centre, moist legs of hams hang from restaurant and shopkeepers in the old quarter do a brisk trade in fans and embroidered mantillas (shawls) that are sported by the local ladies on any Sunday morning. Politically conservative, Valencianos let loose in their fiestas, particularly frenzied even by Spanish standards. 
The most famous is Las Fallas in mid-March, a weekend long event of fiery revelry where niñots – huge effigies of political and social personages – are torched in the main square.
La Tomatina, an annual tomato fight, draws crowds to the nearby town of Buñol in August. There are also a number of well preserved Catholic fiestas throughout the year. Semana Santa celebrations in Valencia are considered the most colourful in Spain. In the centre, the old quarter of Valencia is small enough to see in a day. Make a beeline for the Mercado Central, an ornate Art Nouveau affair that proudly displays Valencia’s rich bounty.
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Across the road is the high Gothic Llonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange) – its soaring candy-cane twisted columns were prime inspiration for a young Calatrava.
Within a stone’s throw is the city’s cathedral – a hotchpotch of edifices from the Romanesque to the Baroque. The rather macabre shrunken arm of Sant Vincent is its main attraction. More earthly pleasures can be found in the dozens of restaurants and bars in the old city of Valencia, not to mention small, specialist shops that make a ceremony out of selling you a reel of cotton.
The Eixample is where the cashed-up merchants of the 18th century built their show homes.
Although the area lacks the work of the architectural luminaries of Barcelona, there are some exceptions. The Palacio de Marqués de Dos Aguas (now Valencia’s Ceramic Museum) is an over-the-top extravaganza featuring a breathtaking alabaster portal that curves around the main entrance.
Even before the America’s Cup the city has always been disposed to sudden bouts of dramatic urban change. Prone to flooding, the Río Turía that surrounds the city was diverted in 1957 and now its dry bed sports miles of football pitches and leafy gardens.
World-renown Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava’s swaggering, white museum complex, the Ciudad de las Artes and las Ciencias, was a push to draw tourists to a once-neglected area of industrial wasteland towards the coastline. |
Museums in valencia include
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Museo Fallero & Museo Del Artista Fallero (Les Falles)
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Museo Taurino (bullfighting)
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Museo Del Arroz (rice)
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Museo Valenciano de la ilustración y la Modernidad (MUVIM, various exhibits)
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Almudín (various exhibits, mainly art and archaeology) 
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Museo de Semana Santa
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Museum of Corpus
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Museum of Ceramics
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Museum of Valencian History
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Museum of Alfonso Pascual Maldonado |
Nightlife in Valencia
Valencia’s hot days lead to long, languid nights. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Carmen neighbourhood in the old city was where the club kids headed to hear bacalao, an early version of Balearic beat dance music. 
Today, the more alternative/bohemian bars and nightclubs are concentrated in the Carmen, while the student nightlife is found around Blasco Ibanez and the more mainstream weekend nightlife has its clusters in the areas of Canovas and Juan Llorens. In the summer there is also nightlife on the beach and at the Port and Malvarossa Beach.
Since the America's Cup has taken place at Valencia, new clubs have been opened and people from all nations go there to party every weekend. As is normal for Spain, nightlife does not take off until well after midnight. Agua de Valencia is the city's unofficial cocktail.
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Gastronomy in Valencia
Valencia is famous due to its wonderful gastronomic culture. Paella, horchata, fartons, potatoe omellete, rosquilletas, iced lemon, squids, are some of the examples of food in Valencia. Have a meal of paella washed down with an Agua de Valencia (orange juice and sparkling wine) and you are partaking in the two main reasons for the city’s economic success: orange and rice. 
The Eixample is also the place where the well-heeled shop and eat at big-name boutiques and formal restaurants with moustached waiters expert in restrained formality.
More relaxed dining can be found at Valencia’s beach Malvarrosa. Although it’s a tad run-down, the shoreline is flanked by traditional fish joints that are thronged on the weekend for Sunday paella. The best is La Pepica, an institution that was yet another haunt of Hemingway. Bathed in the prettiest blue tiles with a glass, sea-facing façade, the excellent rice and fish dishes are despatched from an open kitchen at lightening speed to hundreds of hungry customers.
Just behind Malvarrosa is the neighbourhood of Cabanyal, with rows of colourful tile-clad houses and dimly-lit tapas bars serving up sardines and mussels.
Valencia’s rich bounty
When you are spending your vacation in a holiday home at the Costa Blanca, we recommend spending a day in Valencia.
From Javea and Benitachell it is approximately 100 km, from Altea 130 km, from Moraira and Calpe 110 km and from Denia 90 km.
Please note that most shops are closed during siesta hours (between 14:00 and 16:30). The more reason for you to explore and enjoy the local gastronomy.
Climate in Valencia
Valencia has a Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers and mild winters.
Temperatures
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Average temperatures:
Valencia |
| month |
daytime temperature in ºC |
sun hours per day |
| January |
15 - 20 |
6 |
| February |
16 - 20 |
6 |
| March |
16 - 22 |
7 |
| April |
18 - 23 |
8 |
| May |
20 - 26 |
10 |
| June |
24 - 28 |
12 |
| July |
25 - 30 |
12 |
| August |
26 - 34 |
10 |
| September |
24 - 30 |
9 |
| October |
20 - 26 |
7 |
| November |
16 - 23 |
6 |
| December |
15 - 22 |
5 |
Pull up a chair on a shaded terrace, order an Agua de Valencia and observe the city’s unique cocktail where even the young folk are not adverse to donning traditional garb for the family stroll. Unlike many modern Spanish cities, Valencianos are staunch sticklers for tradition. And therein, at least for the moment lies its charm.
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