Adventures of David and Paul: Valencia Day 2 - Orange You Glad We Visited Spain?

The next day, it was a quiet rainy morning. We got a cappuccino at the nearby "The Coffee," which oddly is a Japan-inspired Brazilian to-go coffee shop with locations in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, and Colombia. We walked to the nearby Almoina Archeology Museum. This museum is unique because it's mostly underground, and preserves the remains of the Roman city starting from 200BCE, and later middle ages and Islamic buildings. It's not a huge museum, but its a neat design with a big street-level skylight ceiling that serves as a pool for the plaza above. There's not much left of any of the ancient buildings, but many of the foundations and floors are still visible.

Rainy morning in Valencia.

Well it is what it says it is!

A quiet square in the morning rain.

Roman remains in the Almoina Museum.

Original roman floors.

The skylight of the building has a small pool above it, creating unique views.

Next we walked over to two more museums - the Museo de Prehistoria and the Valencia Ethnographic Museum, which are connected in the same building. These are kind of off to the side of the historic center and were not crowded at all, but were very interesting museums. The history museum is more of a traditional museum, with a large amount of artifacts and displays about the history of the area. Most of the displays were only in Castilian and Valencian, which might explain why there were few foreign tourists here. The ethnographic museum was a surprise, with a variety of interesting high-tech exhibits covering a broad range of topics and featuring more English information. These are definitely worth at least a quick visit if you have a few days in Valencia. After the museums we had a quick lunch at Hasta la Pasta.

Exhibit in the prehistoric museum.

Exhibit in the ethnographic museum.

David using an interactive exhibit.

A video game history exhibit. We're old. 😆

There was a little exhibit on paella. Immediately after taking this picture an abuelita came over and explained to Paul, in Spanish, all the components of a true Valencian paella.

A simple but yummy lunch.

After lunch we walked over to our 4th museum of the day, the Museo de Bellas Artes. This is a free museum with mostly religious art. It's considered a highlight of Valencia, but we actually preferred the museums we visited earlier in the day. Still maybe worth a visit, especially on a rainy day, if you're into early medieval art. To wrap up the afternoon we decided to do a little shopping and grab a snack. We walked over to the nearby commercial area next to the train station, and stopped by Pull and Bear and Corte Ingles, picking up a few Christmas presents before continuing on to Horchateria Santa Catarina. Horchata in Valencia is pretty different from what we're used to in North America, because it uses tiger nut instead of rice. We walked around for a little bit before taking a siesta at our hotel.

Exterior of the Museo de Bellas Artes.

Interior of the Museo de Bellas Artes.

A cool/creepy painting.

View of Turia park/gardens from the bridge to the museum. Great place for biking!

A quiet square on a rainy day.

Cool buildings abound in Valencia.

David just hanging out at Pull & Bear.

Santa Catalina is a classic spot for horchata and churros.

After our siesta, we ventured back out for dinner at a restaurant called "Secret," which has a broadly Spanish and European menu. Nothing to write home about, but pretty tasty. We followed dinner up with a stroll around the Church Square where some buskers were playing music to a large crowd. We also hit up a shop or two and got gelato at Gelateria la Romana. Valencia, like many Spanish cities, really comes to life at night.