Diary 27. Visiting Valencia

Valencia was a last minute decision really. Jamie and Venus had spoken about it promisingly, and we were headed in that direction. There was an issue though - there didn’t seem to be any safe parking to stay overnight in or around the city. In fact, there was barely any parking on Park4Night at all. 

After struggling for hours through the heat and distinct lack of reliable 4G signal on our phones, we managed to find an outdoor parking lot which would at least suffice for a day trip. When we got there we were greeted with what looked like a huge sandpit, rammed full to the brim with cars. We could only identify one possible campervan, which was in full stealth mode.


We already knew from experience that the Spanish will tend to park where they can, without forethought of access troubles for those they block in. This area of parking was no different, with access points blocked all round. There was a spot we could create in the middle, and though it wasn’t exactly covert, we settled on it. The wide roads and lack of road markings driving through Valencia had knackered us both, so no more thought went into it.

One of Valencia's 7 lane, unmarked roundabouts

We consulted Google Maps, and went left of our position, as on the drive up we had seen some rather large modern buildings, and we wanted to know what they were. One of them had masses of water around it in man made pools, and it had us intrigued.


As we walked towards the buildings, one on the left side of the road bridge, and one on the right, it became apparent that the right hand building was some sort of concert hall or opera house. The huge banners hanging from it depicting a singer and a medley of dates were the biggest giveaway. We decided to go down the stairs on the left towards the other building. Us little adventurers needed to know what the deal was about.

Opera House

It turns out that all the buildings are connected in some way. Clearly the same architectural minds went into building them, and they were all accessible to each other for pedestrians by walkways running under the bridges. A look at an onsite map told us that there were in fact 4 buildings: A natural history museum, a science museum with movie theatre, an opera house and a fourth as yet unfinished building.


From the science museum you could rent pedal powered Segway boards, which were based on one of the pools of water we had seen from above. There were also row boats and zorb spheres, which looked beyond stifling in the heat, but we did have fun watching a group of macho twenty-something guys trying to stand up.

The museums charged admission, and we weren’t prepared to pay to enter the museums on this occasion. They also really didn’t seem like museums from the lobby. If you’ve ever been to the Natural History Museums in London or New York, you’ll know that the entrance hall is grand and already full of history or titbits to get you excited to enter. The one in Valencia started with manned ticket booths, a pop up gift shop (ok, arguably many people reading would rather the gift shop was at the beginning!) and blank walls with some escalators. It felt more like a train station.

Hemisferic

The Science museum wasn’t much more welcoming. It had the same layout in the lobby as the Natural History Museum, and you could see people walking on the levels above in clear glass corridors. If you’ve ever been to the science museum in New York, the feeling was very similar. 

Personally, I prefer the wonder instilled in you when visiting the London museums. There are always things to see when you’re waiting in line, and teasers of what’s on the different floors to get you ready to explore. These lobbies were a little dull and lifeless for me.


Off we trotted, in the direction of the unfinished building, as we wanted to see what lay beyond. Lots of people were walking in that direction, and it had us intrigued. Unfortunately, what lay at the end of the road was an aquarium. I say that because I’m not a lover of aquariums and zoos, as you may remember from Diary 21 when we went dolphin watching in Gibraltar, so we were definitely not going to be going into this one. Still, the ticket area was outside, and we had a look around at the events and maps on show to get a feeling of the offerings. The map and the outside of the building didn’t seem to match up in scale, so I’m not entirely sure where they were hiding half of the animals. 

Oceanografic, Valencia Aquarium

Something did catch our eye however. There was a poster advertising a film they were screening in their own 4D cinema. The film was 25 minutes long, and called ‘Hurricane’. It looked like it would be absolutely amazing to watch, especially in 4D. The feeling we got from both the poster and watching a teaser trailer online, was 21st Century version of the movie ‘Twister’ with Helen Hunt. It looked that epic. It wasn’t much per ticket to see it, so we walked up to the ticket office to have a look at when the next viewing was.


What we discovered was that you had to pay for admission into the aquarium as a whole, which was roughly €30 each, and add the price of the 4D cinema ticket on top. No matter how badly you want to see something, I’m pretty sure paying €70 odd Euros for 2 people to watch a 25 minute film, really isn’t worth it. Matt even asked the lady on the turnstiles if there was any way we could buy the cinema ticket and have her pop us through. Naturally, the answer was no.


Knowing that we probably sound like cheap negative Nancy's, if you do enjoy aquariums and museums then you could have a day full of wonder. We noticed that entry is much cheaper if you buy a ticket for more than one place. We later learnt that Oceanografic is the largest aquarium in Europe, with sharks, whales, walruses, and penguins. The buildings are huge and very beautiful from he outside.

Oceanografic Prices (July 2018)

Feeling a little deflated, we set off on the long walk back to the van. We needed some Wi-Fi for a quick bit of admin, so popped into a shopping centre to have a seat with an iced coffee. While I looked up places we could sleep for the night, Matt, unbeknownst to me, was looking up screenings of the latest Jurassic World movie in English. I’d been feeling a bit grouchy from the heat and all the walking, and he wanted to cheer me up.


So, that’s how we spent our evening in Valencia, in a cinema, watching a film, eating overpriced popcorn. 

It sounds silly, as we are together all the time, but having a little date night really lifts the spirits. There’s also the fact that when two movie lovers watch a film, the best part of the experience is to tear it apart afterwards.


J x