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Valencia's Valencia's Valencia's Valencia's |
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Valencia is a great city. Although it is Spain's third city, unlike its big sisters, Madrid and Barcelona, it is compact, manageable and great to get around if you are visiting for the first time. You just need to know the basic layout. The city centre, which includes the Centro Historico, is bordered on three sides by the Gran Vias- lovely tree-lined avenues, and on the fourth by the Río Turía, the park that was once a river (more on this later). Across the river is access to the port and the beaches of Valencia. Valencia is a city of contradictions and contrasts, particularly in its architecture - Ancient and modern stand side by side -usually to great effect. There are stunning examples of both, La Lonja, Mercado Central, The Ayuntamiento and Post Office on the one hand and The City of Arts and Sciences, The New Law Courts and the Velas i Vents buildings on the other. We mentioned the Río Turía previously and this is an excellent and somewhat surprising example of forward thinking town planning on a massive scale. The Río Turía was made in to a park in the 1950's after a devastating flood burst the river banks and destroyed much of the city. Valencia built a new river bed (flood channel) away from the city diverting the ancient river to the new. The city decreed that the old river should become a park 'for all time' and it now winds its way down 10 kilometres of gardens, fountains, running tracks, sports grounds, children's playgrounds, cafés, wild areas, woods, a Music Palace, Opera house, Science Park, Oceanarium and all the original bridges (and some new), making Valencia one of Southern Europe's Greenest Cities. So here is thisisvalencia.com's guide to the city - the buildings, the monuments, the parks... SIGHTSEEING AND GETTING AROUND THE CITY Valencia Bus Turistic THE CITY TOUR, stopping at all the main sites including The City of Arts and Sciences, unfortunately, it doesn´t go to the new and improved port area but we will tell you how to get there later. ALBUFERA (Valencia's rice paddies) and includes a boat trip across the waters, both routes are 12€ By EMT, the local bus: Trams: depart from the Pont de Fuster and will take you down to the beach or out to the north of the city . Metro: Excellent and frequent services all over the city and to the Airport. Taxis: Relatively cheap, and plentiful most of the time. |
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Our columnist, Barbara O'Neillwrote very briefly about the Casa Museo Benlliure in a recent column here on Thisisvalencia.com. She was quite moved and impressed by the visit and hasn't stopped talking about it since. So we have asked her to add it as a full lngth piece to our Explore Valencia section - here it is, and she is right it is well worth a visit. |
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WALK ONE - HISTORIC CENTRE |
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hola · hello |
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