We were going to go to the southern beach, El Saler, but the weather was so-so and it’s a long bike ride, about 50 km round trip. If we had had our own bikes, no prob, piece o’ cake but while the bikes we have here are actually pretty good, they are a little uncomfortable, especially the seats. So, we gave the beach a miss and instead biked as far as the sci-fi set again. This time though we parked it and walked around the huge complex. It’s very futuristic and the edifices look almost like modern urban sculptures as opposed to functional buildings. Maybe that was the point? Dunno, but there is a lot of space and not a lot of substance.
The science center is a great place for kids, dinosaur exhibits, space exhibits, low gravity and G-force demos, and an exhibit about Mars. There’s even a giant Foucault’s Pendulum at one end. All this explains the little hordsters, but there isn’t much here to keep an adult entertained. The iMax theater is, well a round dome iMax, encased by a 23rd century glass and steel bubble. Lot’s of air space. It’s going to take centuries to generate enough revenue to pay for all of this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very attractive and unique area, but we think they could be doing so much more with it. Maybe turn it into a Disney park?
A couple of the other ‘projects’ that money got spent on are the F1 racing circuit the city built in 2008 that snakes through the streets. Maybe they hoped to become the next Monaco. It was used for a couple of years to host the European Grand Prix but since 2013 has been dropped from the F1 circuit. The other is the ‘new’ harbor which we rode past on our previous beach trek. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but the harbor was built in 2007 to host the Americas Cup. There were names over some of the large buildings like team New Zealand and a few others and I’m sure it was very impressive when all the expensive racing yachts were in port. When we went by though, it looked empty and a little derelict. According to a Telegraph article written back in 2012, the cost of this puppy was 2.4 billion Euros.
So, what about the better times? The day before we hopped the metro again and went for a walk around one of the ‘hipster’ areas, Russafa. We were told it’s quite trendy and has a lively atmosphere, music, a great market, and some good places to eat. Maybe it does but it was Monday. It’s been 3 months and we still haven’t figured this out! It was a nice stroll anyway and we stopped in at a building called Lonja de la Seda, or Silk Exchange. This huge gothic style civil building was constructed between 1482 and 1548 at the height of Valencian prosperity as a shrine to commerce and became the main exchange for the silk trade. There is a Latin inscription written in gold letters in a band running along all four walls extolling the union of ethics and economy:
Inclita domus sum annis aedificata quindecim. Gustate et videte concives quoniam bona est negotiatio, quae non agit dolum in lingua, quae jurat proximo et non deficit, quae pecuniam non dedit ad usuram eius. Mercator sic agens divitiis redundabit, et tandem vita fructur aeterna
I am a famous house which was built in fifteen years. Fellow-citizens, try, and see how good is trade whose words are without fraudulent intent, that swears to its neighbour and does not fail him, that does not give up its money in usury. The merchant who lives in this way will abound in riches and in the end will enjoy eternal life.
The silk exchange is a world heritage site now and the ‘Hall of Columns’ with its vaulted ceilings and spiral columns that flare out at the top are quite spectacular. It reminds us a little of Gaudi’s work. Definitely worth seeing and the price was right. For us old geezers, a whopping €1.
This is a really nice city, and we think it has a lot going for it. Hopefully it’s not another 500 years before the prosperous times are back.
