Exploring the Gulf of Valencia coast

South of Valencia stretches a beautiful coastline with sandy beaches and the Parc Natural d'Albufera. The Albufera itself is a large fresh water lagoon with a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

The sand dunes are particularly stunning, with carpets of yellow cretan birds-foot trefoil, deep purple viper's bugloss, sea holy, and lilac sea stock.

The Albufera lake:

Further down the coast, south of Cullera, are fresh-water estuaries supporting small fishing communities and holiday residences.

Blue-domed church of San Pedro, Sueca, Valencia

Travelling around the Valencia region, you often come across stunning buildings in unexpected places. In this case, the gorgeous blue-tiled domes of the church of San Pedro (St Peter) in the town of Sueca.

It seemed rather busy in Sueca, and looked like it might have been market day. Note the 'living statue' handing out flowers on the left:

Also popular seemed to be balloon-sellers. This bunch of balloons has legs of its own!

Where there is a St Peter, there is usually a St Paul, but here it appeared to be just Paulaner beer that was around. Feels just like being back in Germany!