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!

Mercado Central, Valencia

The magnificent building housing the Central Market in Valencia is in the Modernist style and was begun in 1914 by architects Francesc Guàrdia i Vial and Alexandre Soler, both from the Barcelona School of Architecture (Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona).

There has been a weekly market held on this spot since at least 1261, when the privilege for a market was granted by James I of Aragon (Jaime I de Aragón, el Conquistador). However, the origins of the market are in the souq's of Arabic Valencia, when this area was a maze of streets and merchants around the mosque. It is considered one of the oldest continuously held markets in Europe.

The Central Market is a big tourist magnet, and there seem to be more tour-guides leading groups of visitors from around the world than there are actual shoppers!

Valencia: City of Arts and Sciences

Valencia is very much a city of two halves: there are the gothic and baroque churches, the narrow alleys and town-walls of the old town. And then there is the stunning new architecture of the so-called 'City of Arts and Sciences' (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencian, and Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Spanish).

Both have their charms, but whilst the old town is so-much same-old, the modern quarter is totally unique to Valencia. Any of my photos of the churches could have been taken in any European town and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but the townscape of the City of Arts and Sciences is undoubtedly Valencia.

Alzira, Valencia

We stayed for a few days in Alzira, which has a history stretching back to its foundation by Muslim Moors. It remained a Moorish walled town until its conquest by James I of Aragon in 1242.

Parts of its town walls have been restored, but otherwise the most memorable aspect of the town is not visual, but the continual smell of sweet orange blossom wafting in on the breeze from the acres and acres of orange groves surrounding Alzira.