Had to take the hire car back today so decided to drive into the city, hand it in and then do some more city sightseeing before taking the bus back to the campsite.
Satnav took us straight to the car hire place. So glad Bob thought to bring the spare Satnav with us. Our old one which we use in the car, as we have a big vehicle version for use in the motorhome to hopefully avoid being taken down an inaccessible rat run. Handed the car keys in and grabbed a taxi from just outside to take us to the Central market.
First stop the old Silk market (La Lonja de la Seda) as advised by cousin Gillian to be a place not to be missed. Indeed it was not. Wonderful building and fair oozing with age and history.
Also with quite a few guided tours. We didnt notice any on Fridays visit to the city. Maybe Tuesday is Valencia guided tour day but there were certainy a few about as well as an astonishing number of student groups.They were mainly sitting around whereever there was a spare space, eating something or other. I only mention this as
Went past a church and had no idea what it was but people were going in so we paid oap rate of €6 each to go in too. This is the Iglesia de los Santos Juanes and is currenlty under major renovation or rather its fantastic baroque decoration is. One big area is netted off and there is scaffolding behind which we could see people working, some right up on the ceiling. The decoration which is there to be seen is fantastic. When it is all finished it will be amazing and actually the work did not detract as it showed how much effort is put into keeping something like this for us to see. It has been badly damaged in the Civil War particularily by fire.
Heading next to find Carre des Caballeros and the church we missed last time but we were diverted by a crepe shop and stopped for lunch. At is happened the table we stopped at was for the cafe next door but no problem we ordered drinks and tapas instead. We were too full after that for
the crepes, will have to wait for those until we are back in France. Also whatever we ate yesterday in Xative was not quite right and we are both feeling rather off so being careful what we eat. Even so I find it hard to resist Padron Peppers and todays were lovely.
While we were eating, the helicopter which kept flying around above us on Friday, returned and did the same and then sure enough loud fireworks sounded for 15 minutes from the market square behind us. Les Fallas starts here in a weeks time and the city is in full preparation.
We then at last found our church, San Nicolas, the entrance being tucked away down an alleyway. We were by the closed big entrance doors overlooked by some apartments so I called to ask a man on the balcony if it was abierto or cerrado.... he understood to my amazement, especially as conversation was at a distance, and sent us round the building to find the way in.
The renovation of this fantastic interior and it is indeed aweinspiringly beautiful. We got a discount on the entrance price as we produced our ticket from the
other church and got ticket . Worth every euro cent. I do find I keep having to put 50 cents into candle boxes quite frequently at the moment as must do everything we can, which is in fact so very little, to feel better about the dreadful events on the other side of the world.
Lots of photos later, some of which are included here, we left and set off through the lovely Valencian streets again. We really love this city. There are so many amazing buildings to admire and even the side streets are attractive with their many balconies and multi colours. We found our way back to the square where we had seen some covered up Fallas sculptures on Friday. Today they were uncovered so I managed to get a photo. Cant imagine how exciting it must be in this city when Les Fallas is in full flow but am sure the whole city will be heaving with people and lots and lots of noise.
