Valencia weekend

The city of Valencia is the third in Spain in population. It's about 250 kms from Zaragoza by road and takes some three hours by car or four by bus. It's a coastal city, but unless you make the effort to go to the beach you might not see the sea at all. Other times we booked a hotel in Alboraya, to the north-east, but this time our hotel was in Manises-further out to the north-west. (Valencia's airport is a stone's throw from the hotel) Arriving and checking in by midday, we tried to take the Metro which was just outside using the Metro cards from previous visits, but it turned out that Rosas is in Zone B and our cards were for Zone A so we had to get another card which covered both zones. It's a big place, and you can spend a long time travelling on the Metro or on the rather slow and rickety tram lines.
Valencia has a long history, but some of the attractive buildings are Modernist:

(not sure if it's Modernist but I loved the paint)

Saturday was our full day and we took a bus, the number 25 to the Albufera. It's a freshwater lake, just a little way out of town, and just off the coast. We got on the bus, along with lots and lots of others until it was crammed tight with people. The bus was free because of the European Mobility Day. Brilliant! On arriving at a stop called Embarcadero we got off and were immediately invited to take a boat trip (that's what we had come for) Once the little flat boat was full-about 10 passengers-we set off on a peaceful citcuit. We saw big fat carp which attacked the bread the boatman threw to them. Mallards, herons, little egrets. Unfortunately no flamingoes, although apparently they do turn up there. My first trip to Spain, I landed at Valencia airport and must have come past the Albufera, because I remember seeing flamingoes then. Well, it was a lovely trip, after which we took the bus to El Palmar and had a special treat, Valencian paella-that's not with seafood but green beans, chicken and rabbit, and cooked over charcoal.

Unbeatable!

This is a lake. No waves. Fresh water.

Here you can see Alboraya, Manises, and at the bottom, where it says Pobles del Sud, the Albufera. The lake is surrounded by fields of rice, which are flodded with the fresh water. 

We didn't see the sea, at all, although it wasn't far away.

On Sunday, making an effort we went to Valencia's famous Malva-Rosa beach and paddled in the sea. It was a very hot, sunny morning. Once again, transport, this time Metro and trams were free, and very crowded. It's a long, beautiful beach; there were lots of people; although not too many actually swimming-the waves were quite rough. There were surfers paddling their boards. We walked all the way along the Malva-Rosa and fount, to our surprise that we were on Alboraya beach. It's quite a long way from the town of Alboraia, but looked like a good place.

In the afternoon we started off for Zaragoza, leaving the palm trees and orange groves, giant cacti and rice fields behind us.