Valencia – City, Beach, Sun, and „More“

Up until now, I thought Spain consisted exclusively of islands. Several trips not to Valencia, but to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Mallorca, and Ibiza are proof of this.

primarily responsible. All trips were beautiful, and partly typically Spanish, partly more German. There was paella everywhere except in Mallorca, where we got currywurst with fries, but that was also super delicious!

Now I recently learned that there is another Spain, attached to France and with a tip of Portugal on it. There are supposed to be three wonderful cities here, Madrid, Barcelona, and the third largest city Valencia. They say Valencia is like Barcelona, without the never-finished church, but with beaches instead. Well, let's go then, beaches sound great!

Zurich to Valencia

The suitcases are packed quickly. We don't have much time, as the trip is relatively spontaneous. The Zurich (ZRH) - Valencia (VLC) connection is great, available at short notice, and not too expensive. Who has to be at the airport VLC Thinking directly of the video player too? :) (Freaks...)

So, with the German Rail ICE, we're heading from Chur to Zurich and we'll actually arrive on time. We'll start our leisurely afternoon heading towards the Spanish mainland.

We live here in Valencia in a Spanish neighborhood, a bit north of the historic center; about a 25-minute walk connects us to the center. Perfect, so we live centrally, because Valencia isn't that small at all. 800,000 inhabitants ensure you get a great city feel. There are 2 million inhabitants in the entire city and surrounding areas. But enough facts... we feel very comfortable here in the neighborhood. There are no tourists, no hotels, but instead a green park and a metro stop on line 4. The metro takes us non-stop to the beach and back. Oh yes, there are still tons of small supermarkets here, one of which is always open. Really convenient!

The locals

The fun started at the airport. We wanted to take a taxi to the apartment. Normally, that's about a 20-minute thing. But not when you need car seats 🙂 Oops…

After two phone calls with taxi companies that only spoke Spanish, we found a nice taxi driver who called the taxi company again for us and kindly ordered a taxi with two child seats. Thanks!

The street we had to go down was completely unknown, but thanks to the GPS, the taxi driver could find it. So we were happy when we „eventually“ arrived at the apartment. All the people are generally super nice and friendly. You feel comfortable right away and everyone is totally helpful and also child-friendly. Since Valencia is a university town and, of course, frequented by tourists, English is spoken pretty well everywhere in the center. But not where we live. The nice neighbors, of whom we have about 30, all greet us friendly, „probably“ tell us really nice things, and we just reply with „No entiendo,“ accompanied by a clueless smile 🙂 The people then generally continue speaking for a few more sentences and kindly say goodbye with „Adéu.“ As I said, everyone is super nice here. I even found a supermarket that was open on the first evening where I could buy the essentials. After two hours, I was back, the children had fallen asleep hungry, and the parents were starving. That's just how it is when you have no idea =)

Valencia Sightseeing

As written above, we live about 25 minutes away from the historic center. So on the first day, we just walked there. It took us a good hour to get there, and we found the direct way back, YES 🙂 But in return, we walked a great route through the so-called „Green Belt“. This is a huge park that surrounds the city. Eight kilometers long and 200m wide, the park runs directly through the city. It was created from a former riverbed of the Turia River. This river was diverted in the 1960s after a severe flood, and after decades of discussion, it was decided to build or rather plant this beautiful park instead of a highway. Here there are many sports facilities, playgrounds one after another, and wonderful shady spots for relaxing. The park is essentially one level below the city, in the riverbed, as mentioned. Therefore, many bridges lead directly over it and offer a great view.

What do you do on the first day in a foreign city? You find a hop-on hop-off bus and let yourself be driven around. Here, you can take two buses directly from the center. Route A (to the north) and Route B (to the south). We buy a ticket for both routes and head to the harbor on the first day. Since the coast of Valencia was very swampy and repeatedly flooded, the Romans settled a bit away from the beach back then. The city has since developed and expanded inland. This is why it takes us almost 45 minutes by sightseeing bus to get to the harbor, including photo stops. But we get to see all the hotspots, which I will describe in another post.

Route A is also very interesting, which we'll do the next day. It leads through the financial district and to the Bioparc, an African zoo that we'll visit a few days later (see below). First, we explore the historic center, focusing less on the hotspots and more on the countless small and picturesque alleyways. We find a small shop where we eat churros, an Iberian pastry dipped in chocolate sauce. Super delicious and fits any diet 😉

The next day at breakfast, we go to a shop that Coffee and Tapas named. We're ordering tapas and a Spanish omelette because we're all really in the mood for omelette. I couldn't buy eggs on the first night. Do you know that feeling when you order something like that and can't wait until it arrives? Do you also know that feeling when then a potato cake with onions arrives, with bread topped with ham? WHAT? Haha, it was delicious anyway and we all became more than full and satisfied. Different countries, different customs.

Mandarin and lemon trees

All over the city, there are beautiful mandarin and lemon trees. Unfortunately, the fruit is already overripe, but it looks great. Inspired by this, we mostly have fruit at home that tastes so beautifully sweet and fresh here. Directly from the tree. Even the avocados from Peru taste better here. *g*

We still try to "climb over each other" to steal a mandarin or two from the tree. We succeed, but the fruits are really overripe. What a shame. We'll have to come back another time.

We'll spend the next few afternoons at the beach. It's huge, and we even bought a beach tent so the kids won't be in the sun all day. Thanks to Decathlon :) For food, there will be fruit again, yum yum, you can't get enough of it here.

Rent a car and IKEA shopping

Since we're still missing a few things, we're going to IKEA on Monday. But of course, we need a car for that. So, on Sunday, I'll head to the airport with the goal of picking up a car that I rented cheaply. 11 EUR a day, plus 18 EUR a day for the car seats LOL, but still absolutely affordable.

Airport Shuttle

I'm being taken to the car rental place by shuttle bus, only to discover that I can't get a car without my ID. Ugh... even after entering my ID details online. Anyway... the shuttle bus also goes back to the airport. So, first I'll go home, by metro, without a car. Mission failed... we'll just pick up the car on the way to IKEA :)

Mondays then back to the airport, it works flawlessly with another provider. A shuttle bus takes our entire family to the car rental and we happily set off towards IKEA.

There we'll first have a delicious Swedish lunch, and the older one can play to her heart's content in the play area. I don't know if IKEA in Germany also has a lounge for working, but here in Valencia it does, and that's super practical. You not only have fast WiFi, but you can sit very comfortably with a great view in a cozy „executive“ chair and get your work done. Totally cool, and the girls could shop in peace 🙂

Denia

On Tuesdays, we drove to Dénia, a beautiful little town a bit south of Valencia. The city is located on the Costa Blanca and is different from Valencia, built right on the water. Here too, there are great little alleys and nice shops. We spend our wedding anniversary there, eating Spanish teriyaki chicken at the harbor and visiting the castle ruins. The view from up there is magnificent. You look directly at the city and the harbor. A ferry is just arriving from the Balearic Islands. From here, it's 6.5 hours to Ibiza. Coooool!

On the way back from the castle, we found an Italian gelato shop and enjoyed a delicious ice cream. Afterward, we went shopping in town and to a nearby HUGE mall. It was so big that we completely lost track of time and were only reminded that it was already 10 PM by the kids whining LOL Time to drive back to Valencia, where we arrived right on time at midnight. What a beautiful and exciting day!

Columbus – Valencia’s Bahnhofstrasse

On Maundy Thursday, we took the metro to Colón, which is basically the shopping street. Here you'll find big, cool stores like Pull & Bear, Zara, and Starbucks after Starbucks. Next to Zara, as a Spanish specialty, there are „El Corte Inglés“ stores, which you can compare to Manor or Karstadt. You can easily spend a long time in there and even buy some good groceries at the end.

We're skipping Starbucks today and landing in a super cool cafe called Ladyfingers. There's not only great lunch but also amazing cakes à la Cheesecake Factory. Besides, the atmosphere there is super cozy. The kids can relax there, Mommy can eat cake, and Daddy can work there thanks to the fast WiFi. Perfect! We'll also spend Easter Monday here again, but of course we don't know that at this point *g*, so shhh...

Easter

Valencia is known for 300 days of sunshine a year. We were able to enjoy the first 1.5 weeks in beautiful weather. According to the climate curve, April has an average of 4 rainy days. This year too. Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday, yippeeeee. The statistics win, and we are experiencing not just 4 rainy days here, but according to the newspapers, also the worst storm in 73 years LOL

Here in our area, palm trees have been knocked over and trees uprooted, poured out of buckets, and have made for a cozy atmosphere at home. We were still at the beach on Saturday, but we couldn't have run away from a street corner because the wind would have actually swept us away. The beach section was now almost twice as large because it had spread onto the street. Pure action, but of course unpleasant for the residents and equally unpleasant for the festivities. Valencia has some great Easter traditions, processions, festivities on the beach and in the harbor, and much more.

We didn't mind, and you couldn't really notice the air in the center itself because the houses are tall and the alleys are narrow. We were home on Good Friday and then went out again on Saturday, as I said. Even the Easter Bunny was there on Sunday morning on time and brought great gifts.

Conclusion Valencia

Valencia is an absolutely beautiful city. We haven't seen everything here yet by a long shot, but we're totally happy and the kids are having a blast too. The photo gallery starts below, where you can get some impressions. Maybe it's something for your next vacation too.