so, tommorow i leave for london... that should be interesting. but for now, im in
valencia... which is a lovely city... especially because they are hosting the america's cup. seriously, the city put a large amount of money into rebuilding the area around the port, and built a metro line that runs from the airport all the way to port america's cup... they did not have that last year when i came. valencia is famous for fallas, which happens when ive not been here, i think its in early may or april or some spring month... and that is a big noisy celebration where they build giant papier mache statues and then proceed to burn them while shooting off fireworks... the cool thing about valencia for me, is one of my college buddies, Ian, lives here, so i have a good tour guide. last year when i came to watch the luis vitton cup races, i stayed at ian's place on the couch... and this year, i stayed here (first picture) at the westin, which used to be a stable but they completely renovated the place... i like the very interesting arched facade.
i talked about the america's cup in my last post, so i wont go into talking about it now, but the city is america's cup crazy... there are adverstisements with sailboats everywhere, and they even covered some of the subway trains in americas cup advertisements... but my favourite is the america's cup class boat in the ayutaniemnto (or however you spell it) square... this is the square facing towards the post office with the america's cup class boat on display... this is the square where the last of the fallas decorations are burned, they have a decibel meter on the far side... although i didnt take a picture of it...
the cathedral is fun because its a rambling building built in several different architectural styles... mostly gothic, romanesque, and baroque... the fun thing about this church is that they have several holy relics... the severed arm of st vincent is one of them, and i violated my rule of not taking pictures inside of churches to take a picture of it... the oth
er holy reli
c they have in their possession is the holy grail... well, they have one of the many out there... so that is cool...
one of the remarkable things about valencia is the river... one year there was a really bad flood, and franco didnt want to worry about it happening again, so franco, being an omnipotent fascist dictator did what any dictator would do and diverted the river 30km away and built parks where there used to be water... so now there are jogging trails, trees, soccer fields. and lots of green space... the weird thing is that all the bridges are still there. you have old embankments, old baroque bridges,
and its always a bit surprising to glance over and see a tree instead of the river... the picture to the right, is down in the river, lookin at a soccer field and in the middle you can kind of see the torre de
serrano guarding the non-existent river... the torre de serrano is one of two gates that remain from the old walls around the city... its a euro to go up to the top of it and look at the city... and the river that is green with trees... the town has several different architectural styles... but the most prevalent is the art nouveau that was popular in paris in the 19th century... and now, they have a good
number of modern stlye buildings including the calatrava bridge... over the "river" then they also have the older buildings that are built as narrow winding streets with the buildings high over head to block out the sun... it makes for stressful driving (if you were driving) but cooler walks during the hot hours of the day... which is nice... because its not fun to be outside during the hot parts of the day... even though i always wind up being out in it... this picture is the calatrava bridge taken from the
alameda metro stop... which is a metro stop done in a very modernist style... its not very deep at all, and it is right under the calatrave bridge... and about 400 yards from my hotel.
valencia... which is a lovely city... especially because they are hosting the america's cup. seriously, the city put a large amount of money into rebuilding the area around the port, and built a metro line that runs from the airport all the way to port america's cup... they did not have that last year when i came. valencia is famous for fallas, which happens when ive not been here, i think its in early may or april or some spring month... and that is a big noisy celebration where they build giant papier mache statues and then proceed to burn them while shooting off fireworks... the cool thing about valencia for me, is one of my college buddies, Ian, lives here, so i have a good tour guide. last year when i came to watch the luis vitton cup races, i stayed at ian's place on the couch... and this year, i stayed here (first picture) at the westin, which used to be a stable but they completely renovated the place... i like the very interesting arched facade.
i talked about the america's cup in my last post, so i wont go into talking about it now, but the city is america's cup crazy... there are adverstisements with sailboats everywhere, and they even covered some of the subway trains in americas cup advertisements... but my favourite is the america's cup class boat in the ayutaniemnto (or however you spell it) square... this is the square facing towards the post office with the america's cup class boat on display... this is the square where the last of the fallas decorations are burned, they have a decibel meter on the far side... although i didnt take a picture of it...
the cathedral is fun because its a rambling building built in several different architectural styles... mostly gothic, romanesque, and baroque... the fun thing about this church is that they have several holy relics... the severed arm of st vincent is one of them, and i violated my rule of not taking pictures inside of churches to take a picture of it... the oth
er holy reli
c they have in their possession is the holy grail... well, they have one of the many out there... so that is cool...
one of the remarkable things about valencia is the river... one year there was a really bad flood, and franco didnt want to worry about it happening again, so franco, being an omnipotent fascist dictator did what any dictator would do and diverted the river 30km away and built parks where there used to be water... so now there are jogging trails, trees, soccer fields. and lots of green space... the weird thing is that all the bridges are still there. you have old embankments, old baroque bridges, 
and its always a bit surprising to glance over and see a tree instead of the river... the picture to the right, is down in the river, lookin at a soccer field and in the middle you can kind of see the torre de
serrano guarding the non-existent river... the torre de serrano is one of two gates that remain from the old walls around the city... its a euro to go up to the top of it and look at the city... and the river that is green with trees... the town has several different architectural styles... but the most prevalent is the art nouveau that was popular in paris in the 19th century... and now, they have a good
number of modern stlye buildings including the calatrava bridge... over the "river" then they also have the older buildings that are built as narrow winding streets with the buildings high over head to block out the sun... it makes for stressful driving (if you were driving) but cooler walks during the hot hours of the day... which is nice... because its not fun to be outside during the hot parts of the day... even though i always wind up being out in it... this picture is the calatrava bridge taken from the 
alameda metro stop... which is a metro stop done in a very modernist style... its not very deep at all, and it is right under the calatrave bridge... and about 400 yards from my hotel.
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