Motorhomers on Tour : Valencia and Albufera Natural Park

We have moved further up the coast to Valencia, Spain’s third largest city. It has some fabulous architecture and is known as the home of the paella. We are staying on a peaceful campsite - Devesa Gardens Resort (N39°19’23” W0°18’35”), only €17 using our ACSI card. The site has lots of facilities and only 10 minutes walk to the sea. It has a large swimming pool (with slides), a poolside bar, tennis courts, table tennis, archery, a restaurant, supermarket, horseback riding, and a small menagerie (that includes ostriches, goats, potbellied pigs, shetland ponies, canaries, peacocks, and a cockerel that likes to wake you up at 7.30am!).

Mel enjoying a dip in the campsite pool

The campsite is only 20kms from the city, so we decided to take the scooter in rather than get the bus. All was going well until we ended up on the autovia for about 8kms! Somehow we had missed the turning to the back road in to Valencia. That said, we arrived in one piece albeit a bit windswept because Mel had to keep up with the speed of the traffic – or so he told me! It was great just wandering around the cobbled streets enjoying the architecture, although dodging the tour groups at times was challenging. For those who know us, we are not big city people as we don't 'do crowds', but that said we enjoyed Valencia and would definitely come back again.

Cathedral, claiming to house the Holy Grail - like a few other countries!

The inside of the Basilica Virgen de los Desamparados is really ornate. This Baroque church, dedicated to the city’s patron saint was the most important religious building constructed in Valencia in the 17^th century.

The fountain in the Plaza de la Virgen, next to the cathedral and basilica.

We climbed the Bell Tower - a spiral staircase of 207 steps, with a great view across the city.

View across the city from the top of the Bell Tower

Valencia, like a lot of cities, is full of street theatre but this one below was one we hadn't seen before. It looked just like an oil painting and just her face and one of her hands moved (as a thank you gesture) when you put money in her tin!

Street Theatre

La Lonja, (Silk Exchange) is considered one of Europe's most beautiful examples of Gothic civic architecture. It was declared a National Historic and Artistic Monument in July 1931 and was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1996.

The market hall is considered to be one of the most beautiful in Europe, with a lovely domed top.

and is full of delicious hams, fish, and fruit and veg.

Hams, Mushrooms, fish and Valencia Tomatoes

Walking around the market made us hungry, so time to enjoy some tapas. We were lucky to enjoy some street music of violin and guitar whilst we ate and drank - perfect!

Even the post office building is beautiful.

Post office building

Ornate ceiling of the post office

City Hall

The campsite sits within Albufura National Park. The park is home to the largest lake in Spain and one of the most important wetland areas in the Iberian Peninsula. It is a place of great ecological interest, with rare species of wading birds and wildlife, where its waters have been traditionally worked by fishermen and rice growers. A short ride on the scooter takes us to El Palmar, where we enjoyed a lovely relaxing boat trip on the Albufera Lake. There were 4 other Brits on the boat with us but our boat man couldn’t speak English, so we figured we weren’t going to get any history about the lake. Our on-board safety talk consisted of the boat man putting a pole in the water to show how deep it was, then a hand to his waist to indicate that if you fell in you wouldn’t drown! You can’t beat good old universal sign language! Later out on the lake we got some more sign language as he pointed out the unusual birds to us. The trip only cost €4 each and we were out about 35 minutes, and was most enjoyable.

Heading out on the boat

Me, looking wind swept - one more gust and I will be overboard!

Mel, with his binoculars at the ready trying to spot the birds!

A Heron and Duck! - it's almost like they are posing for the photograph!

Afterwards, we went in to the village to sample some of the region’s dishes, including All i Pebre (made with fresh eels caught from the lake). Eels, I hear you say... don’t knock it until you have tried it, it was delicious! And of course, we couldn’t come here without trying the classic Paella dish, the home of where it originates!