An arty surprise

17-18/07/2019: Valencia
Km travelled today/sum: 199km / 9394km
Sun shine, 35 degrees, highway

An easy ride on a hot day. We took our time and arrived arround 17:00 at the hotel we had earmarked but not booked yet. The entrance had a boom gate and the receptionist was sitting in a what looked like bullet proof compartment. We thought it looks a bit odd, but we checked in. Parking was easy, we got a number and parked the bikes in our own garage. We had seen something like this before, in central america. There they were called Love hotels where hotel rooms could be booked by the hour and it felt a bit similar here 😅. Well, we parked the bikes and went upstairs.

The room looked awsome, an Egyptian theme😁. Behind the bed was a huge glass window depicting three pyramids.

Regardles if this was a purpose build hotel or just something different, it was comfy and fit our budged.

A longer planning session ensued, it turned out that it was feasible to visit Mallorca for a couple of days. We booked the ferry for the next day. We did know that an old school friend of mine lived in Mallorca for the past two years, so we contacted her and arranged a meeting at a café near the habour for tomorrow morning. The ferry was leaving at night, so we had the day to explore Valencia. First we went to the beach, which was nice but everything around there was just expensive. Exploring away from the beach while we crossing a road, I noticed something different at the traffic lights. On side of the traffic light had the standard male figurine, on the other side was a female one. How is that for gender equality? 👍

Instead of the beach we decided to have a look at the ‘Arts and Sciences complex’. We read about it, and the comments that “…if you are not a Valencian tax payer, just go there and admire the buildings…” intrigued us. Apparently there are plenty of constructions problems absorbing large amount of tax money. We gave it a shot and were happy that we did. First we saw the L’Agora, which is a multifunctional complex, used for exhibitions or meetings. The area around it, where Sigrid stands, is shallow water, which was nice to walk through on a hot day.

We continued under the bridge and saw the next three buildings.
The first one was the Science Museum; it is the building on the right with all those ‘spikes’.

Passing the building, we saw some head sculptures in the water. They were nearly flat, but when we passed them, the heads seem to turn. What an awesome effect!

Further along the way, past the Science building, we saw these two buildings, which reminded me on the movie ‘Independence Day’.

The first building was called the ‘Hemisfèric’, not sure what this means, but it contains an Imax 3D cinema. The last building was the ‘Palau de les Arts’, the opera and culture house. One building looks more interesting than the next here!

Here is a view back to the L’Agora. On the right you can see the ‘l´umbracle’ a sculpture park with native plants. That was where we were heading to next.

The park is on top of the car park and the vents look like purple stars! Another ingenius way to incorporate art!

The park was full of native plants and palms with some sculptures scattered around.

It was nearly time to head to the ferry, so we thought we have something to eat in a shopping centre nearby. Here, in Cordoba, many people are riding scooters. So the problem is where to securely put your helmet. We were surprised to find the solution at the entrance of the shopping centre, a free helmet locker!