Valencia - Arts & Science City

Hello to you from Valencia's Ciudad de las Artes & las Ciencias - a huge, architecturally demanding project occupying a large swathe of the dried riverbed, involving millions of EU money.  Designed by a local architect, Santiago Calatrava, it is aesthetically very appealing but, when planning our time in Valencia, I initially overlooked this as I couldn't help but think 'white elephant'.  But we've time on our hands and when in Rome ...

The Ciudad (city) is so vast that we decided to visit the complex over a few days so this post will span a week or so.  It combines:

• an Arts Centre (with 4 auditoriums, only a tad smaller than Sydney's Opera House);
• the Science Museum;
• a planetarium & IMAX cinema (the Hemisferic); and
• an aquarium (Oceanografic).  

Outlying buildings include an additional performance/concert area (Agora) and the Umbracle, a mini-botanical area which doubles as car park access and a subterranean disco.  

Wednesday 13 November - Science Museum
I have to say this was the last thing on my list of things to do.  I'm not a huge fan of science and its increasing influence in daily life and healthcare and I couldn't help but think 'Dome', London's own white elephant.  But I stuck with it and wasn't too disappointed.  Mick loved it - lots of interactive displays plus educational exhibits - appealing to kids and adults alike.

Science Museum (middle), Hemisferic (left) and Agora performance area (right)

The top floor was about science in sport (and Valencia FC of course!), space exploration, gravity, chromosomes, personality, disease traits, senses, etc.  There were displays about the two Spanish Nobel Laureates (for their work in sciences) and opportunities for Mick to exercise his well-known competitive streak.  For example, a kicking contest: Mick gave it his best footballer shot scoring around 45 kph.  My turn and he suggested I toe-punt it, which I did, and scored 65 kph.  Whilst lining up my next shot, he nudged in and nicked the ball - and scored 96kph - he just can't help himself! Another display was centre of gravity test: I scored 404 -v- Mick's 396 - he wasn't happy so had another couple of goes.  Boys eh?

The second and first floors was about science in the home and work, science of the seas, forests, climate change, etc.  After about half a day there we figured it was about time to go so we walked back through the converted riverbed back to our flat.

The beautiful human DNA double helix

Wednesday 20 November - Aquarium
Saving the best 'til last we visited the Ocenaografic - a vast aquarium complex which is presented in a series of buildings, one to represent a different aspect of the marine world: Mediterranean, Red Sea, Arctic/Antarctic, Dolphinarium, Wetlands and Sharks!  We watched a fun dolphin show and enjoyed seeing a huge Sunfish swimming amongst sharks.  But the star of the day for us was the Beluga whale - there are two here in quite large tanks - but never large enough - the double-edge sword that is conservation.

Beret weather in The Wetlands

The next few images are short videos as the light was insufficent to take piccies with a suppressed flash. We loved this Sunfish:

Mick's shark encounter:

And the peaceful Beluga whale:

We plan to visit the Hemisferic next week where we can watch one of a series of specially recorded films in English.  We may give the Planetarium a miss as we visited one in Pamplona - we'll see ...

At the Arts Centre you can enjoy ballets, concerts, opera and other special performances - sadly nothing that we fancy is on while we're here but I couldn't resist a piccie of the amazing building.

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Arts Centre - Valenciano spelling)

And if that isn't big enough, there's an additional performance centre:

The Agora Performance Centre

Here's a piccie of the elegant Umbracle, the design of which is based on a palm frond:

The Umbracle

So, that sums up our visit to the Science & Arts City.  We hope you've enjoyed the post.  Tune in soon for the next instalment - around and about in Valencia.  Over!