Saturday/Sunday, Aug 23 – 24, 2014 –
We spent most of the day being responsible doing computer work and planning out the next few months. Our niece Lauren and boyfriend Mark, whom we had such fun with in the Bahamas, have a trip planned to Barcelona. We had told them we would be in France and would miss them. Fortunately, a well timed weather delay gave us an excuse to drag our feet a bit so we could see them in Barcelona. We look forward to that.
The bus system here is very convenient so on Saturday we headed into Valencia’s city center for the day, focusing on the historic district. Our first stop was the Mercado Central, the city market. It is a modernista covered market filled with stalls selling meat, fish, produce, cheese, wine, and spices. It is a swirl of smells, sights, and sounds. Every part of animals is used here – nothing is wasted. Some of the chickens were plucked and cleaned but still had their heads and feet attached. In the beef area, there were tongues, stomachs, hearts, livers, hoofs, and a few things I could not identify. Spain is a major agriculture area for Europe, and this is the peak season, so we are in produce heaven. 
The cheese selection is amazing and, of course, the olives are varied and fabulous. We did buy some Jamon (Iberian Ham or Spanish prosciutto), cheese and olives, but were limited by our plans to be in the city for the day without a way to keep things cold.
Valencia’s cathedral is a compilation of centuries of architectural history and the chalice said to be the Holy Grail, the chalice Christ supposedly used in the last supper. 
And we thought they were still looking for the Holy Grail–here it was all along! It is actually pretty small, not what we had imagined.
Like so many other cathedrals in Spain, or the Iberian Peninsula at large, it was taken back from the Moors and converted from a mosque to a chapel in the 13th century when the Moors were conquered by the Christians during the Reconquest.
Next stop, the University of Valencia has an extensive botanical garden with trees and plants from all over the world. It is a serene spot in the middle of the city that we really enjoyed. The plethora of flowers gave Bob a chance to practice closeup photography–practice being the key word!
On Sunday we ventured back on the bus. Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) is a massive complex, recently built and designed by local architect Santiago Calatrava, is a fabulous addition to the city. The architecture is stunning and was what you might imagine buildings to look like in the future.
The complex includes an aquarium, science museum, planetarium, IMAX cinema, and concert hall. We could have spent days there. With one day only we went to the IMAX and the aquarium. The dolphin exhibit is the largest in Europe, and with all of our dolphin experiences in the past year, we just had to see the dolphin show. They are so smart and have such enthusiasm! We would highly recommend that anyone going to Valencia plan time for the City of Arts and Sciences. All of it is outstanding.
One of our favorite exhibits was the Antarctic Penguins. They are always cute. This group seemed especially active with some Olympic swimmers and divers among them. While watching them we noticed one particular pair. One of them, presumably the male kept going over and picking up little nuggets on the water’s edge and delivering them to his mate. After several deliveries she turned around with her back to him. He continued for a few more minutes. We thought he was being quite sensitive to the needs of his mate (penguins mate for life) and perhaps providing some extra food if she wasn’t feeling well. At that point Bob read the info posted on the penguin behavior. It seems that males will deliver pebbles to a female to let her know he is interested in mating. She wasn’t buying it. He delivered pebbles for another 10 minutes before we left the exhibit. It appeared to us that he was going to need a cold swim that night.