Valencia

After our stay in Madrid, we took a 2-hour train ride to Valencia, which is located on the eastern coast of Spain.  This city is more of a relaxing vacation place rather than a tourist attraction site.  There seemed to be fewer foreigners here, but the people here were probably the friendliest people we encountered on the whole trip.

We only stayed 3 days in Valencia, which was the perfect amount of time for this city.  Below were my top 3 places to visit while there:

1)  El Saler

El Saler is about a 30-minute bus ride south of Valencia's city center.  There is a more frequented city beach called La Malvarrosa, but I much prefer taking the trip out to El Saler.  It is a lot cleaner and quieter, and a perfect place to spend hours on the beach lying under an umbrella.  (I'm not too keen on tanning since I don't want to increase the risk of getting skin cancer or burned.)

We forgot our camera/batteries the day we went to El Saler, so this is actually a picture of La Malvarrosa.  It was a little overcast, but it's prettier on a sunny day.

El Saler

http://www.spaincenter.org/turismo-spain/comunidad-valenciana/valencia/el-saler.htm

2)  City of Arts and Sciences / Turia River Bed Gardens

I group these two sites together because the Turia River Bed Gardens leads right to the City of Arts and Sciences. The Turia was an old river that dried up, and the city has revitalized it to make it into a 7 km long park.  Each section has it's own theme, and there are a lot of people just running or biking along it.  We only walked 1/3 to 1/2 of the garden towards the south end because there wasn't much to see in the other half.

The City of Arts and Sciences is cool to walk around.  The futuristic looking architecture was unique, and I think it would fun to go there for New Year's or outdoor concerts.  It was pretty expensive to go into the aquarium and museum, and we weren't too interested in going to the planetarium, so we just took pictures from the outside.

3)  Walking Tour

We did a walking tour of La Lonja, Mercado Central, Cathedral and Miguelete, Plaza de la Virgen, and the Torres de Serranos one of the days.  I hit most of the top sites listed on this website, which I think was 

La Lonja - Old Silk Exchange

Cathedral and Miguelete

Plaza de la Virgen - I loved the marble tiles outdoors.  It gave the city extra finesse.

Torres de Serranos - Climbed the towers for €1.25 student price