Booms, Bones, and Boondoggles in Valencia

Valencia wasn’t originally on our list of cities to see, so it’s funny that it was our longest non-Madrid stay in Spain. However, we were looking to slow down a bit and also kill a little bit of time in Spain before we had to be back in Madrid to pick up our foreigner identity cards, and a beach town seemed like as good an option as any. We’ve already been to Barcelona twice and will be back at the end of April with my parents, so Valencia, just down the coast a bit from Barcelona, gave us a new city to try in a region we already knew we really like.

Las Fallas

What we didn’t know when we booked our stay is that we would be arriving right at the beginning of Valencia’s big annual festival known as Las Fallas. (In retrospect, the lack of Airbnb options should have been a clue, but we were able to get a pretty great place within ten minutes of the beach anyway.) Las Fallas takes place over the course of two weeks every March and involves two major components: the creating and burning of large figures that are usually political and/or satirical, known as ninots, and loud daily pyrotechnic shows known as mezcletas. Guess which part we arrived for? That’s right: the loud part.

The first full day we were there, we headed downtown to check it out. It was easy to tell where to go, because there were tons of people heading towards stanchions lining several streets. Most of the people looked like locals, with plenty of families and children. We weren’t sure what to expect, as the street closures made it look like a parade route. As the official 2 PM “show time” approached, there were occasional loud booms over the band playing, an indication of what was to come. There were people on the roofs and balconies of all the buildings in the area, but it wasn’t clear what they were looking at, if anything. I finally figured out that they were mostly looking at the crowds (us!) down below.

At 2 PM, the pyrotechnics started. Since it was, you know, daytime, there wasn’t much to see other than smoke, but we could certainly hear. Man, was it loud! Imagine the ending of a professional fireworks show, where the explosions just keep coming, and then stretch that about ten minutes and put it lower to the ground and also take away the visuals. That is what the mezcleta is like. There was some colored smoke and a few firework-looking sparkles, but for the most part it was just a lot of smoke and loud noises. No parade, no real display, just noise loud enough to shake your organs loose. I started worrying a bit about the windows of all the office buildings above us, as they were shaking ominously. After roughly ten minutes of unrelenting (and somehow increasing) auditory assault, it was over. Everyone just… left, probably to go purchase hearing aids. The next day, the same process was repeated. No matter where we were in the city at 2 PM, we would hear the booms and see the smoke.

 

In addition to the official programming, children find it entertaining to do their own unscheduled mezcletas at random intervals, making the city seem somewhat like a war zone with the random loud noises. It was startling to be walking along and suddenly hear what sounded like cannon fire a few feet away. Great fun for the kiddos, not so much for the grown-ups and the poor dogs who were subjected to the unexpected and unpleasant noise. Valencia was not quite as relaxing as we’d hoped.

Beautiful Boondoggles

Later in the week, we took a walk to go see La Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, which is a large complex of innovative buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava whom Texans might know as the guy who did the fancy bridge in Dallas. He also did the same Dallas bridge in Sevilla and, as it turns out, in Valencia.

It was a gorgeous day for a walk, and we were pleased to discover that one of the fancy buildings was hosting an exhibition of some of the figures (ninots) that would be featured on the floats for Las Fallas. Not only did we get to see the wide variety of figures and get a taste of Valencian politics and humor, we also got to vote. There are two categories of figurines, large and small, and the ninot in each category that gets the most votes will be pardoned from the fires. Since there seemed to be approximately a thousand ninots in both categories, our votes might actually matter, as the winners will probably not have that many more votes than their multitudinous competitors. The ninots are funded and designed by neighborhood clubs, referred to as Fallas. We were a little disappointed in “our” neighborhood’s contributions (based on our Airbnb address), but Craig loyally voted for them anyway.

It was interesting to see the themes that were popular this year. Catalonian independence was featured heavily. There were also a few U.S.-related figures, none of which were complimentary towards the current head of state. A lot of the figures were not political (at least not to our uninformed eyes), though, and some were really neat. I was surprised at how elaborate some were, including some with moving water and lights.

 

 

 

Eating Well

Paella is the main dish of Valencia, and we had planned to try some during our week. However, the place that our host recommended was only open for lunch, and it never seemed to work out with our schedule, probably because we didn’t really have a schedule and were a bit haphazard in our activities. However, we did manage to have some really amazing tapas in the Michelin-mentioned restaurant that was around the corner from our apartment. We tried the traditional beans (habas estofadas – they’re HUGE), which were deliciously spicy but also made me wish that Spanish restaurants gave out water as freely as American restaurants do. We also tried the stuffed red peppers, marinated tuna, and cod croquettes, all of which were fantastic.

Old Bones

Craig’s favorite thing about Valencia was the relics. The churches were just okay, seeming a bit small and plain after the cathedral of Sevilla or the Roman-Visigothic-Islamic-Catholic Mezquita in Cordoba, but they made up for it with gruesome body parts and bones. There was even a crypt where they had skeletons from a former church’s burial site just lying on the ground in a pile. Valencia’s cathedral even has the chalice that is known as the Holy Grail. We weren’t able to see it up close, but they had a replica in the museum.

 

Gawdy Gargoyles

We both loved La Lonja, which is the former silk exchange building built between 1482 and 1533. It’s a set of buildings that are empty, so you would think it would be boring, but the audio guide was fantastic at explaining the architectural innovations and quirks of the building. It’s a rare example of Gothic architecture for a secular purpose, and we found it fascinating. The “tour” of the audio guide even has you go outside the building and look at various parts of the façade, including some very lewd gargoyles, before going back in to the building to see the rest of the tour. I wish more cathedrals would set up their audioguides that way, as the external parts of the building are sometimes more elaborate than the interiors.

 

 

 

Long Walks on the Beach

We ended up not spending that much time on the beach in Valencia, partly due to weather and partly due to other activities being more appealing, but we still found it a great city to relax in (fireworks notwithstanding).