Awoke to a dull and chilly morning, for our city day by bike in Valencia. Now the bikes have both been mended, it’s the first chance to test them out and there’s a cycle track along the coast to the Port, and throughout the city. Having donned warm clothes, we set off to find the track through the dunes from our campsite, which we’ll stay at a little longer since it’s actually pretty good. The Port of Valencia is a major trading port in the western Mediterranean handling container traffic, cruise ships and ferries to the Balearics and Italy. As we rode along the sandy beach trail, looking across to the port reminded us of Felixstowe, cranes in the mist.
Reaching the outskirts of the city, other cyclists helped us with finding the right route to the centre. We were surprised to find ourselves sharing a bridge with the tram on a dedicated cycle lane from the port. There are cycle routes throughout the whole city, at times it was quite disconcerting at junctions where there were more cyclists than motor vehicles to contend with! Our route to the old city took us through the huge Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias complex, designed by Santiago Calatrava and developed during the 1990s. The buildings are in the dry river bed of the Turia and have gardens on either side.
