City of Arts and Sciences – Valencia
When in Valencia, a fabulous place to visit is the City of Arts and Sciences or Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias.
One day, I had arranged to meet my friend, Mark, and as I walked along the dry Turia riverbed, suddenly, I saw these huge buildings looming up in front of me. If you’re into buildings and architecture, like me, these ones definitely have the wow-factor!
This place is so impressive that it is one of the 12 Treasures of Spain alongside the Sagrada Familia and Alhambra, and it’s easy to see why.
There are 7 structures, each has a different purpose.
L’Hemisferic houses a cinema, a planetarium and a laserium. It’s in the shape an eye and with the reflection from the surrounding water you can see the whole eye.
El Museo de les Ciencies Principe Felipe looks like the skeleton of a whale and it’s where the science museum is.
L’Umbracle is a open walk-way with different species of plants that are found in Spain. It’s also where the local parrots have taken up residence.
L’Oceanographic is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe where’s you’ll find over 500 species of aquatic animals including dolphins, sharks and seals. We were going to go there because some say it’s one of the best aquariums in Europe, but we decided against it as we didn’t want to see the animals in that kind of environment.
El Palau des les Arts Reina Sofia is an opera house and performing arts centre.
El Pont de l’Assut de l’Or is a cable-stayed bridge connecting both sides of the city.
L’Agora is where concerts and other events take place.
Mark and I wandered around marvelling at the amount of work that had gone into designing and building this stunning complex. It’s definitely a must-see!
For more photographs, go to morrisophotography 🙂