The ugly memory that I have for Valencia was the rude lady at the tourist information desk right at the cruise terminal. That was suppose to be the welcoming point at a port but what we saw was many angry and upset passengers and a ridiculously long line. Many people just wanted to pick up a city map and go on their way. Instead, this woman at the desk guarded the maps and wanted everybody to get in line and talk to her, even if they just wanted a map. She was yelling at whoever putting their hands on the stack of maps sitting right in front of her. I suppose she wanted to sell their Tourist Cards which run from 10 to 15 euros each but we had already bought the NCL all day shuttle tickets from port to old town for $12. When it was finally my turn in line, I told her that I needed several copies of the map because we have a large group and then I passed them out to people waiting around for them. That was not a good way to treat your customers! Valencia Tourism Office, shape up!
Actually, the cheapest way to get to old town is to take the public bus for 1.5 euro each way but chances are that you may have to stand all the way because of the crowd instead of riding comfortably in the big coach that NCL offered.
Old town is quit a distance away from the port terminal and walking would be out of the question. Even though we had a nice ride on the NCL shuttle, I felt that $12pp was quite expensive. True, it was for all day, but you really don't have time to go back and forth which means most likely it's just for the round trip. DC thinks that next time, we should get a taxi instead.
We were dropped off at Carrer del Pintor Lopez, near Puente de La Trinidad. It was a rainy day again but we didn't let that to dampen our spirits.
Buildings in old town Valencia.
We went inside the Cathedral which was absolutely beautiful!
What a creative way to decorate the exterior of a house!
Just like cross-stiching. This was near the Round Plaza.
The Round Plaza with clothing and handicraft shops.
The Central Maket, which looks more like a train station to me from the outside.
This is a huge market in a clean environment with many vendors selling all kinds of stuff. We spent quite a long time in here trying out different things.
We tried some fried cod fish skin but they were too salty. DC found out later that they were actually quite good with the local beer they had there. DD also had some hot chocolate that he said was the best he has ever had.
Whatever you purchase here, make sure you save the receipts because they will get you in to the restrooms downstairs. Otherwise it will cost .50 to use the restrooms. You need to trade your receipt for the token at the service counter before going in. You will need one receipt per person.
I felt that this market is more fun than the one in Barcelona. It just had much more interesting things and not as crowded.
We especially enjoyed the empanadas and baked goods here. After we walked around and came back for more, they were all sold out! Unfortunately we did not find any paella that we felt worth a try here.
The dome of the market.
After we walked around a little bit more we saw this Ale-Hop store that looked interesting. It was very much like a 99cents store but in a department store type of environment. Some of us bought a few things here and were convinced to buy the 1 euro nylon bags just for fun when we were paying for our purchases.
Walking back to the shuttle pick up point. The sun was shining brightly by now.
Crossing one of the bridges because we wanted to check out the dried river bed that surround old town.
The dried river beds had turned into parks now.
There are still a lot to see in this city, but we were all tired and going back to the ship sound wonderful.
Here are some pictures of the city as we were riding the shuttle back..
Back to the port.
The cruise terminal that had Wifi. Then we had a late lunch at the buffet again.
I met with Cholette this afternoon to make sure everything was ready for our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet the next day.
We left port at 5:00PM in much better weather.
Back to our late dinner at the Grand Pacific.
Some cute towel animals that I had not seen before.
After all these busy port days, we were ready for our first sea day on this cruise.
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