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Playa Levante - lifeguards snogging
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Beaches
Valencia's town beach is a bus ride away from the centre,
and is quite fine if you don't mind being overlooked by the
port. It has an reputation for being dirty, largely unjustified,
though it is sensible not to stay too close to the port. Valencians
refer to it as Malvarrosa, which is strictly speaking
the northern beach, farthest away from the port, while the
one next to it is Playa Levante.
If you prefer your beach closer to nature, catch a bus (ask
for a timetable at a tourist office) down to El Saler or Playa
la Devesa, both within the La Albufera
nature reserve and both highly recommendable.
Around
Valencia
La Albufera
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A heron taking off
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Playa la Devesa
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The most immediate excursion to be made from Valencia is
to the nature reserve of La Albufera,
a vast, freshwater lagoon only a stone's throw from the sea.
The lagoon has suffered greatly from all kinds of pollution
and the eels traditionally caught there have been severely
depleted, but it is still one of the most important wetlands
in Europe and a great birdwatching centre - it reminds English
people of the Norfolk Broads. You can see it from a tourist
bus, in which case you will be taken to the lagoon and to
the adjacent Devesa, or do it yourself. If you have
a car, this is simplicity itself, otherwise you are dependent
on buses (not very frequent, ask for a timetable at a tourist
office). One good plan is to catch the bus to the village
of El Palmar in the morning. There, you can stroll
down to the edge of the lagoon, where you  should
be able to find a boat to take you on a short, twenty-minute
ride around it (the water heaves with fish and herons glide
around you). Have lunch in the village (there is plenty of
choice, though it gets busy at weekends) where you may be
torn between the best paella in the region or the more exotic
all i pebre, eels with garlic. In the afternoon, catch
the bus to the Playa la Devesa, also a protected area, for
an hour or two on the beach before returning to Valencia.
El Palmar is the setting for a long, ongoing, bitter
soap-opera of a dispute, the kind tabloids describe as "dividing
the community." Licences to fish in the lagoon are, logically,
restricted and have been handed down over the centuries from
father to son. Since the Spanish transición and
the introduction of the constitution with its equal-rights
provisions, a group of women in the village, daughters of
fishermen, has been fighting a legal battle for the right
to fish there. Time and time again, they have won their case
in court, only to find that the community combats these legal
decisions by simply ignoring them.
Sagunto
Saguntum
was the starting point of the Second Punic War when it was
taken by Hannibal after a long siege. The hill-top Moorish
citadel is the site of ongoing excavations which can be visited,
and the Roman amphitheatre has been restored. Twenty-three
kilometres north-east of Valencia, Sagunto
is a pleasant morning's excursion (by train or bus) and you
can pop down to the beach for the afternoon.
Alto Turia
Much of this attractive valley
has been flooded to make reservoirs, popular with Valencian
weekend picnickers. It is also an important vine-growing area.
Follow the Michelin
route or ask at a tourist office for information about
other routes or bus tours.
Next:
"Practical Valencia / Links"
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