Surprising Valencia

We spent only a little time in Valencia and it deserves much more. A beautiful graceful older city Centre and a delightful park developed along the previous river course. This is also where the amazing and very contemporary City of Arts and Sciences is located. A precinct a little like Southbank in Brisbane but with more adventurous architecture.

Valencia had been subject to serious flooding in the past with considerable loss of life and property damage. Actual statistics are hard to come by as the scale of destruction was suppressed by the Franco regime. The radical solution the Valencians adopted was to divert the river course. Can't imagine this solution working for Brisbane! Anyway there was then a period of indecision about how to use the river bed and banks. A motorway was favored by the authorities at the time. But tank God the local people resisted and protested, so that the beautiful park is now there as a playground, green space and cultural and scientific hub.