Things to do in Valencia

Valencia is Spain's third city, and it is built around a river that is no longer there. The Turia flooded in 1957 and killed dozens. Engineers moved the channel south, and the empty bed became a park.

The old town inside the bend

The medieval centre fits in the loop the river once made. Two gate towers survive from the wall that closed it. Everything below is fifteen minutes apart on foot.

• The cathedral. It holds a chalice the Vatican accepts as a candidate for the Holy Grail. The Micalet bell tower beside it is 207 steps.
• La Lonja de la Seda. The fifteenth-century silk exchange, listed by UNESCO in 1996, with a hall of twisted stone columns.
• Mercado Central. An iron and glass market from 1928, still trading every morning except Sunday.
• El Carmen. The old quarter behind the towers, full of murals and small bars.

The riverbed and its far end

The Turia gardens run nine kilometres through the middle of town, below street level and crossed by old bridges. People run, cycle and sleep in it. A bike is the sane way to see the length.

At the eastern end Santiago Calatrava filled the last stretch with white concrete. The City of Arts and Sciences opened in 1998. Its aquarium is the largest in Europe, and the opera house looks like a helmet.

Rice country

Ten kilometres south the Albufera lagoon sits behind a pine bar, ringed by paddy fields. This is where paella comes from, and the original has rabbit, chicken and beans in it. Seafood versions are a coastal variation.

Boats leave from El Palmar at sunset, when the light goes flat over the water. Lagoon trips and cooking classes are sold together. Both end with lunch, because rice here is a midday dish.

Practical

• Mild winters. January days sit around 16C, and the sea stays swimmable from June into October. August is humid rather than scorching.
• Fallas. Five days in March when the city builds giant satirical sculptures and burns them. Fireworks go off at two in the afternoon.
• From the airport. Metro lines 3 and 5 reach the centre in about twenty-five minutes.
• Paella rules. Ordered for two or more, cooked to order in forty minutes, eaten at lunch. Anything on a photo menu at eight in the evening was reheated.
• Horchata. A cold tiger nut drink taken with sugared fartons. Alboraya, just north, grows the crop.
• Prices. A set lunch runs ten to fourteen euros, a coffee under two.
• Bikes. Flat streets, a public scheme and a park with no cars in it.