Saturday 5th April 2025 – Saler, Valencia, Spain

Cool this morning but sunny with scattered white clouds.
We caught one of the frequent buses to Valencia that stop right outside the campsite. On the 30 minute journey into the centre we passed some interesting buildings that showed that Valencia was a major city. There were some fascinating modern constructions that housed the observatory, aquarium and arts & sciences installations. A bridge across the wide river had a guardian angel on it that looked more like an avenging dragon.
We decided to follow the Michelin guidebook walking route with the first stop being the cathedral. There was a huge queue for the cathedral and there didn’t seem to be anyone actually getting in. We discovered the reason – there was a large crowd of singing pilgrims parading to the cathedral and they were obviously going to go in before visitors were allowed.
Behind the cathedral there is an archaeological site. The remains of the Roman Forum and the Visigoth cathedral are well below the current ground level and we descended stairs to get to them. They were well presented with information boards in Spanish and English and there was even an audio-visual presentation in English. When we came out of the site, we could hear the singing coming from the service in the cathedral and we decided not to attempt to visit it – we have seen lots of churches on the holiday!
We continued to follow the Michelin Guide route, admiring the architecture and stopping for a paella at a convenient restaurant. Valencia is a bustling city but I have to say that the architecture was not as impressive as some of the other places in Spain that we have visited. We did enjoy the main market that was very good, busy and in a lovely building.
We reached the end of the walk and found the bus stop for the journey back to the campsite.
Photos: The cathedral entrance and a small part of the queue; The singing pilgrims; A pretty Visigoth oil lamp with the Chi-Ro Christian symbol (6^th century); The crossroads of the two main roads through the Roman city; A hoard of square silver coins from the 16^th century found near the Roman Forum; The bustling main market; The pretty Old Market.