Monday, October 2, 2006

Old and New

Valencia, Spain (and yes, there are orange trees everywhere) is a beautiful city and the Mrs. and I want to come back and spend some time here. Today we took a bus tour and the counterpoint between the old city (founded 21 BC) and the new is striking and well done. The new is being built in one half of the city and the old is being preserved ever so nicely. Restorations of classic buildings goes on everywhere and the new construction is amazing.

In the late 50s, Valencia was the victim of a horrific flood of the river that flowed through the center of the city. The city fathers decided to divert the river to the outskirts of town and built a long, winding park in the old, now dry, riverbed. The bridges remain.

There is also the new section, characterized by the new opera house, science museum, and aquarium. The park in the dry riverbed connects the old and new sections at each end.

We also stopped at the Lladro factory, where they make all the porcelain figurines. I'm not a fan of the style, but it was most interesting to learn how they created these detailed figures. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me take pics inside (they use proprietary processes) but they did let me go nuts in the showroom.

And of course, some obligatory 'idiot with a camera' photos.

The story so far, in case you're following:

Buongiorno

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Monaco

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