One of the biggest tourist attractions in Valencia is the Ciudad de Arte y Ciencia (City of Arts and Science), which includes L'Oceanogràfic, the biggest aquarium in Europe. I spent four hours on Sunday exploring eleven of the twelve different areas within the aquarium (the twelfth was open to tours only).
The City of Arts and Science consists of a group of large, futuristic buildings that look like they popped out of a sic fi movie. Around them there is lots of water and greenery, and if it weren't for the extreme heat of the sun beating down on Sunday afternoon, it would have been a lovely place to take a walk, maybe pack a picnic lunch, and just have a pleasant, peaceful day. Within the "city" there is a science museum, an opera house and performing arts center, a planetarium with three large Imax domes, a building with many plants indigenous to Valencia (which I've heard transforms into a very cool discoteca-- club-- at night), and the aquarium. So far, I've only seen the aquarium.
From the outside, it did not seem particularly large. L'Oceanografic is made up of a series of buildings and outdoor exhibits and organized by regions of the world. Some exhibits included the Mediterranean, the Arctic, the tropical seas, and the Red Sea. There were large tanks with full ecosystems, small tanks with one specific species, and the occasional tunnel to give you the feel of swimming with all the fish. In many ways I was reminded of the Aquariums at Atlantis minus the "lost underwater city" décor.
One of the exhibits was a wetlands exhibit. This one was held in a large spherical, Epcot like building filled with bright pink and red birds, fish, and a few turtles. I actually went inside the dome, despite my general dislike for being in contained spaces with lots of flying animals (birds, butterflies, its really just not my scene...)
At 6:45 I attended the dolphin show at the aquarium. Dolphin shows are always a good time, although I wish I had waited until seven to arrive. The first fifteen minutes of the show were spent choosing the kids that got to be "helpers" in the show. It was cute at first, but after a while you just wanted them to get on with the show.
To end the day, I made my way over to the oceans exhibit, which may as well have been called the sharks and sting ray exhibit, since those were the two major attractions. There had been smaller species of sharks and rays throughout some of the other exhibits, but if you wanted to see large dangerous sea animals, this was the place to go. There was a long tunnel you could walk through (again, like Atlantis) and the sharks and rays would swim around you, giving you views of every angle but down, and making it feel like you were in the tank with them. It's an thrilling experience.
Here are some of the pictures from the day. Hope you're all having a great week so far!!
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| Part of the City of Arts and Science |
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| A view of the wetlands exhibit from outside the aquarium |
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| A shark swimming over me in the tunnel |
Hasta Luego!
Aubrey
p.s. The strangest thing happened yesterday. I was trying to look up Rehoboth Beach on google, and I could not figure out how to spell it because I genuinely could not remember what letter is used to make the "h" sound. After a moments pause I typed "reJoboth." Like a Spanish "h" sound... Weird. To make things worse, earlier that same day I typed "informaCion" where I had meant to type "informaTion"... I only noticed my mistake when the computer told me I had spelled it wrong.
