Valencia

Valencia is one of those places that's beautiful, but doesn't have an awful lot to do, especially when you compare it to smaller sized cities like Tarragona and Cartagena. A day there is all you will need to take in the sights. It's a great place to break up the journey along the Spanish coast, and is a good place to take it easy and unwind.

The main highlight for me was the tin soldier museum. It's quirky, and once you get past the various re-enactments of battles, you actually find some really nice scenes there. There's models of various important historical events, such as the death of Nelson, with some humorous scenes of Christians fed to lions, goat herding and all manner of models from famous TV shows & books, such as Barbar the king of elephants and the Asterix series. At 8 euros, it's not bad value for a couple of hours.

Valencia also has a beautiful central market, the Mercado, which has a variety of stalls selling pretty much anything you could want. Also, take a look at the wonderful tiles at the front and the centre point.

It's worth grabbing yourself a picnic, and heading down to the central park to enjoy it. Formerly a river which has now been diverted underground, this park follows the old river bed, and gives you a bizarre feeling of being lost in a magical land, where medieval bridges pass you overhead, birds and squirrels chase each other, and you have the constant concern that all of a sudden the river will come flowing back and wash you away! (This hasn't happened...yet!)

Someone in the hostel did tell me that they had hired bikes and ridden the whole way through the park and the city which sounded really good. Might be worth looking at if you've got time!

From Valencia, I headed to Alicante. Stay tuned for the most disappointing part of my time in Spain!