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One of the Valencian festivals that I remember most from my time studying there was Las Falles.  It’s a two week-long festival that commemorates Saint Joseph, although I mostly just remember it as time to stay out late, eat free paella from neighborhood pans (we each carried around our own spoon), the monuments built for Las Falles, and the end of celebration fires.  Las Falles refers both to the celebration itself as well as to the monuments that are constructed (and later burnt) for the celebration.  The Falles are built around that year’s theme and consist of Ninots (figures).  Each year a committee recommends a set number of Ninots to be saved from the fires.  The one(s) actually saved are those that receive the most votes from the public.  Bob and I visited the museum that houses the saved Ninots and provides an overview of the festival.

One free museum that we happened upon on our walk around Old a town one day was The Corpus Museum also known as The House of the Rocks.  This building was bought by the Valencia City Council in 1446 to house the ceremonial carts (rocks) used in the city’s annual Corpus Christi festivities.  The festivities take place on the Sunday closest to the 60th day following Easter (per papal instructions from the XIII century).  The carts are Valencia’s emblem of their celebration.  There are currently 11 rocks that have been elaborately crafted over many years, with the oldest completed in 1512 and the newest in 2001. They are brought out of the museum for viewing on the Friday night before the official celebration.  The Sunday festivities consist of thrwe different parades throughout the day on Sunday.

Since we had seen the beautiful beaches and coastline in Croatia, we had to see what Valencia had to offer.  I also wanted to walk back from the beach on the road that I lived on as a student — the Avenue of the Port.  We walked down through the gardens (see prior post) which got us very close to the beach through the lovely arts and sciences complex (see next post).  It was a lovely day, but I didn’t recognize much from “my” old street — I guess 30 years and some urban renewal efforts will do that.

The City of Arts and Sciences is a cultural and architectural complex at one end of the garden of Túria.  It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela.  It was inaugurated in 1998 and has become Valencia’s number one modern tourist attraction.  The complex consists of a number of buildings including — The Hemispheric (IMAX, planetarium, and lasrium), the Prince Philip Science Musem, the Umbracle ( open, landscaped structure with a Walk of Sculptures and outdoor art gallery), the Oceanographic (largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe), the Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts (opera house and performing arts center), a bridge, and an agora (a covered plaza which hosts concerts and sporting events).

Bob and I walked around most of the complex and did a paid tour of the Palace of the Arts.  We also stumbled upon a Big Head Bonanza!

Another memory I have of my time as a student in Valencia was crossing the River Túria, which we called the dry river since it was pretty much just sand and dirt, the river having been diverted in the 1950s to prevent flooding.  The riverbed wasn’t much to look at and wasn’t serving any useful purpose though the bridges across it were nice.  Since I left, the city has transformed the riverbed into the Jardin(es) del Túria, or the gardens of Túria, a large urban park.  It is 9 kilometers long and runs from a park near the zoo to the new, modern arts and sciences complex.  The gardens have 5 kilometers of running trails (loved them, as do the locals as they were busy), exercise spaces, playgrounds for kids and adults, and sports courts and fields along with beautiful trees, flowers, water features, etc.  The gardens are crossed by 18 bridges of varying historical times and many of the city’s major museums and monuments run alongside of the gardens.

To start our last day in Split (and Croatia), Bob and I walked out of the residential area in which we were staying and away from Old Town to the westernmost part of the city to view Bene beach.  This is a popular beach for locals and is located at the edge of the large Marjan Hill Park.  We walked into the park on the road which was filled with lots of runners as well as families headed to the very small children’s amusement park located near the beach.

After walking around the beach, we headed into the park to climb to the other overlooks of the city that we hadn’t yet visited.  The trails were narrow, rocky, and not well marked, but it’s amazing the locational data stored in Google.  Bob has downloaded off-line ability with Google Maps, and it continues to be a handy resource.

From the overlook, we walked back down the hill on the southern side to visit the Ivan Meštrovič Gallery which is housed in his former summer villa.  Meštrovič lived from 1883 to 1962 and is a renowned Croatian sculptor.  He spent the last years of his life in the United States where he worked as a professor of sculpture for Syracuse University and then NotreDame.  We had not heard of him before our visit but where quite impressed with his work.

 

The Meštrovič gallery overlooked the sea, so after viewing his work in the gallery and a church down the road, we headed to the nearby harbor to explore more closely what we had seen from the overlook.

I think I had noted earlier that Split is in the Dalmatia region of Croatia.  Ever since I had learned that I had been watching for Dalmatian dogs.  I finally saw one — and doesn’t he (or she) look regal!

Split is home to Diocletian’s Palace which is an ancient palace built for — wait for it — yep, a guy named Diocletian.  He happened to be the emperor of Rome at the start of the fourth century AD.  The site is quite the tourist draw, but it is actually more of a village than a palace as there are a number of structures within the outer walls.  The structures inside were originally intended for about half for Diocletian’s personal use and half for the military.  Currently, the buildings are used by the locals for their personal residence but also for hotels, restaurants, and retail shops.  We had a map that provided an overview of the street-by-street layout with some history to help guide us through the maze.  We spent a good half day in the “palace” with hundreds of our closest friends.  It was an impressive structure and well worth the exploration.

 After completing our tour of the palace, Bob and I strolled along Marmontova, the pedestrian street, and surrounding area.  This is just a few blocks from the palace.

Harbor

A graffitied quote we liked — 



We took a 6:00 am ferry out of Korčula to Split, Croatia’s second largest city at just under 200,000 residents.  It is also on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, though further north than Dubrovnik.  It is the largest city in the region of Dalmatia, one of Croatia’s 4 historical regions.  It is a popular tourist spot for its famed beaches, Diocletian’s Palace, and Overall beauty.  We loved it!  

 While in Split, we stayed at an Airbnb not far from the Riva.  We had  our own small apartment and were able to wash our clothes.  The homeowner left the key for us, as he knew we’were arriving early.  After doing a load of laundry and hanging it out on the clothes lines on the building, we headed out to begin to explore Split.  We started with a climb up Marjan Hill behind our neighborhood for an overlook of the city.

We then headed back to and around the harbor to see some of Split’s many beaches.

To see a bit more of the island, Bob and I decided to walk 6k to the town of Lumbarda to check out its beach that our host had told us about.  While the day was a bit overcast, we had a good walk there and back.

Back in Korčula, we walked out of town along the other harbor (opposite from where we stayed and from which we left town in the morning for Lumbada) to get a good overlook of Old Town.

On Monday, September 18, Bob and I caught a 6:30 am ferry from Dubrovnik to the island of Korčula.  The ferry trip took about 2 1/2 hours getting us to the island at 9:10.  Korčula is an island of about 15,500 people.  It is also the name of the main town on the island, population 5,600.  The town’s main claim to fame for tourists, other than being a beautiful island get-away, is its medieval towers in the Old Town and being the supposed birthplace of Marko Polo.



After deboarding from the ferry, we had a picnic breakfast by the harbor and then walked a quick 5 minutes into Old Town in Korčula (the town) to our accommodation. We stayed in a room over a pizza restaurant that faced the promenade on one side of the Old Town peninsula.

On our first day, we continued our explorations out of Old Town to see more of the coastline.

On our second full day in Croatia, we took a 15 minute boat ride to the nearby island of Lokrum which is a designated nature preserve with a botanic garden, historical remains, and a number of beaches.  Boats between the Old Town of Dubrovnik and Lokrum run every half hour.

After returning from the island, we walked to Banje Beach, Dubrovnik’s most famous beach, and then back through Old Town to our accommodation.

Sunday was a cloudy day with light showers off and on.  We still got out to see some of the areas we hadn’t yet explored.