Day 13 - Valencia — Travelling bryans

We woke up with alarms this morning as we have 10am tickets for the aquarium - L'Oceanogràfic.

This is in an area specifically for science and arts called Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. It’s a huge area very close to the coast and the architecture is stunning.

The buildings are made up of a concert venue, an opera house, a planetarium, a large conservatory with local plant species, a science museum and the oceanarium.

It was designed by two Spanish architects and completed in 2005. The buildings are surrounded by shallow pools and the tile work is white mosaic (very Gaudi) making the area look clean and bright.

We treated ourselves to a taxi to the oceanarium as the metro was going to take over an hour. The metro is clean and nice but the trains are quite infrequent, so given the early start this seemed the best option.

We arrived in good time and queued to get in.

We followed the numbers on the map to see each area. First area were the jellyfish and small sharks.

Jellyfish have no brain and are 98% water - they are basically just nerve endings. They are very graceful as they float around their tank.

Next stop were the turtles. I love them. So cute!

We then stood in a short line for the aviary. It wasn’t huge, which is good as it doesn’t have many birds which is a relief. They did have some beautiful ibis, and some ducks.

After that we are off for the seals. They looked very happy on their rock soaking up the sun, but most of them were swimming around in the pool.

As we were sitting watching the seals along swam a huge and graceful turtle! He was so lovely, and not at all upset about being in a tank of seals.

We made our way underground for the darkness of the tropical fish tanks. There are some odd sea creatures - spiky and spindly and usually camouflaged. We did see some beautiful sea horses.

It was really starting to get very hot now so dipping in and out of underground tanks (not literally) was most welcome.

Onto the flamingoes now and they were very busy pecking and eating.

A change of temperature now and into the arctic zone. They have two beautiful beluga whales here and they really do have the best faces. We watched them for ages, as they swam around and around.

They also had penguins, but they didn’t look particularly thrilled and some stupid people were banging on their glass despite being told no to, so we left the arctic.

We had tickets for a 4D film next. It was a very short film (maybe 7 minutes) and it was an extract from The Blue Planet, about octopuses. We put on our 3D glasses and we were soon under the water with the octopus and how he protects himself from sharks and also feeds himself. 4D means we were often sprayed in the face with waters or had the feeling of tentacles around our ankles!

We heard the noise from the dolphin stadium and decided to investigate. The dolphin tank and stage is huge. The trainers had them jumping and doing some great tricks for the fishy reward. I don’t know that the dolphins enjoy it. They are, after all, in captivity. But I know that dolphins do like humans. But do they really like jumping for fish?

It’s also the reasons I don’t like horse racing or polo, as humans say that the horses love it. But who really knows?

After getting back to the hotel and googling it, we now know that SeaWorld in the US no longer use orcas or dolphins for performing and that Tripadvisor have banned all sales to such venues. So we were right to feel odd about it, and we are really sorry lovely dolphins that we were part of it today.

Our final exhibit to see were the sharks. This was certainly a crowd puller and they have a huge tank, but even behind glass they are really scary creatures. They were swimming amongst huge fish and mantarays. You could walk through a glass tunnel on the way out with them swimming above you.

The facilities for the animals seem really good, and it’s a very impressive place. They do lots of work on conservation, which is good.

We took a slow walk back to the bus stop through the beautiful buildings and then had our last swim in the pool.

We got the bus into town and had a meal and an ice cream and walked back to the hotel for our last sleep in a strange bed.

We are ready to come home now. It has been a lovely trip. Looking back I can see how much I’ve mentioned the heat and the sleep! They have both been big factors!

We have one last day tomorrow and an evening flight home.