Monday was the only day we could do a walking tour, and it was rainy! On Sunday, when the forecast didn’t look promising already, we reached out to our guide and asked whether he had a backup plan. His response was: bring umbrellas, but I knew it would depend on how bad the rain would actually be. The tour was scheduled for 9:30, and at 8:30, it was raining really badly. The tour guide messaged me and asked whether we wanted to move the tour for later, and we happily agreed. We ended up meeting at 11:30. It was still raining, but not as bad as in the morning. We kept umbrellas open most of the time, but we could still enjoy the surroundings.
We met at the Central Train Station, looked at the beautiful ceramic wall and ceiling decorations, and got out into the light rain.
Since we walked around so much on Saturday, I didn’t take more pictures of the places we’d already visited. The first “new” stop was the Central Market.
This place is extremely interesting both architecturally and historically. It used to be the actual open-air market for centuries, and and building was erected only a hundred years ago. The market is considered to be the largest fresh produce market in Europe. By local standards, its expensive, althought it’s the best quality produce you can ever find. For us, the prices were low 😂. And before I forget: we asked about the parrot on the top of one of the sreas, and our guide told us that the parrot was a symbol of this market, because people were coming there for gossiping.
People like to joke that in the US everything is “American size”, but look at these Valencian tomatoes!!!The Silk exchange: when Valencians learned how to produce silk locally, it opened the window of opportunities for many merchants – they didn’t have to wait for the next shipment to arrive (although the imported silk was traded here as well). There was also a bank inside, so the money never left the house, and the merchants were not afraid of being robbed on the way.The building is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, and it’s truly amazingSerranos Gate – one of the two Old City gates that survived till nowadays. This is the “inside” fascade, which was used by nobilities to watch parades and other ceremoniesThe gate from the outsideThe Turia River used to run through the whole city. It was reroughted after a catastrophic flood in the middle of the 20th century, This ramp was used to bring the goods to and from the boats to the cityThe Turia fountain from the opposite side of the Cathedral was created in the 1960s, but it blends well with the historic surroundings. The Neptun figure, with cornocopia instead of triden, represents the comemrcial usage of the river, and the eight figures around represent the irrigations channels which were built by the Moors. The Royal Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken (“the church for homeless”) is right in front of the fountainTasting horchata at the end of the tourAnd more sweets after the tour 🙂
That was our last “free” time in Valencia, although we anaged to get out a couple more times. But mostly, it was all work, starting with Valencia Postgres meetup on Monday afternoon, followed by the speakers dinner, and then the conference in full swing. Since I am back in Chicago already, and moreover, tons of thing happened in the past three days, I have to stop now. I hope I will blog a little bit more about the conference, during the next week. At least, I ower some LinkedIn posts to the community!
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
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