Explore Valencia and Murcia
There are a number of good day-trips to be made from Valencia, including a visit to the monastery at El Puig or a meal at some of the region’s very best paella restaurants at El Palmar, El Perelló or El Perellonet.
La Albufera, just 12km south from Valencia, is a vast lagoon separated from the sea by a sandbank and surrounded by rice fields. Being one of the largest bodies of fresh water in Spain, it constitutes an important wetland, and attracts tens of thousands of migratory birds – a throng composed of 250 species, of which ninety breed here regularly. In the Middle Ages, it was ten times its present size but the surrounding paddies have gradually reduced it. After growing contamination by industrial waste, domestic sewage and insecticide, the area was turned into a natural park. Whether you’re into birdwatching or not, the lagoon area makes a relaxing change from the city.
It’s possible to “hop on, hop off” the Valencia Bus Turístic and tuck into a lunch of paella, or eels with all i pebre (piquant sauce), in the lakeside village of El Palmar, which is packed with restaurants. On August 4, El Palmar celebrates its fiesta; the image of Christ on the Cross is taken out onto the lake in a procession of boats to the illuent, or centre, of the lake, where hymns are sung. Another 2km farther along the road to El Perelló is the tiny village of El Perellonet, where you can also sample some of the best paella in Spain.
Read More-
All pulped out: La Tomatina
All pulped out: La Tomatina
La Tomatina – the tomato-throwing festival of Buñol – is about as wild and excessive as Spanish fiestas get. Picture this: 30,000 people descend on a small provincial town, at the same time as a fleet of municipal trucks, carrying 120,000 tonnes of tomatoes. Tension builds. “To-ma-te, to-ma-te” yell the crowds. And then the truckers let them have it, hurling the ripe, pulpy fruit at everyone present. And everyone goes crazy, hurling the pulp back at the trucks, at each other, in the air … for an hour. It’s a fantasy battle made flesh: exhausting, not pretty and not to everyone’s taste. But it is Buñol’s contribution to fiesta culture, and most participants will tell you that it is just about as much fun as it is possible to have with your clothes on. Not that you should wear a great deal.
La Tomatina has been going since 1944 but has got a lot bigger in recent years, following a string of articles in the press in Spain and abroad. The novelist Louis de Bernières was one of the first foreign writers to cover the event: he wrote a superb account that is reprinted in Spain: Travelers’ Tales, and concluded that, if he planned his life well and kept his health, he could attend another nineteen Tomatinas, before he would be too enfeebled for the occasion.
If the idea appeals, then you’ll need to visit Buñol on the last Wednesday of August (but call the Valencia tourist office just to check, as some years it takes place a week early). You can get there from the city by train or bus in around an hour, but try to arrive early, with a spare set of clothing that you should leave at a bar. The tomato trucks appear on the central Plaza del Ayuntamiento at around noon, and then the battle commences: this is no spectator sport – everyone is considered fair game. At 1pm, an explosion signals the end of the battle and nobody hurls another speck of tomato for the next twelve months. Instead, the local fire brigade arrives to hose down the combatants, buildings and streets, and a lull comes over the town. And then, miraculously, within the hour, everyone arrives back on the street, perfectly turned out, to enjoy the rest of the fiesta, which, oddly enough, includes such refined pursuits as orchestral concerts in the town’s open-air auditorium. For more information, check out the festival website wtomatina.es, or try the town’s own website wbunyol.es.
