Valencia and Barcelona
After leaving Granada (which could have been my favorite city thus far - the consensus is still out), we traveled about 6 hours north along the Mediterranean coast to Valencia. Valencia is not as flashy as some of the other Spanish cities in which we´ve been, but is trying hard to progress quickly into the 21st century. We started with some exploration time near the coast, and explored the work of Santiago Calatrava, a great architect and native of Valencia. He was commissioned to do a massive project in the city to connect broad boulevards along the city. Similar to the idea of Frederick Law Olmstead´s Emerald Necklace in Boston, Valencia is being connected across the city by a series of parks. It has begun with a beautiful Opera House and a new Aquarium, as well as a Science and Art Museum. Some of the work looks somewhat like the Leonard Zakim-Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. Calatrava´s first work was actually creating the Milwaukee Art Museum, which is on an earlier blog post fr...