The Avenue of Oranges

This post is a report on my visit this week to the city of Valencia in Spain. I was invited to give a talk at the Nanophotonics Technology Center which is part of the Polytechnical University in Valencia.

Some highlights from the visit, which concludes tomorrow:

1. The Center: The NTC is a center for telecom research, with advanced facilities, but also has two functioning companies situated in its building. These companies grew out of the research at the Center. I gave my talk in the (separate) telecom building which interestingly has exhibits on each floor showing 'obsolete' technology. I put the word in quotes since the exhibits include technology I grew up with, such as turntables, discmen with CDs, and flip phones.

   
   

2. The Bed of Turia: Valencia was originally founded around the river Turia. But since it flooded every so often (my host showed me photos on her phone of a recent flood, not related to the Turia, which greatly affected her neighborhood), the dwellers changed the course of the river to outside the city.

   
   

   Nowadays, on about 10 kilometers of the empty bed sit a range of landmarks. Perhaps the most prominent are a series of modernistic structures designed by the architect Calatrava, Valencia's answer to Barcelona's Gaudi. These include an hemisphere (housing a 3D-movieplex plus planetarium); an aquarium (I showed up in time to see the sea lions being fed - these are different from seals; also saw some monster tortoises, one of them roaring whenever he moved); a science center (with a most amusing gift shop and a very good Tesla's Egg of Columbus), a performance theater for opera, a covered garden, and lots of space for events. Together, these structures are referred to as the City of Arts and Sciences.

   
   

   More spectacular to me was Gulliver Park, with a 70-meter statue of Gulliver lying on the ground arranged into slides, ladders and staircases (basically an amusement park). The scale is such that human beings (mostly children) look like the fabled Lilliputians on and around the giant's body. There's a bridge close by so you can get a nice view from an elevated point.

   
   

3. The Fine Arts Museum: Entry was free. Some very fine Spanish paintings were on display (including a fine self-portrait of Velasquez). There was some kind of musical and dance presentation by high school students also going on, so I got to see some free flamenco as well.

   
   

4. The Trees: Pink/magenta blooms were showing all over the city on Silk Floss trees, locally known as palo borracho. Palo means stick and borracho means drunk (Shakespeare's villain Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing was named accordingly). The famous Valencia oranges come from here and there are many orange trees in the city. The street on which the Polytechnic is located is called the Avenue de Naranjas.

   
   

5. Extra: Not to be missed - the cathedral, Market Hall (fresh produce!), the Silk Exchange building (fluted columns and ceiling woodwork), and beach (go a couple hours before sunset, else too hot!).

   
   

   And of course, the paella.