Docklands

Karen and I have been reacquainting ourselves, not very systematically, with the neighbourhoods and landmarks in the city that we knew and enjoyed from previous stays. On Saturday, it was the docklands, just south of the beach. There is a marina and the facilities built when Valencia hosted the America’s Cup in 2007, a ferry and cruise ship terminal, a container port and the Formula 1 racing track. These are all clustered around the mouth of the old Turia River – now the Turia Gardens since the river was drained and rerouted 50 years ago. It’s only a few blocks from where our apartment on Avenida del Porto was in 2011.

The plan was to cycle to the beach, drop the bikes, then walk through the docklands and end up in Nazaret, a funky little neighbourhood – really a separate village fairly isolated from the rest of the city – on the other side of the container port. It’s another working class, low-rise district, like Cabanyal, where people in sea-related occupations, fishermen and container port workers, live. We didn’t make it to Nazaret this time but we’ll get there eventually.

We started at the marina, the Marina Real Juan Carlos I (the Royal Marina of Juan Carlos I), built or rebuilt at the time of the America’s Cup with money from the royal family. We walked first along the pier. It runs out towards a breakwater at the entrance to the harbour, then turns to briefly run parallel to it, creating a protected passageway into the marina. You get nice views back at the beach and along the beach to the the skyline of the next town north. I’m not sure if it’s Port de Sagunt we’re seeing, or Castellon de Plana.

It was blustery when we set out; by the time we got to the water, there was a gale-force offshore wind blowing. It felt like you were being blown over. But because it was offshore, the water wasn’t particularly rough. A few hardy souls in bathing suits had waded out into it – probably Germans, definitely not Spaniards – and a windsurfer rental place on the marina side was doing a good business. We saw one guy in a wet suit get up and scud across the water briefly before the wind knocked him down.

Despite the gale, it was very mild – 24°C according to some of the pixel boards as we were riding down. We saw one young woman walking the pier by herself in a puffy winter coat, which she stripped off as she went, finally feeling too warm in it apparently. Duh. Karen noticed it was fur- (or fake fur-) lined. We saw nobody in shorts, or even short sleeves; most people were wearing jackets and boots. Valencians are crazy.

Notice the cats in the foreground

Coming back from the end of the pier, we were walking bent over against the wind. We went through the marina to the America’s Cup facilities. You can see the cranes of the container port beyond in the distance. The area where private boats are moored seems still well maintained and busy. But once you get into the America’s Cup facilities, it looks a lot less well preserved. The striking Veles y Vents (sails and winds) building, a viewing platform for the yacht races and social epicentre for the event, is not in too bad shape, but it was closed this day, with nobody in sight. It had been open when we were here last. The almost as striking glass-fronted buildings constructed to house America’s Cup teams and administrative offices have clearly now been abandoned. When we were here last, some were still in partial use.

Corner of Veles y Ventes building

In an earlier post, I bragged about the city’s amenities, including the America’s Cup facilities. The fact that the event was held here even once does speak of a city on the rise But that was then. Now it appears to be another of Valencia's white elephants. As Karen pointed out, hosting the America’s Cup is probably a lot like hosting an Olympics or an Expo. There is promise of lots of money from the event itself, and the possibility of being able to attract it again, or at least re-purpose the facilities to attract other events. But the reality – as in Montreal after Expo 67 – is that the buildings often go unused or underused, and are too often abandoned. The owners are either the government, or they’ve quit-claimed. One way or another, nobody is paying taxes. In the meantime, as we saw on our walk, somebody, probably the city or the region, has to pay for security, and at least minimal upkeep.

We walked over towards the ferry terminal down a passageway with America’s Cup buildings on the water side and historic open-sided warehouse or sales buildings across from them. When we were here four years ago, the older buildings still looked quite nice; they had obviously been tarted up for the America’s Cup. They were still in partial use then too. Now they’re all netted over and badly in need of paint. The modern buildings for America’s Cup teams are empty and dishevelled looking. We came out near the old fish exchange where a cafe in the middle of a parking lot was doing a booming business – fishermen and dock workers finished their half-day Saturday, Karen speculated.

Entrance to abandoned America's Cup team headquarters building

Reflections and writing in dust on glass front of abandoned America's Cup building

You can walk into the ferry terminal. Ferries go from here to the Balearic Islands (Palma, Mallorca, Menorca), and used to go to Morocco, but apparently don’t anymore. Cruise ships, though not the biggest ones, also dock here. We walked up to the entrance, but could see no sign of sea-going ships. The last time we were here, there were a few fairly big ones in port and we watched one big Ibiza ferry loading.

The container port is closed to the public. The entrance to it is in any case down a long vehicles-only causeway road. So we headed back towards Avenida del Porto, past the entrance to the dedicated part of the Formula 1 track, which runs along beside the dry riverbed for a way. You can see the buildings of the City of Arts and Sciences in the middle distance. Formula 1 racing is another sad story for the city. The European Grand Prix (as it was called then) ran here for five years between 2008 and 2012. There was talk later of alternating the Grand Prix of Spain (as it’s called now) between Barcelona and Valencia, but now it’s only run in Barcelona.

Entrance to no-longer-used Formula 1 racing track

Don’t get me wrong: Valencia still seems a vital, vibrant city. In the centre, there are signs of recovery – building projects that appeared stalled when we were here last have now been completed, for example. And the beach still appears to have a booming economy. But the out-of-centre projects initiated in Valencia’s expansionist heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s, including the City of Arts and Sciences, are not doing so well. The decisions to undertake them come in for considerable criticism here.

By the time we got back to Avenida del Porto (where we could pick up the bike path into town), we were both sick and tired of the howling wind, and Karen’s gimpy legs were giving her grief. We sat for awhile in a little plaza by the 800-year-old church across from our 2011 apartment, then got on the bikes and rode home.

Yesterday, Sunday, Karen wanted to go down to the City of Arts and Sciences to see the exhibition of “ninots” at the Science museum. This is the first event of Fallas, the spring festival that is Valencia’s biggest tourist draw.

The devil tempts captive voter with candidates in lead-up to December election?

The origins of Fallas are a little murky, but it clearly started as a celebration of the end of cold and deprivation when – take your choice – either the city ceremonially burned the no-longer-needed wooden standards that supported street lanterns, or carpenters burned the off-cuts of wood that had piled up in their worksops over the winter. We’ve heard both. It has morphed into an event in which, today, 350 community and business groups across the city get together and sponsor or design and build themselves large flammable statues – nowadays usually made with wood frames covered in sculpted Styrofoam and brightly painted with acrylics – plant them at street corners and in squares, and then burn them on March 19. Valencians are crazy.

Awww! aren't they cute?

Each group submits a small part of their fallas – also the word for the statues – or a small model of it, to a central committee for judging. These are the ninots. They’re exhibited in the month before the festival officially begins. The public can vote for their favourite ninot, based on design or cleverness of humour – fallas are often broadly satirical. The one that garners the most votes is spared from the crema, the ceremonial burning of the fallas at midnight on March 19. That one is then placed in the Fallas museum. (Did I mention that Valecians are crazy?)

I'm sure we saw one almost identical last time; this one was entered in the children's category

The Science Museum, with its high-ceilinged, well-lit rotunda was a good choice of venue. The last time we went, it was in a series of tents at a suburban shopping mall. We went that time on the first day, when it was free. This year it cost us: €3, €1.50 for seniors (that would be me).

The ninots have already been judged by the committee and provisionally ranked: Tercera, Segunda, Primera, and then A, B, C classes within those. The best are the Primera As. (All the photos are of Primeras.) They range in quality from crude to very fine, both in terms of the aesthetics and craftsmanship and the ideas and humour expressed. The worst, though apparently tolerated, are openly racist and sexist. The most egregious I spotted depicted a highly sexualized black male with a cartoonishly long phallus. There were also lots of less obviously offensive depictions of Chinese – although they often looked to be dressed more like traditional Japanese. (It appears to us that the Chinese population in Valencia has grown some since we were here four years ago – but that may just be that we’re staying not far from the Chinatown.)

Countless ninots show absurdly sexualized females with huge breasts and derrieres. Are the women in these communities not involved at all in the selection of topics and designs? Probably not. Many of the ninots suggest the group’s theme for the fallas is just sex. But lots are also very political. Last time, we sometimes recognized the political figures and celebrities (usually foreign) lampooned, but this time not so much.

When we came out over an hour later, it had rained – what! – and the temperature had dropped seven or eight degrees. It was the coldest we’ve known it here during the day this visit, about 15°C. We rode into the centre beside the river with the idea of going to La Nau, a cultural centre run by the University of Valencia. There was an interesting-looking exhibit of photos of Afghan woman there that was ending that day. When we got there, it had been closed for the day since 2 p.m. Oh, well. And so home.