The Catholic Church has declared 2015 to be a holy year in Valencia. The reason is the city's 13th-century Gothic cathedral possesses a relic that is reputedly the chalice Jesus Christ used during the Last Supper.
Thousands of pilgrims will pour into the city.
Tour guide Bettina is out to prove Spain's third-largest city has no reason to be shy of comparisons with Barcelona's architecture.
She leads her tour group to one of the few Gothic-style secular buildings still standing in Europe. Amid the noise and excitement of the old town's streets, the La Lonja merchant trading building stands out, even among so many other architectural gems.
"Back in 1498, silk trading got under way here," Bettina says. In 1996, La Lonja became a Unesco World Cultural Heritage site.
The guide takes her group across the street and points out art deco details inside the Mercado Central market hall that opened in 1928.
Few can hear Bettina because of the commotion.
At the fish stalls, women are shouting to sell the latest catch of fish, prawns, octopus and clams. In another section, butchers' stalls are lined up with tasty Iberian hams hanging from the ceiling.
Scents of vegetables and citrus fruit fill the market. Outside, in the romantic alleys and streets, the air is filled with the aroma of paella and rice dishes.
At the Torres de Serranos, two huge towers of what was once part of the 12th-century city wall, numerous street stalls sell an ice-cold refreshment, a Valencian beverage called horchata, or almond milk.
The 12th-century Torres de Serranos. Photo / Thinkstock
Next comes a tour by bicycle down to the sea through Valencia's "green lung": the bed of the erstwhile Rio Turia. Because it was constantly flooding, the river was rerouted, and the riverbed was dried out in 1957.
But it was only about 15 years ago it started to become what it is today - a recreation paradise in the middle of the city. The stretch of greenery and parks runs for nearly 7km down to the harbour.
Awaiting visitors in one part of it is the Bioparc Valencia, a nearly 100,000sq m zoo that opened in 2008. The borders of the animals' pens virtually vanish, and the animals live in authentically re-created ecosystems.
The group proceeds to bicycle further along the Turia riverbed and through groves of palm trees, heading towards the sea. Only the old bridges are a reminder that a river once flowed here. It's a park route of no cars, no traffic lights, no noise.
Just before reaching the harbour, one arrives at Valencia's futuristic leisure centre - the gleaming Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias (city of the arts and sciences) designed by Valencia architect Santiago Calatrava.
A visitor could spend an entire day exploring the complex of seven buildings surrounded by an artificial pond. There is, for example, the concert and opera hall Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, looking like the gigantic head of some interplanetary alien.
Behind it are the eyeball-shaped L'Hemisferic containing a cinema and planetarium, the Museum of Science with its dinosaur-skeleton design, and L'Oceanografic.
This is Europe's largest aquarium - it has 42 million litres of water in basins at Arctic and tropical temperatures. The marine life of the world's oceans can be discovered here. In a giant igloo building, the temperatures are somewhat chilling as visitors watch white beluga whales and walruses swimming.
The eyeball-shaped L'Hemisferic is home to a cinema and planetarium. Photo / Thinkstock
Later, one can break into a sweat from the humidity while walking the 70m underwater tunnel in the tropical marine life basin.
The city's most spectacular restaurant is found in L'Oceanografic. The circular underwater restaurant Submarino gives diners a feeling of having dinner on the seabed.
"It is better if you have a dish of Valencia paella in one of the many paella restaurants on the Playa de las Arenas or Playa Malvarrosa," Bettina tells her group at the end of the tour.
The immensely long and wide city beaches are only a 15-minute bicycle ride away from L'Oceanografic.
- DPA
