I left Barcelona early morning around 7 AM while it was still dark. I was now leaving Catalonia and making my journey towards the south.

I took the subway to the train station and was surprised to see that people were already commuting to their work places during early morning.

The central train station in Barcelona is housed in a grand building reminiscent of the Renaissance architecture.

My train was scheduled to depart at 9:30 AM, and it arrived right on time.

The train ticket cost me €28, which I had bought online. The ticketing station was quite crowded when I visited it the previous day which led me to purchase the ticket online. I was surprised to see that other people weren’t doing the same, and were waiting in long queues to buy the ticket. (In hindsight, the online ticket purchase wasn’t very trivial.)

The train arrived right on time and was very clean and equipped with all the essentials. They even provided us with earphones.

This was my first time taking a coastal train and it turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. The journey was very scenic and there were many beautiful sights along the way.

The train stopped numerous times along the way, with the first one being at Salou, a small resort town with many beaches. I was amazed to see how uniform the structural development was throughout Spain. Even some of the smaller towns had good biking lanes.

As the train made its way towards Valencia, I kept noting down the name of each town we passed through. The environment in Spain was quite different compared to France or Switzerland where I currently lived. The scenery was beautiful all along the way.

It took around 4 hours for the train to arrive in Valencia. My first goal after getting out from the train station was to find a rental bicycle. I was able to find a shop fairly easily given that it was lunch time when I arrived.

It cost me €9 to rent a bike for one day (with a €50 security deposit). The bike itself was very comfortable and was equipped with a front basket where I could put my jacket and a small bag.

I then set out to find the Airbnb I had booked out for the night. As I made my way towards the coast I noticed that the streets became quite narrow at some junctions, and it had more apartment blocks than houses. My Airbnb was close to the beach and was very comfortable. The host also had a nice white dog which kept licking my hands (sadly, I didn’t take his picture).

After leaving my luggage I set out to find some food (it was already quite late, around 3 PM). I had some delicious prawns from this small restaurant along the coast. I speculate that during summer time this beach must be very crowded.

The beach was very calming and the sand was quite peculiar looking. It contained different types of pebbles and broken sea shells.

Throughout my journey in Spain I came across a lot of beautiful street art. Valencia was no different. I first saw this building which had an antique feel to it.

Another noticeable difference in Spain, compared to other western European countries, was the abundance of Orange trees. In Valencia these trees were scattered all across the city in almost every street, and were filled with hundreds of Oranges! (I don’t know whether if these Oranges were edible or not. At least I didn’t see anyone plucking them, although it was very tempting.)

The bike lanes in Valencia were plenty and well-built. I travelled throughout the city on my bike.

In the city outskirts there were some exceptionally large buildings. One of them was an aquarium which housed dolphins and other marine species.

Another stunning piece of architecture was the arts theatre. I also found it very fascinating how some construction workers were performing the repairs. The safety procedures looked very robust.

There’s probably a lot of thought put into designing the major cities in Europe. This part was located just outside the city and could house a large crowd. Just alongside these buildings was a large lush green park.

I now made my way back to the city centre. There was a lot to see in Valencia, but sadly I only stayed there for one night and could only see a limited number of places.

Unlike Barcelona, this city wasn’t very crowded.

Like Barcelona, the streets were decorated with Christmas lights.

For some reason I took pictures of every telephone booth I came across. They looked very vintage and cool.

It was now getting dark but there was a lot of activity in the city centre.

It is quite common to come across road musicians throughout Europe, mostly in city centres. This guy was playing a harp.

I walked the streets on foot and then visited a church.

The ceiling was particularly fascinating.

I then walked around the Christmas market, which had numerous items for sale including clothes, antiques, books, etc.

I really wanted to enter this university but it didn’t seem to be open to the public (I did visit the main campus afterwards).

Almost each street was decorated with different lights. I wondered how much time and effort was put into this and if they changed the design each year.

Some random bikes on the road.

There was a protest going on here of some sorts.

I then visited the University of Valencia. Its campus was completely accessible for the public.

I walked across the various department blocks. In the medicine section, they had showcased numerous medical instruments, similar to how it’s done in a museum.

I then went to a Mexican restaurant and had Tacos for dinner.

I again came across some beautiful artwork and couldn’t resist taking its pictures.