42. A Private Walking Experience Through Valencia’s Hidden Heart

Valencia looks polished from the outside, but the real city lives in the details you only catch on foot. We’re joined by Paul, a photographer and the founder of Streets of Valencia, and he guides us through a private walking tour that turns the Old Town into a living timeline, full of small stories you would never spot alone. 

We start in Plaza de la Virgen with the Turia River and why water shaped everything from the Roman founding of Valentia to the irrigation channels still used in local agriculture. From there we drop into the Roman layer at L’Almoina, talk about what was uncovered in the 1980s, and keep moving past cathedral corners, orange trees and worn stone marks that hint at the city’s trading past. We also stop to notice modern Valencia, including how Plaza de la Reina has changed through pedestrianisation, shade design and the everyday politics of keeping locals comfortable. 

Food is where the walk becomes instantly practical. Inside Mercat Central Valencia, Paul points out what’s seasonal and why this market still feels like a place locals shop, not just a tourist attraction. We get a clear, no-nonsense guide to paella valenciana, from bomba rice near Albufera to the all-important stock, the rule against stirring, and the joy of socarrat. The route ends with La Lonja de la Seda, Valencia’s UNESCO silk exchange, plus the city’s famously cheeky gargoyles, before we step into El Carmen and the Portal de Valldigna, a doorway into the old quarter. 

If you love Valencia travel tips, guided walks, local food culture and the hidden history of the Valencia Old Town, hit subscribe, share this with a friend planning a trip, and leave us a review with the one place you’d put on your perfect Valencia walking route.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Your Guide

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Hi, I'm Nelini Sharma and this is the Maiden Spain podcast. I'm Laura Senior Garcia and we're super happy today to be doing a very special episode with Paul who offers private walking experiences of Valencia and you get to see a different side of Valencia, so we can't wait for this.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Paul, do you just want to introduce yourself and what your um experience is called?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Yeah, sure. I'm Paul from Streets of Valencia. I'm a photographer who's lived here for 10 years. And I offer private walking experiences through the heart of Valencia. We uncover the history, the culture, we go inside Mercat Central, we learn about the food, and we uncover the stories, the soul of the city, what makes the city tick.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

Okay, all that you want to start here.

Plaza De La Virgen And Turia Lore

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Okay, where are we right now?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Well, this is where we start our walks. We're right here in the center of Plaza de la Virgin, the medieval heart of the city. And this gentleman here, in the best seat in the house, this, although he looks like Neptune, this is the god of the Turia River. The Turia River is vital to Valencia. Without the Turia River, the city wouldn't have been founded. The Romans founded it here, on the site of the Turia River, in 138 BC. And so without the water, they wouldn't have irrigated the land to grow the crops. We still use the irrigation channels today to grow the oranges and the artichokes. And there he is. So this statue in this fountain celebrates the Touria River.

unknown 1:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Just a question. So the ladies around, they're kind of dressed like uh the Fayeras, no? Or their their hair is.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

A little bit. There might be a similarity to the hair, but these are actually eight of his nymphs, the god's nymphs, and they represent all the eight separate tributaries of the river. Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Awesome. Cool. Wow. So where are we going next?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

We're gonna go around the side of the cathedral to see where the city, where it all began. The Roman ruins. Awesome. Well following you. And we're gonna walk through to see where the city began, okay?

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Okay, awesome. So many different um generations and things coming together. So many eros.

Roman Valencia Beneath Your Feet

SPEAKER_00 2:18

But I think we're gonna go let's go into the shade because it and I'll explain to you. So basically, it was known that the city was a Roman city and it was founded by the Romans, but it wasn't until the 1980s that they actually uncovered and discovered this part of the city here. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Oh, so do you know how the uncovering happened?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah, like I said, it was the 80s. Uh I think it was 87. They were they were doing some excavation work and they were just digging down. Yeah. But there were some plans to expand the building or to build a new building related to the church, I think. And yeah, they just uncovered the Roman ruins. And of course, it took four, five, six, seven years to get it all together, clean it all up, and now we have the Almona archaeological center where you can go down and literally walk through the Roman ruins.

SPEAKER_04 3:05

Wow. Wow, that's unbelievable. Do you know when that dates back to?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

This city was founded in 138 BC.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Okay. Um it was founded in 138. It was named Valentia after the Latin word valiant for brave because it was named after the soldiers who came here. If you if you completed your stint in the Roman army, which many people didn't, but if you did, you would come to Valentia, you'd be given an administrative job, you know.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Oh, yeah, kind of like retirement, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, kind of. It was kind of like a retirement home for Romans in a way.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

Who made it past the battles?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, not many did. No. That's so interesting. We can see the architect did a fabulous job on the museum. If you stand here, I always tell my guests, if you stand with your cameras, you can get a great shot yourself on a nice wide angle. You can see.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

So the architect wanted the medieval history to reflect down on the Roman roots, and he did a pretty good job.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Oh, yeah, look, is it reflecting on the water? Like the whole thing reflects on the water.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

So he did a pretty good job of that, yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Wow.

unknown 4:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

We can see some tiles if you look closely. You can see some Roman tile in. Did you get a pick?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yes. Oh my god, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

You can see some Roman tile in here on the floor. It kind of looks like little fish scales. Wow. These tiles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

That's amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. Okay, so we've you've already sold me

Cathedral Backstreets And Orange Trees

SPEAKER_03 4:35

on this tour.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Five minutes in and you sold me. Amazing walking experience.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yes. We walk through now to the or around the back of the cathedral. This is the back of the cathedral now. This beautiful doorway. Wow. These are our orange trees, of course, you can still see a few. But obviously you know that in December, when we're on the walk in December, the trees are just full of oranges.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

And they're not edible.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

They're not edible in the city, no, because um there's kind of a special uh type of orange that doesn't need so much water, so it's good for decoration.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

They used to make marmalade out of them many years ago, but I think now they're just most of them are just trashed. Or they used to be used in the perfume industry and stuff. Right. Here's a little bit of history that you can touch here at the back of the you see these marks here? So it's believed that this is where butchers or traders used to sharpen their knives. They would use the stone as a whetstone to sharpen their blades. Yeah. But there's lots of different legends around it. The beautiful wooden door.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

And the incredible carvings on the Oh my god, look, yeah. Okay, we're gonna walk through this beautiful archway now into Plaza de la Reina. We've got some music going. Yeah. Oh yes. We get a nice view of the tower, the bell tower, and the Mikalet now.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Oh nice. Oh okay. Can you tell us a little bit about the Mikalet?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, well of course it was the for a long time it was the tallest point in the city. Oh no. And so you could see right down to the sea from there. And they used to have a system of discs where they would signal what ships were coming in and what what what stock was being delivered into the city, and so because it was the highest

Plaza De La Reina Goes Pedestrian

SPEAKER_00 6:38

point they could send signals down to people to the traders and stuff. This square Plaza de la Reina, very interesting. It's a real interesting view as to what Valencia is doing recently. It's very ecologically minded, very forward-thinking, very green, because it used to be a really busy road here, coming up the middle with all the buses choking the pollution.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

But they cleared it out and they pedestrianized it. They did that about four or five years ago.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

And I like how they've got the you know the top part there so that you have a little bit of shade.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Well, this was interesting because the abuelas, the the local grandmothers, complained when it first when they first opened the square because they'd removed some of the trees for shade.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

And so they've kind of put a bit of in the summer months they put these blinds or these uh canopies up. And they've planted a few more trees to keep the keep the grandmothers happy as well.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

That's how well yeah, they need to keep it. You have to keep them happy.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

And we have some metal trees here. Ooh. Well, you can see these kind they look kind of like metal palms. Right. Well, they spray cool-in mist every now and then. Oh nice! Every 30 seconds or every minute to try and hopefully try and cool you down.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

This is such a nice open space though in the middle of the city, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah, and they have um different markets here. They have a ceramics market here last week, and they have little jewelry markets and little stalls that they can put up here and stuff. So And it's starting to come back to life again now. Valor Valor, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Yeah, I guess Valor, the Valor um chocolate factory is actually very close to where we live.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Oh yeah, that's a classic.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

There's a Loewe store here. Oh I guess it's a little bit more. I had no idea. Me neither.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Alej Hop, of course.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Yes, Alej Hop. They're closer to well in Gata or Gata?

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Yeah, Gata or Gata. I think they're from Gata e Oros, the original.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, they're from the Valencia community, I know that.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

And so we're going

Orchata Heritage And Ceramic Craft

SPEAKER_00 8:40

to turn here now and we're gonna see another church bell tower for the Santa Catalina church. Okay. On this walk we see lots of churches, pretty much a stone's throw. You could throw a stone and hit another church, each way. It's like yeah, very full of churches.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Look at that ice cream store from 1930.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Linares, this is a famous ice cream shop, yeah, nearly a hundred years old now. And a real traditional place to go where the grandparents take their kids on a Sunday. There's lots of old black and white photos I've seen. Very good. This is the Santa Catalina church and bell tower, and the famous Orchateria de Santa Catalina, just opposite it.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Okay. So do you like Orchata, Paul?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I actually do. It's it's grown on me, yeah. If it's ice cold. So yeah, this is Orchata de Santa Catalina, over 200 years old. Wow. Um, I don't know if you can see inside well, maybe I inside it's it's beautiful inside with beautiful black and white tiles, very traditional. Oh. And so this is the place to come if you're in the center. This is the place to come and have your Orchatta.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

And they got their look from 1909, a visit from the royal house.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

The monarchy visits. Because whenever the monarchy used to visit, they would always leave like by royal appointment. Yeah, a plaque or something, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

And we have some beautiful traditional Valencian painted tiles. It's a big industry in Valencia, ceramics, so we see a lot of these beautiful painted tiles everywhere we go. So yeah, that's the that's where you have your orchata. Orchata. Now we're moving on now towards Dr. Plaza del Doctor Collado and the Mercat Central.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Here's another little square, Plaza Lopa de Vega.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Millenniatore.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Oh some beautiful, these beautiful newly renovated apartments here. Uh there's a pinch a little pincho place here. Nice. Little Galithian pinchos

Tapas Stops And Street Art Walls

SPEAKER_00 10:40

where you go in. Uh it's a nice little if you just want someone to grab something quick to eat in the center.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

You know the deal when you grab your pinchos and they count the sticks at the end to see how many you've had. Oh, super cool. We're gonna walk through this street now, which is kind of the touristy street with lots of little touristy shops, but it's still nice. It's still nice, yeah. It's not it's I like the way that Valencia is still trying to hold on to its uh traditions and not completely sell out. There they are, look at them, they're all lined up, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Looks so yummy.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Delicious.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Melinia and I are fully into the pincho culture.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And the the advantage of this place is they have Tinto de Verano on draft.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

So you can you know you can just get stuck straight in.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

That's actually fun.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

So yeah, we've got our little leather shops and we've got like little ceramic stores.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Uh, can I just pop in here? This is like totally self-centered right now, but could I just pop in here for a second?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

I need one of these plates.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

They're amazing, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

And for your garden in the world.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

They really do work well.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Yeah, I need Laura, do you have one of these plates? No, I don't. You make the tomato one. Yeah. Okay. Welcome. Okay, we'll just take each other back forever, forever.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

We never we fight about other things, never about money. That's a good friendship.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, right? Never about money. So we see lots of street art here as well. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Oh, okay. Is that allowed that or encouraged or it depends.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

This one's been commissioned for the store. So this guy is Disneyland. You can find him on Instagram. He's got lots of work in the old town. Lots of the stuff you see will be commissioned, you know. Uh so totally legal. Oh, okay. And they'll have walls that they keep spare for for street artists as well.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

A lot of the stuff you see will be commissioned work.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So we'll see a lot more of that later on. We're walking into a great little square now, Plaza del Doctor Callado. Really good for evenings, for lunchtime, especially in the evenings in the summer, it really fills out.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Lovely.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Something to eat.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Oh yeah, so this greet is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah, this one's for the optical thing.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Well, instead of having some horrible gravity outside your store, then you just got a little bit more control over it. Do you want me to carry the bag? No, no.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Are you sure? Bar El Kiosco is a nice little tapas place, very traditional. It's been there since 1969.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

Oh, this one, okay. So this would be a very typical local place for barriers. Very traditional, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Very traditional, very local, kind of no frills, but traditional, authentic, good, fresh quality food. All the regular tapas, bravas, good, they do really good calamari in there.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Oh, and also since 1969, so they've been here for yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Yeah, that's what I say. If they've been here since 1969, right in the center of the old town, they must be doing something right, right? Exactly, yeah. So that's good.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Okay, oh, and this is the market.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Another little ice cream place.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

This is a really popular new sandwich spot that's just opened for calcium. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

One of your more traditional. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

The smell is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Yeah, you're gonna smell the anise, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh it's always

Mercat Central And Seasonal Produce

SPEAKER_00 14:40

crowded, always full. So yeah. So we're gonna go in the Mercat now.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Wow. Gluten gluten-free place, yeah. Not cheap though. So the Mercat Central.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Also, I always think it's very yeah funny that you are in the center of the city and these really sort of ancient streets and historic buildings, but it's still there's traffic.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah, there's still a car. I'm still to this day, I still get called out by cars. Yeah, it's just really especially as you go further in.

SPEAKER_04 15:27

And then also it's because people live here.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Wow, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

So we're in Mercat Central now. The good thing about Mercat Central compared to a lot of other markets, we see lots of markets in Barcelona and Madrid have gone very, very touristy. Yeah, the prices have gone up and they're selling, they're catering just to wealthy tourists. Yes. Mostly Valencia, this market has stayed traditional. Thankfully, local people, there's still local produce on offer, and local people can still afford to buy their groceries here. Just the fact. So that's the good thing about this. So we'll take a walk down. Okay. So we see what's in season now, the paraguayos, the flat peaches. The figs are amazing right now. Wow. The figs are and the cherries. The figs and the cherries are the two best things at the moment. Incredible.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I'm using cherries non-stop.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

But they're very good for you. But they're so good for you. They're very good, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

I always like love when it's like seasonal, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:42

If you are gonna be addicted, be addicted to something.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Look at the size of the tomatoes, Bellini.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

These are the famous local tomatoes, the different base. One of them is Pereo Tomato Valenciano. These big, kind of ugly looking. I think they're like Enroom kind of enlum style. But they're beautiful, they have very little fluid in them, so you just slice them open, little bit of olive oil and salt, and amazing. Yeah. In front of me. So of course we're the city of oranges, and if you look up, you can see the beautiful oranges painted into the tiles.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Very Valencian.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

That's really cool. And then you have like a paella place there.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

We're gonna go, yeah, he's got a main one here, the same guy, so we're gonna check out the paella. We have the ham on. So my guests are always interested to see the ham on, especially if they're coming from places like the States. They're not really used to seeing just these massive legs of ham, and so they always want to know the little secrets. Like if they have the black hoofs, you know, it's the iberical biota. Yeah. So they've been fed on acorns, so the meat is sweeter.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

It's different, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah, but obviously we can see so much of it here, and the price just goes up and up and up, right? It's like buying like buying wine. You see lots of the slightly more upmarket Delhi style stores selling their real nice quality tin seafood, the tin fish. It's a big thing, as you know, in here. And more of the local tomatoes in different styles, different shapes.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Yeah. Tomate Valenciano di Invierno. So it's like a specific very cool.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

We're gonna go see the paella chef guy. And see the paella valenciana, which is the original paella.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

My grandma always used to show up at the Mercado. Like that was you know, right till the end she's like don't want to go to Caribbear, don't want to go to Mercadona. Where did she go? In Benedor, because it used to be the Mercado Central, it used to be full-balled like this.

Paella Valenciana Done The Proper Way

SPEAKER_03 19:00

And in Alicante, same thing, she goes to the Mercado Central.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

So guys, this is the these are obviously this is what Valencia is most famous for, food, paella. This is the paella valenciana. So if you're ordering paella or you see paella, this is what you're getting. Okay, so we know that the bomber rice grows in the paddy fields near Albufera, the freshwater lake, just 20 kilometers south. And the farmers wanted something really filling for the workers, so they took the pan, which is the paella, they lit the fire with wood on the floor, they put the pan down, they took whatever protein they had at the time, which was rabbit chicken, and sometimes water bowls, which are kind of like water rats originally. Yeah, the white ones, the big white ones.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Really? Yeah. Whatever protein they had.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Now it's chicken and rabbit and sprinkling of snails sometimes as well. Okay. So you fry up the meat, then you put in your seasonings and your tomato and your garlic and your paprika, then you put your rice, then you put your stock, and that's the secret. You put your stock, obviously, it's gonna be a great stock, and then you don't stir it, you simmer it down, cook it all the way down, so the ratio of water's gonna be correct, so it's quite an odd. And of course, you know when you're getting the real one, the real deal, because you have the soccer at and you get your spoon and you scrape the crust off the bottom, and that's when all the flavour is.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

That's my favourite. Yeah, the soccer rat.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

And they have all the different, they have all the different. Oh, that's oh, so they have like a vegetable vegetal armatalorno.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

This is a baked, this is more of a winter I think this is more like a winter paella.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

So you payola.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

This is the winter one with the the mortia and the costillas and the tomatoes, and the it's a real winter paella, I think.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

How did you get this with beef?

SPEAKER_00 20:43

This one, he told me the other day that this one was dyed with the it's the shells from the candida prawns, the real dark red prawns. Yeah, it's the stock that they use the most to give it. So this is like a very special one. I don't see it very often.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

No, it's usually like black, you know, from the ink of the.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

The seigneurette is my favourite one with it's it's the seafood, but it's already been deshelled. You don't have to you could just scoop it in, you don't have to worry about the shells.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

I got the seigneurette. Look, so they got the red and they got the black one from the squid ink.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

And if you're here in Valencia, you should buy it from the paella chef, because here you can get the raffit the individual portions, okay? You don't have to sit in a restaurant and have the you know the big plate for two. You can come here, get your little portions, take away, go to the beach, go to the park, and have a paella picnic.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Yeah, and it's only six euros per plate, which is super affordable.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Thank you. He's like, why don't you buy them?

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah, we're gonna go this way now through the seafood. Oh, this way, okay. Yeah, we're gonna go out through the seafood section.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Gracias!

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Guys, these stalls are really good. We did some interviews with these a few years back, and these are the local farms. These stalls, this one here is really no, this is just from down the road. So pretty much all the stuff you see here is what they grow. They grow.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

You okay? Yeah! Oh no, I just gotta happen.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Let's go and see some fishies.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Fishies.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

The Pereo tomatoes. These are the they're the Pareil, they're the Valencian ones. They're just down the road.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

Look at these potatoes. Yeah, they've also got the earth on them.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Wow. I can't spend out the past to me.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

I can go store to store. Yes. You know, pick up the little things that you want. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

And you know, some of the stuff's expensive, but some of it is cheaper than the supermarkets and much better quality. You know, if once you come in, you start to you know your spots.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yeah, you know what's like.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

There's the poor little rabbits ready for the paella.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

You know, maybe I would come here and like do a huge shop.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

And these stalls sells all the herbs and spices that you need for the paella. Look, all the different herbs and spices and smoked paprika. Everything you need for a for a paella, all the different types. I love that just specializing in one thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah. I think that's how you get like really good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

And now we're going to the fish area because you can smell it.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

And you'll see the angeas, the freshwater eels. Being chopped up. Ah, the vino, of course.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Recently, they've just started selling the oysters now, fresh, and little bits of sashimi. Oh I guess we shouldn't go too much into sashi after last night's episode. The pole po ready to eat. Beautifully fresh. They'll chuck the oysters for you. And so they're kind of into tourist mode. Yeah, they're realizing.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

Fresh oysters, you know? They're realizing that tourists can come and actually look at the colour of the poles. How red they are. We'll make the most out of it, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

And further to the end we have the calamari and the sepia. The size of the sepia. In England it's cuttlefish, right?

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

It's huge. I didn't realise it'd be quite so big, but they're enormous. Wow. When you're having your sepia a la plancha, you don't realise that it's actually from a huge creature.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

And this lady here sells all the awful. Yes. The pig's trotters and the liver and the kidneys and the brains.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Which is still very much consumed here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Well, it's very fat. Back in England, it's very, very fashionable now.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

And it's also it doesn't waste.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Exactly. And it's very healthy, low fat, very good for you. All the nutrients are in here.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

So we come out here and there's this beautiful stall, traditional stall that sells everything you need to make a paill here at home. Oh, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

If you want to buy the big pan and yeah, because sometimes it's not actually easy to find the material.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

No, but here they sell it all. They got you've got all your pans, you've got the gas grills.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Those can be very expensive, these ones. This one's not.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

You get your canister of gas and you cook up your paella on your terrace or in your garden. Very cool.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

And you've even got the small paella pans to put your olives in. Look.

La Lonja Silk Wealth And Gargoyles

SPEAKER_00 25:21

So, guys, as we stand in the shade here a little bit, just to cool down a sec. This is La Yonja de la seda. This is the most important building in Valencia's history, you could say, because this is where they sold the silk from, inside here, in this big hallway. And with all the money they made, they built this beautiful building. Um, it was laying kind of disused and in a little state of bad repair until 2000 when they got some funding, they cleaned it all up, and now it's open to tourists, and it's a UNESCO protected site now. So they're protecting the heritage. We've also got these beautiful gargoyles dotted all around, and you will see a stone penis very shortly.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

So let's go this way.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I bet you didn't think you'd see that stone penis today.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Well, it's quite funny because some girls last week had the new Samsung and they zoomed right in. Oh my god. The zoom's quite good on the Samsung. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

I love the gargoyle here. It's like, you know, they there's so many around the city.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Well, there he is. He's got a maniacal grin on his face. Oh my goodness. And he's holding his uh and he's peeing into the into a little cup.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

So, what would that symbolize? Like, what was that for?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

There's lots of legends for that particular one. Well, the gargirls have their mouths open, so they did they if they had their mouths open, it's because the water used to drain from the roof and pour away so it didn't erode the building. So they did have a practical use. There's lots of different legends about the gargoyles here and in you all over Europe because they feature. Some people say that uh because people were illiterate, they used to on on holy buildings and on state buildings, they would have gargoyles in various performing various disgusting acts and vulgar acts to kind of as a warning to you, like these are the do not sin. Right, what's it? I kind of don't believe that. I mean, you know, I think I think the stonemas just wanted to have a bit of fun. I think that might have been an aspect as well.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Like, haha.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

One of the legends says that this guy holding his uh bits is actually pointing to the direction of the local bordello if uh if the traders wanted to indulge in some nefarious nighttime activity.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Use a direction, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Yeah, so there's lots of different legends, of course.

SPEAKER_04 27:37

Google Maps. Yeah, the original Google Maps, GP Gargoyle Google Maps.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Look at the stonework, it's fabulous. It is these steps can be slippery sometimes, so just and high! Yeah, after the market and the Yona Dalla Seda, it's always nicer because we kind of feel like we're going. I say off the beaten track, it's not off the beaten track because it's the center of an but it always just is a different vibe. As soon as we get off this part of the city, it calms down a bit and it's a little bit less busy. Yeah, and you have these beautiful streets like this one. Look at that. Yeah look at that gorgeous street.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

It's so pretty. You know the thing is, we've never really experienced Valencia like this. No. And we've come many times for different reasons. Why did you choose Valencia after having lived different places?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

And um, it's kind of a long story, but um yeah. I I met someone who wanted to move here, so we moved here. And uh yeah, the rest is history. I'm still here. I always wanted to live in Spain or somewhere. This is Plaza del Orno de San Nicholas, and here used to be a beautiful old-fashioned bakery since 1802. Now it's a coffee shop, but they used to be the sweetest old ladies selling their cookies and bread. But they kept the sign, which is good, and they kept some of the old equipment as well, as you can see from the bakery. Coming through here, guys, we see the famous Cafe Saint-Jame. This is where you come for your Agua de Valencia. They do a real good one here. Nice, famous for it. And it's a beautiful little building. This used to be a pharmacia.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Used to be a chemist, and inside.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Look at the building. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

This is a famous, and inside they had they still have the old opium bottles, you can see.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Yeah, because it's like an old pharmacy. Yeah. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Now they sell drugs of a different kind, Agua de Valencia.

SPEAKER_03 29:34

Okay, she's wiped all the time.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

She's wiped all that, so we'll go around. Yeah. I think they open up at 12 o'clock every day. Bang, on the dot, they open up and it's very quickly fills up. This beautiful terrace.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

And it's nice because the terrace is like not right in the sun, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

And don't forget, this is where you come for your agua de Valencia, which is carver, freshly squeezed Valencian orange juice, a shot of gin, a shot of vodka. And in the good places, like this place, they also have a shot of orange liqueur, usually their secret ingredient, to give it that little bit of bite.

SPEAKER_03 30:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

As if you need any more bite, but yeah.

El Carmen To Portal De Valldigna

SPEAKER_00 30:10

But it's there, some places you go, it's better than others. It's very good there. And now we're walking into El Carmen, kind of.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

El Carmen, yeah. Nice little breeze. Yeah, in this in these.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Uh it's always a blessing this time of year, yeah, just to feel that breeze.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Well, it kind of feels a little less hot than last week. Like last week it just felt very hot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Of course, guys, on my walk you see many other things as well. You see the Torres de Quart, which is down there. We see the Torres de Serranos, we see other things. Yeah. Um, we're heading now to the Portal de Valdigna, and we'll explain that to you when we get there. This restaurant's got clever. They've opened up their back door and they're selling Agua Dolenza to take away the clever. Some more, this is a space crab. Alien space crab.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Hey, creative.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Some political graffiti. We'll leave him alone. Gorgeous street. Look at that, the way it curls around at the ends there.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Pretty.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Yeah. Okay, and this is the Portal de Valdin, this side now, so we're gonna get to the end of our walk if you like, okay?

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Where is it? Oh, just right here.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

So the Spanish call this the entrance into the Arabic quarter. We would call it, you know, the Muslim quarter, the centre of the town where the Muslims had their own little um little quarter to live in. And this is the archway here.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Oh wow. Going in, yeah. That's beautiful. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

So there you go. So there wasn't a lot left from the Moorish times, architecturally wise, but what was left were a lot of these archways because they're strong. Right. So they preserved them and built on top. You can see the white stone where they've built on top. Yes. And especially there in the archway there.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

So that's so beautiful. And that is a house?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah, people live up there.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

There was someone sat up there reading a book the other day with the window open, and I think the window opens the other side, and he was just like sat there cheered. I thought that's a nice place.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

That is a nice place.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Is it a private house or a so as we step through and then we're in the heart of what would be the Arabic quarter then?

SPEAKER_03 32:49

And then uh let's see what it says there. Tell me again the name of the portal.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

This would have been the entrance way into where the Muslims had their own little citadel.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

I think it's pretty interesting that they have uh original antique piece up there. Yeah. Like just on the street.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah. And obviously it's a great photo spot for my guests. We do some nice pictures walking through, and then we step inside, and then the buildings are really close together here.

SPEAKER_05 33:38

Look.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Oh yeah. Oh. Yeah, so the streets just get narrower.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

So yeah, these are my favorite streets of photographers. I mean it's a photographer's dream with the light and the shadow.

Final Takeaways And Where To Find Paul

SPEAKER_00 33:50

So this is when I first kind of became inspired to organize my walk and my private walk.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

So, Paul, thank you very much. Nalini, how was that experience?

SPEAKER_04 33:59

I mean, honestly, the amount of times we've been to Valencia for different reasons, whether it's pleasure or work or what have you, this is um I've seen the city in a whole new light. So, Paul, thank you so much. I highly recommend. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

My pleasure, my pleasure. Yeah, that's the good thing. Hopefully, that's the good thing about my walk is that you see something new. And no matter how many times I walk the city, I always see something new every time as well. So that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

All right. Feel the vibe, right? The vibe. And you're really part of the neighborhood. I mean, you can hear it there. There's construction. Yeah. Um, Paul, just quickly for our listeners, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Yeah, on Instagram at the Streets of Valencia, and I've also got a big Facebook group as well. So if you type in Streets of Valencia on Facebook, my Facebook group is I'm constantly updating news, reviews, um, recommending places to eat, places to drink, and anything to do with Valencia.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

All right, well, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Thank you. Thank you very much. Until next time. Bye for now.