vicarious travelling: Valencia, Spain - long day in the city, part 1, the Marina

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Valencia, Spain - long day in the city, part 1, the Marina

We took the bus in to Valencia and then got on one of the city buses to get down to the marina area. This bus went around the outside of the old town and then down to the port and took about an hour. On the way we were sometimes on wide treed boulevards and sometimes, narrow, single lane, one way streets. Every now and then there was stunning architecture but mostly monolithic apartment buildings. However the streets and sidewalks were vibrant; so many cars and many creative parking jobs, bars and restaurants spilling out on to sidewalks and into park spaces, small shops, laundry hanging from balconies. It was not a boring hour on the bus by any means.

Off the bus and we walked straight to the waters edge with

this row of

ornate buildings that were built originally as warehouses for the port.

They are built at the initiative of the Ministry of Development within the General Plan of Ensanche and Improvement of the Port of Valencia, whose objective was to revitalize the port as an exporting power. The tinglados project will begin in 1910, work will begin in 1911 and will be completed in 1914^{. 2]} Six tinglados will be built in the port of Valencia of which three are currently preserved, the tinglados numbers 2, 4 and 5.

His style is framed within Valencian modernism with an architectural language close to that of the Regional Valencian Exhibition of 1909. It highlights its metallic structure and the typically modernist ornamentation with mosaics with marine and agricultural motifs, etc^{. 2]}

During the Spanish civil war the tinglados will be bombed by Italian aviation and will be restored after the end of the contest. They are declared as Local Relevance Good of the city of Valencia.

Currently they have lost the use for which they were conceived and are the scene of all kinds of cultural activities, leisure, etc. It is expected that in the future they will be assigned another more concrete and definitive use. In 2017 and 2018 the three tinglados are restored by the Valencian Generality^{. 3]} from wikipedia, translated from Catalan.

Around the port there were other

old buildings

as well as new.

Looking across the water we could see a luxury motor yacht, a ferry and some of the cranes in the commercial port.

We watched the Mundomarino cat that offers boat trips out of the harbour

but we had seen sailboat masts and that is where we were headed.

Stopped first for a quick look at the sailing school

with their variety of small, medium and accessible sailboats.

We kept walking (did a lot of walking on this day!) and finally got to the marina. Primarily sailboats, all a good size.

We happily oohed and aaahed our way along the docks until we got to the end where

the really big boats were moored. Here we were pretty well speechless.

My favorite Endeavour, registered in Georgetown, Cayman Islands - I couldn't get a good picture of it as it was moored between two other big luxury yachts but she had the sleek, classic lines and blue hull that I love.

I looked her up and was floored at her pedigree:

Endeavour is a J-class yacht built for the 1934 America's Cup by Camper and Nicholson in Gosport, England. She was built for Thomas Sopwith who used his aviation design expertise to ensure the yacht was the most advanced of its day with a steel hull and mast.^[1] She was 130-foot (40 m) and launched in 1934 and won many races in her first season including against the J's Velsheda and Shamrock V. She failed in her America's Cup challenge against the American defender Rainbow but came closer to lifting the cup than any other until Australia II succeeded in 1983.from Wikipedia.

She changed hand a number of times since 1934 and spent 50 years abandoned and derelict before being restored in the 1980s. There are videos of her on YouTube under sail, beautiful.