Museu de Belles Arts
Sundays are for taking it easy, or so I’m told. My Sundays, however, tend to be full of activity these days as I often get together with my new exploring buddy, Ewa, and we go walking around. This time we got together for a double purpose: one was to go for lunch at U Polek again, and the other to spend the day sightseeing. We had tried having lunch there the day before but we made the mistake of not checking how busy they were and we were out of luck. Not wanting to make that mistake again we reserved a table for the next day. Once again I enjoyed my meal very much (typical Polish chicken noodle soup and pork cutlets with cabbage and potatoes) but forgot to take photos, sorry.
We didn’t have a real plan for the rest of the day, so we decided to start walking towards Ciutat Vella along Avenida de Blasco Ibáñez, one of the widest streets in València, wide enough to have a park running down the middle of it (or the boulevard, I guess) for quite a few blocks. The other striking aspect of this street is that it runs through the university zone I had mentioned in one of the previous posts with many various faculty buildings lining both sides. I really love the variety in architecture, colours, and landscaping. Studying in places like that must be really inspirational and I’m very envious. Though I guess I probably shouldn’t be envious, after all, I went to the university that looks like a spaceship (Simon Fraser University) and I always found it a wonderful place to study, at least aesthetically-speaking. I probably should have taken more photos and I promised myself to go back and take a few more, especially of the buildings themselves. All in all it was a wonderful walk and it didn’t feel like we were putting in a lot of steps, though I guess that is what happens when the surroundings are so nice.
Avenida de Blasco Ibáñez leads to another place I have already gone through: Jardins del Real. This time we entered pretty much in the middle of the park but since it was Ewa’s first time there, we took our time walking towards the city centre. We also sat on a bench for a bit, to recover from the long walk, and it wouldn’t have been a proper visit if we hadn’t played with the kitties living there.
As we walked by the grand building that houses Museu de Belles Arts de València, it occurred to us that it was open, even though it was now mid-afternoon, and so often museums and other public places are closed by 2pm. Excited by the opportunity to spend the rest of the afternoon inside being cultured, we went inside. No matter how often I go into a museum and not have to pay I feel a little guilty. I understand having one day a week free and Sundays are free in most Spanish museums, but here in València most are free all the time right now. Maybe they should have an option to donate something, for those of us with a “guilty conscience” ? — I’d happily pay a few euro for the privilege of walking among beautiful works of art, especially now without the crowds.
It had been a while since I had to share space with other art lovers, but even now, on a Sunday, the place was sadly quite empty. Undeterred by that, however, we spent plenty of time moving slowly through the museum, first through the religious paintings, then more secular ones, both by famous Spanish, and specifically Valencian artists, as well as Flemish masters. Some of my favourites are in the Gallery, and they run the gamut of mostly religious works from the XV and XVI centuries, through the baroque period of Velazquez and March, to early XX century and works of more contemporary nature by local artists (and by “local” I mean València — this region has produced some major artists over the years). The museum is quite large with room enough for at least two courtyards … it is easy to get lost in it but I hope to return and learn where my favourite paintings are so I can come visit them. I’m told the coffee shop serves very good food, as well, but somehow we managed to miss that, probably because we were still full of Polish food.
With heavy hearts we bid adieu to the Pio Quinto, as it’s locally known, and headed across the Pont de la Trinitad bridge and back into Ciutat Vella. Since walking is quite thirst-making, we took advantage of the late afternoon sun and had some claras de limón at a patio on Plaça de la Verge overlooking that famous statue of Neptune. It was at once nice and at the same time weird to see so many people out enjoying this time with us, it was almost as if the pandemic was something happening in some other reality; here, people were sitting outside, enjoying the warmth of the late sun, with a beer or wine in front of them, seemingly with no cares in the world. This city has gone through a lot in the last 10 months–there had been a lot of pain and sorrow due to Covid–but on this day everything seemed peaceful and calm, almost normal, whatever normal is. Let’s hope the numbers of Covid cases continue to go down, as they finally seem to have turned the proverbial corner, and the spirits of the people continue to improve. It’s definitely time for that … even if it means I have to put up with more visitors to museums — I think I can live with that.
