A bed without a river
A park in a diverted river's floor โ Valencia's immortal idea.
Areyes108 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Sjaak Kempe from Groningen, The Netherlands โ CC BY 2.0
Make it your route, not your destination: drop from the old quarter and pedal east โ every bridge an architectural chapter โ until the City of Arts rises from the green like a moored spaceship. Reverse it mornings: future to history. Walkers take the middle third and Gulliver.
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The Turia Gardens are the smartest urban decision a Spanish city ever took: after the killer flood of 1957 the river was diverted around the city โ and when a highway was planned for the empty bed the citizens rose with "the bed is ours and we want it green", birthing Europe's longest river park: nine green kilometres embracing the old city from the Serranos towers to the City of Arts. It is Valencia's daily artery: unbroken cycling and running paths beneath eighteen bridges from Gothic to Calatravan, sports fields, orange groves and fountains โ and at its middle the giant Gulliver park: the traveller's reclining body climbed and slid upon by children as Lilliput's little folk. Renting a bicycle here is the Valencian day's best decision: ninety minutes crossing the whole city in green, from history to future.
A park in a diverted river's floor โ Valencia's immortal idea.
Centuries' Gothic to Calatrava's white โ an open bridge museum.
A body to climb, limbs to slide โ a legend as playground.
Former Turia riverbed, Valencia