Our main attraction in Valencia was the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, or the City of Arts and Sciences. This complex contains several museums and art centers, in the midst of many parks and statues. It was lovely!
This building is the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which is a theater. This was undergoing some construction while we were there, so we could not go inside, but it was still beautiful!
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Our first stop was L'Hemisfèric, which is the really cool dome shaped theater. We had purchased tickets to see the documentary Jerusalem, which is a National Geographic film. The film came out two or three years ago and I have wanted to see it that whole time, but it has been in very limited theaters, none of which in Illinois. So I was incredibly excited!
It wasn't too crowded in the theater, but everyone had to wear these cool headsets, since the film was offered in 4 different languages!
Here's the end credits to show the slanted/dome screen! The movie definitely had a 3D feel to it because of the shape of the screen. It was one of the best films I had ever seen and whenever it does go to DVD, I will definitely get it, because the footage used in the film is stunning, and because it closely follows traditions, customs, and families of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faith, all of which live very close together. I want all of my students to see it too! :)
If you are interested in seeing the trailer to this incredible film, check it out below!
Our next stop was to the Science Museum, or El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe. While we didn't love this museum's permanent collections, we absolutely LOVED the 25th Anniversary of PIXAR exhibit that was featured! This exhibit featured drawings, sketches, clay models, and a variety of video that took us through each step of making the Pixar movies and how the characters in these movies evolve over the creation process. It was also amazing to see the actual clay models used for movies like Up, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, etc. We were fascinated!
I loved the architecture of this building (hence all the photos!)
Our third stop at the City of Arts and Sciences was L'Oceanogràfic, or the aquarium. It is the largest aquarium in Europe and was unique with how it was spread out in different buildings based upon climate. Our favorite section (besides the penguins) was the area with all of the birds. They were so funny to watch and we were able to get so close to all of them!
Jake enjoyed these cutouts of 17 different species of penguin!
During our trip, we learned new things every day! Jake was surprised that the African penguin is also known as the "jackass" penguin. I had never heard of this either!
In the penguin area, we also found a hilarious penguin that seemed to be gathering rocks as a gift or an offering to another penguin, perhaps a love interest? :) The penguin kept getting rocks for the other over and over again, until there were about 30 or 40 rocks at the feet of the other penguin.
You can see some of the rocks here. The other penguin does not seem to be interested, as they are not even looking at any of the rocks.
One of our final stops at the aquarium was this unique auditorium, which featured a very large tank of fish behind the stage. There was not a show happening while we were there, but it was still very fun and relaxing! I'm sure this backdrop is a great setting for productions of Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, etc!
The last part of the City of Arts and Sciences that we visited was L'Umbracle, which contains a variety of plants native to Valencia and some interesting sculptures!
After our busy day here, we were pretty tired, so we had a very chill evening and lounged around a bit! We didn't really feel like doing too much in the city center, but we loved our time here and the time in the City of the Arts and Sciences really felt like a magical day! :)
Have a great day/night/whenever you are reading this!
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