I love driving in Spain. Despite most “motorways” only having two lanes they are much more relaxed and courteous. But it’s not the roads that enchant me it’s the scenery. Whether intimate verges full of plants we can only dream of growing, fields of weeds like fennel, hills full of sun flowers or whole days of only driving through olive trees. (How do they harvest so many trees?) One year we drove for over 100kms and saw only olives, estimating a spacing of 10-15m apart.. that was a lot of trees!
We had never been to the East coast of Spain, so having spent a few days on the outskirts of Madrid, drove over to Valencia. The greenness of the area is striking. The olive gives way to the orange (and lemon) the soil is like copper and it’s hot. Family protests meant my time indulging in wandering through anything that looked green was limited (I’m not the kind of guy to abandon them to pursue a pleasure). But we saw a lot and they slept well after. Through the centre of Valencia runs a strip of greenery, the turia river bed gardens. It’s actually more than a river bed, as the soil level seems to have been raised considerably in order to build it, but it is approx 400m wide and 9km long. Comprising of a series of set pieces, open colonnades with fountains, tennis courts, open lawns, rows of palms and innumerable water features (all of which were working) it is a breath taking achievement and very well constructed. The plants looked great and well watered, there was no vandalism that we saw, and it was patrolled by mounted police and exuded a feeling of pleasure and security. I could have spent all day there. We probably only walked 1/3 of the length, from the old town to the science park. At the harbour end of Turia are several buildings that immediately place you on a different world. They are huge, dwarfing and immaculate. Surrounded by water and very novel planters, Cypress grow in donuts within the ponds, pennisetum grasses spill from planters, an elevated walkway has palms and shrubs, all in lawned and green landscaping. The whiteness of the structures hurts the eyes and the scale boggles. The Turia must rank as one of the world’s greatest parks.
We had never been to the East coast of Spain, so having spent a few days on the outskirts of Madrid, drove over to Valencia. The greenness of the area is striking. The olive gives way to the orange (and lemon) the soil is like copper and it’s hot. Family protests meant my time indulging in wandering through anything that looked green was limited (I’m not the kind of guy to abandon them to pursue a pleasure). But we saw a lot and they slept well after. Through the centre of Valencia runs a strip of greenery, the turia river bed gardens. It’s actually more than a river bed, as the soil level seems to have been raised considerably in order to build it, but it is approx 400m wide and 9km long. Comprising of a series of set pieces, open colonnades with fountains, tennis courts, open lawns, rows of palms and innumerable water features (all of which were working) it is a breath taking achievement and very well constructed. The plants looked great and well watered, there was no vandalism that we saw, and it was patrolled by mounted police and exuded a feeling of pleasure and security. I could have spent all day there. We probably only walked 1/3 of the length, from the old town to the science park. At the harbour end of Turia are several buildings that immediately place you on a different world. They are huge, dwarfing and immaculate. Surrounded by water and very novel planters, Cypress grow in donuts within the ponds, pennisetum grasses spill from planters, an elevated walkway has palms and shrubs, all in lawned and green landscaping. The whiteness of the structures hurts the eyes and the scale boggles. The Turia must rank as one of the world’s greatest parks.
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