Street Art

Our last full day so we did a bit of shopping (the Valencia F.C. shop, Pull and Bear and the Mercat Central) and mopped up some sights too. We skipped the Cathedral (Holy Grail notwithstanding) and went instead to the Church of St. Nicolas - tucked away down an alley, inside it's a less than understated affair, adorned on every surface with baroque frescoes and encrustations. I even enjoyed the audio guide for a change - so many levels of meaning (historical, political and ecclesiastical) and symbolism in those images - plus I'd never heard of how the tradition of giving presents in the name of 'Little Saint Nick' came out of a story of him giving a poor man 3 bags of gold to save his daughters being sold into prostitution (now there's a festive little tale...!) We also did St. John's and the Silk Museum because they came in free with the entry ticket to the first place so it'd have been rude not too. Later on their was more paella (not to mention a particularly potent Aqua de Valencia for Beck...)