Hemisfèric and Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe, Valencia, Spain

Miracle of Life (& the pain of breaking out of your shell)

The City of the Arts and Sciences (CAC) is a futuristic installation on the eastern end of the Turia Gardens comprising of a few modern buildings dedicated - to the arts and the sciences. To reach there you could take a taxi or a bus, the nearest metro stop "Alameda" being a good 20-30 minutes' walk away. Or you could choose to stay at one of the hotels in the area like we did a few years ago. Since I chose to stay in the old city this time, we walked a good hour each way to visit the CAC. But it was a lovely walk through the Turia.

Bridges along the Turia

Palau de Musica

I bought our combined Oceanogràfic-Hemisfèric-Museo de las Ciencias tickets online and collected them from the CAC when we arrived. You have to choose the dates of your visits down to the time of your IMAX movie. We visited the 3 installations over 2 days and watched "Wild Oceans". The kids wanted to catch "Dinosaurs" too, but it was either that or the beach.

The new Agora (where they will hold the Valencia Open Tennis 500)

Science Museum and Arts Palace (on the right)

I love the way the modern buildings sat so serenely in the gardens. Somehow they were not a sore-eye nor too "loud". In this part of Spain they are good with modern architecture.

Hanging Gardens in the Umbracle

Arts palace and the Hemisfèric

IMAX Slide Projection

I especially love the Umbracle that houses a garden suspended in the air. It's just opposite the El Saler Shopping Mall and is next to the Hemisfèric.

Science Museum and Superheros Exhibition

The Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe is a small Science Museum that had, on our last visit, a few tennis courts with a view of the outside and an exhibition on Comic Superhero characters and their superpowers. There was also a small section for children modelled on the play area in the Cité des Sciences in Paris, but if you ask me it'll be better to do this in Paris itself.

Children's Play area

We arrived at 10:30 and were told to wait till 13:00 before the Babies could go in and play as before that it was reserved for school groups (not mentioned on their website). And at 13:00, they started telling us we couldn't go in till 15:00. I was ready to freak out and seek a refund at that point and finally they conceded and allowed the kids in to play for - 20 minutes! I was furious. Because I already knew from past visits that there was nothing much to see in this museum, but bought tickets anyway when I saw that they had this play area. The museum is otherwise below Singapore Science Centre standards. Just admire the building from the outside.

Umbracle and Hemisfèric at sunset