Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

Well, in keeping with the Valencian swing of things I came across this marvel of architecture. The City of Arts and Sciences is a sort of educational/entertainment centre, lets call it an edutainium. It was designed by local architect Santiago Calatrava and is divided up into several parts. L 'Hemisfèric represents an eye (apparently it "blinks") and it houses an Imax Cinema, a Planetarium and a Laserium. El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe is shaped like a whale skeleton and handles the science side of things. The other part I found interesting is the L'Umbracle; it contains plant species indigenous to Valencia such as lavender, honeysuckle, palm tree and bougainvillea (that was one I wasn't expecting). The Edutainium also has the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe.

Here's a bit of history. Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències is build on what used to be the original path of the Rió Turia but due to a serious flood in the 50's the river was diverted and the remaining riverbed was converted into a long park basically filled with all sorts of entertainment for the citizens of Valencia. Would be a great place to chillax siesta style, get some edumication and then head of for some extroverted noches partijes.

You can see the park running through the city in this map.

Here's a aerial shot of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències . See the yellow circle in the top left hand side of the picture?

It's a giant Gulliver jungle gym.