Central Market, La Lonja de la Seda, San Nicholas Di Bari.

After the train journey we took the rest of the afternoon off and just relaxed at our hotel. Actually we crossed the street to the supermarket and bought some milk for our cuppa and some Sangria for us. It's about the same price as milk here and almost on the same shelf.

Oh, I must mention our hotel. The Hotel Meditteraneo is quiet, clean and comfortable. The desk staff are terrific, very helpful and not above having a laugh with us either. It is superbly located and believe it or not the elevator is an endless source of amusement for Jackie and me. There is only one and it's about a metre square. Hard to believe such a small elevator could service a whole hotel. Whenever we get in it we have to do a squeezy circular kind of Doh-Sah-Doh dance move to get to the buttons. Great fun.

We hit the sights in Valencia this morning starting with the Central Market. This is the "Vic Market" of Valencia but without the salmonella. The place is spotless and fresh and oh so varied. We had our breakfast here actually. Fresh squeezed orange juice (we watched the machine squeeze it that's how fresh it was) with a generous helping of cut fruit pieces which was about 90% strawberries, yum.

Backing onto the market is an imposing late gothic cluster of large buildings called the Lonja de la Seda. This is where the silk traders conducted their business. Valencia was an important silk trading centre in antiquity and still is as any casual walk down a shopping strip will confirm. The silken fabrics and patterns on sale here are simply glorious and (naturally) cost a small fortune too.

Moving on to the church of San Nicholas di Bari. I have taken a few shots of the astonishing baroque decoration of the church, but in all that clutter I have particularly focussed on one part. And for a good reason. It depicts Saint Nicholas passing a bag of money through a small window to three young girls. They are sisters and the money is the help them avoid having to sell themselves to pay for some debt or other. This started the tradition of giving gifts to children from a benevolent soul who is never seen. Sound familiar? Yup. This Saint Nicholas we know as Santa Claus and it all started right here. Like Paul Kelly said, from little things big things grow.

This beautiful old building is actually the Central Market in Valencia.

It is still definitely in use today and is where the good burgers of Valencia prefer to buy their fresh produce and such.

 Long aisles of wonderful produce, bustling shoppers, touting stall holders ...

And the scrumptious smells of the produce on sale ...

Everything is immaculately clean and well presented.

You want paella? They got Paellas.

You want olives? Yep, they got olives there too.

 This is La Lonja de la Seda, a group of commercial buildings built by rich merchants in the silk and textile trading business way back when.

This is their main trading hall.

Elegantly spiralled columns in the late gothic architectural style.

The amazing baroque decorative styling within the church of San Nicholas di Bari y San Pedro Martir. It has been referred to as the Sistine Chapel of Valencia.

Some detail of the ceiling, vaults and columns could explain why.

The high altar in all its baroque glory.

And from the outside, it looks like this. 

You could so easily walk right past it and never even know it was there.

This is the depiction of that simplest of acts that started a tradition we all still follow today.

Yup. We know this guy as Santa Claus and this is where it all started.