Travels Round The World

Silk merchants and medieval streets, one extraordinary market, a taste of horchata—and a very welcome ice cream

Where in the World Are We?

We are in Valencia, Spain.

Back on Land

After yesterday’s relaxing day at sea, Silver Spirit brought us to Valencia this morning.

We were back on land.

And back to walking.

Valencia is Spain’s third-largest city, but today we weren’t headed for its futuristic architecture or Mediterranean beaches.

We were heading into the Old Town to follow a story that helped make Valencia wealthy centuries ago.

Silk.

For generations, silk wasn’t simply a beautiful fabric here.

It was an industry.

A source of wealth.

A highly skilled craft.

And an important link connecting Valencia with merchants throughout Europe and the wider Silk Road.

Today, traces of that history still remain throughout the old city.

So we set off to find them.

Into Old Valencia

Before we reached the silk story, Valencia gave us our first look at its historic center.

Elegant buildings surrounded broad plazas while balconies, decorative façades and church towers rose above the streets.

Like so many European cities, Valencia rewards you for looking up.

At street level are cafés and shops.

Above them are centuries of architectural details that are easy to miss if you’re in too much of a hurry.

Fortunately, today’s excursion was a walking tour.

Plenty of opportunities to look up.

The Fabric That Helped Build Valencia

Our first major stop introduced us to the industry that helped shape Valencia for centuries.

Silk.

We visited the College of High Silk Art, housed in the historic headquarters of the organization established in 1477 to regulate Valencia’s silk makers and maintain quality standards.

That alone tells you how important silk had become.

This wasn’t simply a cottage industry.

Silk production required specialized skills, strict standards, and generations of craftsmen who understood everything from preparing the thread to weaving elaborate fabrics.

Inside the museum, we learned how painstaking that process could be.

Before modern machinery, every intricate pattern represented hours of skilled work.

The finished fabrics became clothing, furnishings, and symbols of wealth and status.

Even today, traditional Valencian clothing preserves that heritage in brilliantly colored and intricately woven fabrics.

The finished silk is easy to look at.

Understanding how much work went into creating it gives you an entirely different appreciation for it.

From Silk to Something More Delicious

Eventually our silk trail led us somewhere considerably more appetizing.

Valencia’s Central Market.

The enormous early-20th-century market is filled with hundreds of stalls selling the ingredients of everyday Valencian life.

Fruit and vegetables.

Meat.

Fish and seafood.

Cheeses.

Spices.

Olives.

And foods we couldn’t always identify right away.

Markets are among our favorite places to see how a city actually lives.

Cathedrals tell you about a city’s history.

Palaces tell you about its rulers.

Markets tell you what people eat for dinner.

And after spending the morning learning about silk, we were ready for something we could actually taste.

A Taste of Valencia

Then it was time to taste something distinctly Valencian.

Horchata and fartons.

Valencian horchata is a cool, sweet drink made from tiger nuts.

Despite the name, tiger nuts aren’t actually nuts. They’re small tubers, and in Valencia they are transformed into a refreshing drink that is especially welcome on a warm day.

And apparently horchata shouldn’t have to travel alone.

It comes with a companion.

Fartons.

These long, soft, slightly sweet pastries are traditionally dipped into the horchata.

So, naturally, we followed local custom.

After several hours of walking through Valencia, this tradition required little convincing.

Where Silk Became Wealth

Our silk trail eventually led to the building that brought everything we had seen together.

The Silk Exchange.

If the Silk Museum showed us how silk was made, the Silk Exchange showed us how silk became money.

Built beginning in the late 15th century, this magnificent Gothic building became a center of commerce where merchants gathered to negotiate and trade.

Imagine it centuries ago.

Silk arriving from workshops throughout Valencia.

Merchants arriving from across Europe.

Contracts being negotiated.

Prices being agreed upon.

Fortunes being made.

The building itself reflected the importance of what happened inside.

Soaring, twisted columns rise toward the vaulted ceiling, creating a space that feels more like a cathedral than a marketplace.

But the religion practiced here was commerce.

Silk helped connect Valencia to a trading network stretching far beyond Spain.

Standing inside, the story we had been following all morning finally came together.

The artisans made the silk.

The merchants turned it into wealth.

And Valencia prospered from both.

Church Towers Above the Streets

Silk may have been the theme of our excursion, but it was impossible to walk very far through old Valencia without encountering another part of the city’s history.

Its churches.

Bell towers and domes appeared above narrow streets.

Elaborate façades emerged unexpectedly between neighboring buildings.

Some were grand.

Others seemed almost hidden.

Together they created the skyline of a city that had been growing and rebuilding itself for centuries.

We didn’t need to enter every church to appreciate them.

Sometimes simply discovering one around the next corner was enough.

The Valencia Between the Landmarks

By now, we had learned something about Valencia.

Some of its best moments happened between the scheduled stops.

A narrow street.

An ornate balcony.

A little plaza.

A café.

A doorway that made us stop for another photograph.

The itinerary may have called this a Silk Road Walking Tour.

But walking gave us something a bus never could.

Time to notice the city between the landmarks.

And Valencia gave us plenty to notice.

Art Under Our Feet

Even the surfaces around us demanded attention.

Valencia has a long tradition of decorative ceramics and tile work, and colorful patterns appeared on buildings and architectural details throughout our walk.

It was another reminder to keep looking in every direction.

Up at the church towers.

Across at the balconies.

Into the markets.

And occasionally—

down.

The Best Stop Wasn’t on the Itinerary

By the end of four hours walking through Valencia, we had learned about silk.

Visited a museum.

Explored a market.

Tasted horchata.

Seen the Silk Exchange.

Photographed churches.

And walked a lot of streets.

It was warm.

We were hot.

And suddenly the most important attraction in Valencia had nothing whatsoever to do with history.

Cooling spray and ice cream.

Sometimes the best travel experiences are carefully planned months in advance.

And sometimes they appear exactly when you need them.

On this particular afternoon, a little cold mist and an ice cream tasted every bit as memorable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Maybe better.

History feeds the mind.

Ice cream after four hours of walking feeds everything else.

Two More Valencia Surprises

We thought our sightseeing was finished.

But on the walk back to Silver Spirit, Valencia gave us two more little surprises.

Yes, Valencia Really Does Have Oranges

First came the oranges.

After all, we were in Valencia.

Orange trees appeared along the streets, their bright fruit standing out against the green leaves.

Valencia and oranges have been linked in our minds for as long as we can remember, so it felt satisfying to finally see them growing right here in the city.

Not in a grocery store.

Not in a fruit crate.

On the streets of Valencia.

Sometimes the things you’ve heard about a place all your life are really there, waiting for you.

Even the Crosswalks Made Us Stop

Then we noticed something considerably more modern.

Valencia’s pedestrian signals weren’t only mounted on poles.

The “walk” and “don’t walk” signals were also built directly into the granite pavement beneath our feet.

It made perfect sense.

People walking through a modern city are often looking down—especially at their phones—rather than up at a traffic signal.

So Valencia brought the traffic signal down to them.

After spending the morning looking up at church towers, across at balconies and down at centuries-old decorative tiles, we now found ourselves looking down for an entirely different reason.

Even Valencia’s crosswalks gave us something to photograph.

With that, our walking tour was finished.

It was time to head home to Silver Spirit.

From Valencia to an Evening Aboard

By the time we reached Silver Spirit, Valencia had given us considerably more than we expected.

Silk and medieval merchants.

Markets and churches.

Horchata and fartons.

Beautiful tile work.

A very welcome ice cream.

Valencia oranges.

And even traffic signals beneath our feet.

Now it was time to trade our walking shoes for an evening aboard.

Music.

A special dinner.

Another headline performance.

And, before the night was over, one final surprise in the sky.

Rhapsody — A Celebration of Rock Legends

Back aboard Silver Spirit, our evening began at 6:00 PM with the Silversea Singers and Dancers presenting Rhapsody.

The show celebrated the music of three legendary performers whose songs have provided part of the soundtrack of our lives:

Billy Joel. Elton John. Queen.

These are songs that need very little introduction. Within the first few notes, you recognize them—and often find yourself singing along.

The Silversea cast brought that familiar music to life with powerful vocals, colorful costumes, energetic choreography, and the excitement of a live stage performance.

After spending our morning following Valencia’s centuries-old Silk Road, we were suddenly transported into the music of our own generation.

From medieval silk merchants to Piano Man, Rocket Man, and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Quite a change of pace.

And quite a way to begin the evening.

A Special Evening at La Dame

After Rhapsody, we slowed things down considerably with dinner at La Dame, Silver Spirit’s intimate specialty French restaurant.

La Dame is the kind of restaurant where dinner isn’t something to hurry through.

It is the evening.

We began with French white and red wines, followed by foie gras and a rich lobster bisque.

For the main course, we enjoyed La Dame’s version of surf and turf—filet mignon paired with Dover sole.

It was elegant, leisurely, and a wonderful contrast to the energy of the show we had just enjoyed.

One of the pleasures of a long Silversea voyage is that returning to the ship doesn’t necessarily mean the day’s experiences are over.

Sometimes an entirely new experience awaits us at dinner.

And tonight, La Dame made returning “home” to Silver Spirit particularly enjoyable.

Michael Bucala — The Magic Continues

After our special dinner at La Dame, we returned to the theater for another performance by headline entertainer Michael Bucala.

We had enjoyed Michael’s “The Magic of the Violin” the previous evening, so we already knew that this would be much more than a traditional violin concert.

Once again, Michael combined extraordinary musicianship with showmanship, humor and an obvious love of performing.

In his hands, the violin could be elegant and romantic one moment, then powerful and energetic the next.

What made the performance especially enjoyable was Michael’s connection with the audience. He wasn’t simply playing for us—he made us feel part of the evening.

After two nights of watching him perform, we understood why he has been such a popular headline entertainer aboard Silver Spirit.

It was another wonderful performance and a fitting conclusion to a very full day.

Or so we thought.

Silver Spirit still had one more show waiting for us.

A Harvest Moon Over the Mediterranean

When we stepped outside later that evening, the day’s final performance wasn’t taking place in the theater.

It was overhead.

A magnificent Harvest Moon was shining above the Mediterranean.

After a day filled with Valencia’s Silk Road, medieval streets, markets, horchata, oranges, music, an elegant dinner at La Dame and Michael’s violin, everything suddenly became quiet.

No stage.

No orchestra.

No spotlight.

Just the moon, the sea and Silver Spirit carrying us toward Barcelona.

Travel is often about the things we plan months in advance—the cities, excursions, restaurants and performances.

But sometimes one of the day’s most memorable moments isn’t planned at all.

You simply happen to be in the right place at the right time.

And you remember to look up.

Tonight, we did.

I would make your Harvest Moon photograph the final large image of the September 27 post, immediately before the “Tomorrow: Barcelona” section. It gives Valencia a much more graceful ending than finishing with the entertainment.

Then your Barcelona teaser can begin:

Tomorrow: Barcelona — From Lecture to Reality

Two days ago, while sailing toward Valencia, Dr. Stephen Wessley introduced us to Antoni Gaudí’s extraordinary world.

We saw his remarkable houses.

We saw the whimsical shapes and colors of Park Güell.

And, of course, his masterpiece—the Sagrada Família.

We learned how Gaudí looked to nature for inspiration, turning trees, flowers, bones, caves, and waves into architecture unlike anything the world had seen before.

At the time, we were sitting comfortably aboard Silver Spirit looking at photographs on a screen.

Tomorrow, those photographs become real.

Silver Spirit will bring us into Barcelona, one of the great cities of the Mediterranean.

And thanks to what we learned at sea, we’ll arrive knowing a little more about what we’re looking at—and the extraordinary man who helped give Barcelona its unmistakable identity.

We’ve seen the photographs.

We’ve heard the story.

Tomorrow, we meet Gaudí’s Barcelona for ourselves.

Next: Barcelona →