Valencia: architecture of the future, a river turned garden and the real paella

At the end of the old riverbed stands the City of Arts and Sciences, a complex of futuristic buildings designed mostly by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava. White, curved and surrounded by blue pools, they look like something from a science-fiction film.

The eye-shaped Hemisfèric houses an IMAX cinema; the Science Museum is interactive and great for children; the Palau de les Arts hosts opera and concerts. The Oceanogràfic is one of Europe's largest aquariums, with sharks, dolphins and belugas.

Even without going inside, it's worth walking around, especially in the late afternoon and at night when the lights reflect in the water. It's the most famous image of modern Valencia.

Valencia Cathedral mixes Romanesque, Gothic and baroque styles and keeps, in one chapel, an ancient chalice that tradition identifies as the Holy Grail. Next door, the Miguelete tower offers, after many steps, a view over the rooftops and the city's blue domes.

El Carmen is the bohemian heart of the centre, with narrow streets, street art, bars and terraces. Nearby are the Serranos Towers and the Quart Towers, old gates of the medieval wall.

Plaza de la Virgen and Plaza de la Reina are the main meeting points. In March, during the Fallas, they fill with flowers, music, gunpowder and giant monuments of cardboard and wood that burn on the final night.

The fifteenth-century Silk Exchange, La Lonja, is one of the most beautiful Gothic civic buildings in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hall of columns, with spiral pillars opening like palm trees on the ceiling, was where merchants did business.

Right opposite is the Central Market, one of Europe's largest covered markets, in modernist style with domes, stained glass and tiles. Inside are hundreds of stalls of fruit, fish, ham, spices and rice.

Go in the morning, hungry, and order something to taste at the counter. Nearby, try horchata, a cool tiger-nut drink, with fartons, long sweet buns made for dipping.

After a great flood in 1957, the Turia river was diverted around the city, and the old bed became a continuous park about nine kilometres long. It has lawns, sports grounds, fountains, old bridges and cycle paths, and crosses the city from end to end.

Renting a bike and riding the Turia to the City of Arts and Sciences is one of the best ways to see Valencia. The city is flat, the cycle lanes are good and the climate helps almost all year.

Valencia has wide, fine-sand city beaches, such as Malvarrosa and Las Arenas, a short distance from the centre. Along the seafront promenade there are rice restaurants and bars for the sunset.

Paella was born on the outskirts of Valencia, and here it's serious business. Traditional paella valenciana has chicken, rabbit, green beans, garrofó (a large white bean), saffron and local rice, cooked in a wide pan over a fire. Seafood is a different paella; chorizo, never.

The best place to try it is the Albufera, a nature park south of the city with a large lagoon surrounded by rice fields. In the village of El Palmar there are paella restaurants and boat trips on the lagoon at sunset, with herons and fishermen.

A local rule: paella is eaten at lunch, not dinner. And the toasted layer at the bottom, the socarrat, is the most fought-over part of the table. Order yours ahead; it takes time.