Work trip to Valencia, Spain - 12th to 16th May 2009

Over the past 4 years, I've been doing a lot of travelling for work. In fact, until very recently, I'd barely gone a month without leaving the country at some point. Then my daughter came along, along with a recession induced travel clampdown, and I have been in London for the last 3 months. After constant use of the passport for a few years, I have to admit I've been going a but stir crazy. So, a sneaky work trip to Valencia for a conference was most welcome - especially as it was Valencia, which is obviously a great city.

The trouble with recessions is that everybody scales back their travelling. Which means that airlines scale back their flight. Which means that travelling gets harder. There are 3 direct flights a day from London to Valencia - 2 on Ryanair, and one on EasyJet. None were at the time I needed to go, so I found myself going on Iberia, changing planes in Madrid. One advantage of this was that I got to see the fantastic new airport terminal there, with a nice executive lounge, which enabled some early sampling of some Spanish ham.

Eventually in Valencia, it was scorching hot (and still only lunchtime). Our venue for the week was the Palacio de Congresos, a modern venue with lots of glass on the outside - which meant you could easily enjoy the Valencia sunshine from inside the building. Of course, during the week, we also got some time out in the sun, which was a welcome change from windy London. Wearing a suit in 30 degree heat was not a huge amount of fun - but its always a nice problem to have!

The congress centre was a block or two away from the New Mestalla, the football stadium that is being built for Valencia CF. Construction has slowed down recently, because of Valencia's money troubles, but what is built so far looked really impressive indeed - almost like a flower shape. On my taxi ride between conference centre and hotel, we spent much quality time stuck in traffic, looking at the new stadium. Looking forward to going there before too long.

My hotel was in a completely different part of town, in the City of Arts & Sciences. So, good views to be had, and it was an easy stroll to get out into the riverbed, to look at some of the fantastic architecture. There seem to be new buildings still springing up there too, as they develop the whole area from the city centre to the sea. One one evening, we had a tour of the Formula 1 circuit, the pits, and the Americas Cup area. There has been a ton of development in Valencia over the last 10 years, but I was struck by how empty much of it is - the tourists are not here (although of course this is still only May), and you wonder how many white elephants the city will be left with in a few years time.