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At Christmas, Valencia is both a quirky (a fleet of Santas on motorcycles?) and a cosmopolitan city (with a space-ship style opera house)

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The Mercado Central was humming with people seeking out the best of the best for the holiday table at home.

Judging from the preponderance of Spanish, Catalan and its cousin Valencian spoken in the transactions around us, it was clear that for all its popularity as a tourist stop at high season, the market in the days before Christmas had been returned to the Valencians, who far outnumbered the handful of foreign visitors like us.

That, of course, made it part of an indelible experience for this American family, about to stage its first Christmas overseas.

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We had been to Europe several times but had some uneasiness about being away from hearth and home during the holidays, but that dispersed like so much smoke up the chimney as we surveyed our haul of edibles and gifts from the shops and markets of Valencia.

“So what do you think?” our daughter Brenna asked, beaming. She knew what we thought. We were all beaming too.

It was the end of her semester abroad here, and the reason we had settled on a Spanish Christmas.

The residents and the merchants of this stunning and sometimes quirky city made us feel at home, far beyond our expectations.

Indeed, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, a Santa on his motorcycle roared through the holiday traffic in Plaza de la Reina, dominated for the holidays by a huge Christmas tree.

A few hours later, a dozen Santas appeared on their motorcycles. Inquiries about who they were met with shoulders shrugs, as if this always happened in Valencia.

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We found through Airbnb a spacious and sunny apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows and doors that opened onto a small balcony three floors above busy Calle de San Francisco de Borja. It was just a short walk from there to the historic area.

Our building was similar to others in the neighborhood: six to eight stories, with restaurants and shops on the street level and apartments or condos on the floors above, their tight balconies decorated with pots of flowers, small chairs or the occasional spare bicycle.

True to the season, some balconies displayed strings of lights and green garlands. Here and there, we could see Christmas trees in windows.

Old European cities have their charms in any season, but during the Christmas season, the festive flair is cranked up. It is true for palm tree-rich Valencia, which seemed as though it had decorated just for us.

It was not just the huge Christmas trees in the plazas but also the strings of lights across nearly every street and alley, the ice-skating rink in front of city hall, the chestnuts, almonds and ears of corn (my favorite) roasting at sidewalk stands and the outdoor Christmas markets peddling an array of goods as diverse as sculptures and cookies.

Mercado Central

In the days before Christmas Day, my wife, Carol, and our other daughter Fiona worked with Brenna on the menus for our stay.

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That meant wandering under the ornate roof and dome of the Mercado Central, or Mercat Central.

Amid the conflicting and blended smells of brewing coffee, melons and oranges, freshly slaughtered, refrigerated animals (everything from cattle to rabbits) and flowers, the four of us shopped for just the right pastas and spices, the perfect olives, the most aromatic bread, the reddest tomatoes, the fattest local strawberries, a chocolate yule log and a couple of bottles of native wines.

I also searched for free tastings, a job I knew I could handle with gusto.

I was tempted to buy a cured ham in its nearly original form, an entire leg down to the hoof — hanging with hundreds of identical porcine limbs like decorations from the market stalls — but the prices got into the hundreds of dollars.

Oh, and Fiona is a vegetarian. So I went with a small selection of jamón, sliced paper thin.

Smiles (even if we didn’t buy anything), “hellos” in English, offers of samples of cheese, sausage, pastry — clearly, Valencia was in the holiday mood.

At one stall, we were invited to sip a sweet wine. It came from — what else in this region? — an orange bottle.

The vino naranja, a balance of grapes and bitter orange peels allowed to sit in American oak casks for a decade, tasted like sherry. Sold!

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At the Christmas markets, like the one outside Mercado Central, shoppers will encounter figurines called caganers depicting American and European politicians and cultural and religious personages (even Pope Francis).

Caganers are a Catalan tradition. They’re all in the same pose — squatting and defecating. They are placed in nativity scenes (usually hidden in a corner) to symbolize the fertilizing of the Earth, or as an insult to the powerful, or as a mischievous gesture or (insert your theory here).

I already had one, purchased days earlier in Barcelona.

“Really?” Carol asked as I perused the shelves.

“Get it, Dad,” Fiona advised. I parted with half a dozen euros, about $6.25.

The city

We arrived in the city a few days before the holiday by way of one of Spain’s sleek Renfe trains (shortened from Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles). We stepped out of Estació del Nord (despite its name, a station south of the main part of the city) and found ourselves next door to a Spanish cultural institution, Plaza de Toros de Valencia.

The massive bullfighting ring, designed in the fashion of Rome’s Coliseum, was quiet. The bulls have the holidays off (and a lot of other days too).

In fact, some parts of Spain have given el toro a permanent reprieve, banning the tradition. Polls show that most Spaniards are against it.

Valencia stages bullfights in March and July; the rest of the time, the facility is used for concerts and other major outdoor events.

Valencia is Spain’s third largest city, but it is not as sprawling as Madrid or Barcelona. It is level and thus great for walking.

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It is a river town with no river and a coastal town that acknowledges the Mediterranean and has a fine, wide beach but that does not make it the focus of its life as much as many other coastal cities do.

Brenna spent her semester abroad at the Valencia campus of the Boston-based Berklee College of Music.

It is tucked into La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (Cuitat de les Arts | les Ciències) and next to the soaring spaceship-like opera house, known as Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, a short hike outside the historic city center.

Valencia, founded by the Romans, has a tightly packed Old Town that reflects the trials and pulls of history for two milleniums. Excavated Roman roads and foundations of structures are visible in La Almoina Archaeological Center (Museo Arqueológico de la Almoina), close to the Plaza de la Virgen.

A few moments’ walk away, on the Plaza de la Reina, stands the imposing Catedral de Valencia, which dates to the 13th century.

It was built on the site of a former Roman temple that was replaced by a mosque under Arab rule, so it wears the architectural fashions of the succeeding centuries on its doorways and in the interior, although Gothic dominates.

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On the northeastern edge of the Old Town, soaring twin towers joined by an arch are what’s left of 14th-century fortifications that once ringed Valencia.

A climb up the tower stairs is rewarded with a spectacular view of the city’s rooftops and steeples, the neighboring park and the Mediterranean in the distance.

El Carmen, a neighborhood in the Old Town, recalls the back ways of Paris, with numerous cafes and bars side-by-side on the medieval streets.

Outside Old Town, another up-and-coming hipster area called Ruzafa is packed with spots such as the Upper Club, one of many places where Brenna and her band gigged in the city.

The Torres de Serranos make a nice entryway to the Jardines del Turia, a ribbon of parkland that follows the former bed of the Turia river.

That waterway subjected Valencia to many floods over the centuries, and after the devastation of the Gran Riada (“great flood”) of 1957, which killed 81 people, the city and Spain embarked on a massive rerouting of the river to the south.

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It ceased flowing through Valencia in 1973; in its place is 5½ miles of gardens, paths and athletic fields, capped by the opera house, a science museum, a planetarium and L’Oceanografic, a sprawling aquarium complex.

The gardens are among the largest in Europe; strolling through the flowers and palm trees in late December, we almost felt as though we were in Southern California.

We did not attend a concert at the opera house, but on Christmas Day, we took advantage of the open-air bar service and lounged in the chairs, surrounded by the modernist sweeping architecture and massive turquoise reflecting pools.

As the Mediterranean breeze stirred our cocktails, we toasted one another: “Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad!”

If you go

The best way:

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From LAX, connecting service (change of planes) to Valencia is offering on Swiss, KLM and Air France, connecting to Air Europa and Vueling. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $851, including all taxes and fees.

Telephones: To call numbers below from the United States, dial 011 (the international dialing code), 34 (the country code for Spain), 96 (the city code for Valencia) and the local number

Getting around: Driving from Madrid to Valencia by way of the A-3 freeway takes about 3½ hours.

Where to stay

Airbnb: If you would like to stay where we stayed, in an apartment for four close to the old city, see www.airbnb.com/rooms/136909.

Vincci Lys hotel, 5 Carre Martínez Cubells, Valencia; 3-509-550, www.vinccilys.com. A modern hotel in the center of the city and close to Old Town. Doubles begin about $160 a night.

Hotel Hospes Palau de la Mar, 14 Navarro Reverter, Valencia; 3-16-28-84; www.lat.ms/hospes. This hotel occupies a 19th century mansion close to the old city and to the Jardines del Turia. Doubles begin at $170.

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Where to eat

Pico Fino Gastrobar, 18 Plaza Reina, Valencia; 3-155-020, www.restaurantepicofino.com Tasty tapas and sangria. Entrees about $11-$20.

Neco Buffet Mediterraneo, 9 Calle Pascual y Genís,Valencia; 3-94-21-88, necobuffet.com. Multiple other locations in the city. Paella of all kinds, a variety of Mediterranean foods. Buffet runs about $11-$13.

La Carbonara, 28 Calle Alta, Valencia; 3-15-63-77, www.lat.ms/lacarbonara. Superb Italian fare. Entrees about $10-$15.

Lemongrass, 7 Carrer de Ribera, Valencia; 3-28-46- 46. lemongrass.es A popular chain offering fast and delicious stir fry. $5-$10.

La Pappardella, 5 Calle Bordadores,Valencia; 3-91-89-15. www.restaurantelapappardella.com. Italian cuisine. Entrees $10-$20.

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TO LEARN MORE

Visit Valencia, www.visitvalencia.com/en/home

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