I visited this WHS in March 2016. I found a very good last-minute low-cost deal and booked straight away, totally unaware that the Fallas Festival was in full swing. I found out about the Fallas Festival after booking my flight and rental car as ALL the hotels in Valencia were fully booked! In the long run it only meant I had to modify my initial plans for the rock art visit and I slept in Elche instead which was very cheap. The main difficulty I encountered was parking once I arrived close to Valencia's city centre. All the main parking lots were either closed or not accessible as the Fallas floats were blocking every other street. After a few attempts and U-turns I parked my rental car at Garaje Guimerá which is just 1km away from the Lonja de la Seda. I was lucky to be there early in the morning as it was completely full in the afternoon. I could have used the metro from the airport to get there but I managed just the same. The festive atmosphere all over Valencia enhanced the overall experience as on the whole there isn't much to see apart from the silk exchange, the cathedral and the Plaza de Toros in the city centre. On the way back from Elche, I visited the City of Arts and Sciences and although I'm not a fan of modern architecture I would be in favour of its inscription on the WH list. Since I visited the Lonja on a Saturday entrance was free of charge and apart from a few tourist groups doing a touch-and-go visit as part of a city centre tour, there were long intervals during which I had the silk exchange for myself. The main highlight is of course the main hall with the spiral columns known as the Contract Hall. The modern retro-looking chandeliers offer adequate lighting and even though the ceiling is not painted anymore and there is no furniture left inside, the gothic hall is still quite beautiful. The style is quite reminiscent of the Manueline style I appreciated all over Portugal. I really enjoyed focusing on the tiny interior and exterior gargoyle sculptures adorning every window and every door. The facades and especially the windows of side-wing (picture), named the Pavilion of the Consulate, are really worth viewing from the orange courtyard. This was the seat of the Tribunal del Mar, the first merchant tribunal in Spain. The room in the first floor has a richly decorated ceiling which is a masterpiece of medieval art. It is said that the King had visited Valencia just to see this ceiling. It reminded me of another ornate ceiling I had seen in Zaragoza in the Aljafería Palace. The geometric floor tiles in this room have a similar design to the one painted on the walls of the Albi Cathedral in France. Once you go down the stairs, you will see the white marble Unesco plaque which is pretty much the only sign you will see in the Lonja. This is not a bad idea as information boards tend to spoil the integrity/view of rather small closed areas. Instead there is a very informative audio guide for only 3 euros as well as an information video on display free of charge. I enjoyed my visit even though it doesn't really offer anything which is really that unique or of OUV. Especially Italy but also most of Europe would easily triple their amount of WHS if UNESCO were to inscribe sites based on a particular unique feature of importance. So in my opinion this is one of those WHS which simply add nothing to the WH list.