Spain: Part 1 billionith (billion is the new million) - Valencia

Editors note: Bucky gets paid per punctuation mark she gets into the headlines. Ignore the seeming lack of knowledge of all rules of English grammar.

So I know I'm telling you all about my trip to Spain in a very random order, not at all approaching the way I actually experienced and also now more than a month after my return. I THOUGHT I would be telling you all about my new iPhone, which was supposed to be a birthday gift, which is now also almost a month overdue. But alas no. I got stood up again. And so I revert back to Spain. This time Valencia.

We didn't really spend that much time in the home of paella, but what time we did spend there was definitely filled with the rice-y goodness. Much more of it than we should really and truly have eaten. But what can you do. It's like an entire country of my mom shoving food down our mouths. I would show you some pictures of the food, but somehow I decided not to take any pictures while I was there (the first time).

I also rate the beaches of Valencia higher than those of Barcelona and the water was still warm and swimable in late August.

Most importantly, and something you probably did not know (and this I did take pictures of), Valencia is the home of:


That's right. The Holy Grail. People are all the time looking for it and there it is in the land of good beaches and good paella. Here's a closer, though fuzzier look (my camera doesn't have a great zoom on it, it was dark and you couldn't get too close to it):


Since you can't really see it (even in person): The Cup is made of agate stone - a popular material for drink vessels in those times. It is a homogenous piece cut out entirely from a lare chunk of agate, 9 cm in diameter. Naturally, decorations of gold and pearls were added to the supporting structure over the centuries. (Valenciavalencia.com)

Naturally.