Day 6 - Cuenca / Valencia, Spain - June 16th

Today was a neat day. We saw 2 more Spanish cities. We left Madrid at 8:30 this morning and drove about 2 hours to Cuenca. It’s another old Roman city that was built in the 2nd century. It is also on a hilltop so there was quite a steep walk and going across a bridge to get to it. At one point they started building houses hanging off the cliff walls, called “hanging houses”. They don’t allow those to be built anymore for safety reasons. After we hiked to the city, we went to the main square and there was a cathedral there built in the 11th century. Megan and I and some from our group chose to keep hiking to the highest point in the city. I’m glad we did because we got to see many cool views of the cliffs and the old part of the city. There is a newer city at the base of the hill as well that is part of Cuenca. We were there for about 2 hours. We then got on the bus and drove to Valencia. I love Valencia. And we are only here for one evening, so I just got a little taste of it. I would love to come back and spend several days here like we did with Madrid. There are modern buildings which are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They consist of the Opera House, a science/art museum, the IMAX theater and an aquarium. We walked around them and then walked into the old city. There were nice plazas around every corner it seemed, and many beautiful churches and streets. We went inside a cathedral and inside was the holy grail! The cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper. Who’d have thought that all this time, the Holy Grail was in a cathedral in Valencia?? The world’s best kept secret apparently. We are now back at the hotel and will be having dinner soon, then bed since the Spaniards have dinner SO late! Dinner was Paella and it was delicious!