Blogs from Ávila, Castile & León, Spain, Europe

We decide to have a quiet morning, so I take the opportunity to read up a bit about the history of Avila. It is thought to have been originally settled sometime around the 5th century BC by the Vettones who lived in this part of the Iberian Peninsula in pre-Roman times. They were apparently particularly notable for leaving large granite statues of pigs scattered around the countryside, and there’s one of these in our hotel’s garden. We also saw one at one end of the Roman bridge in Salamanca without having much idea what it was. Issy said it looked like a beheaded gorilla while I opted for a beheaded bear. It seems that neither of us got any points for those guesses. Avila was captured by the Moors when they came to Spain, and it ... read more

Today we will be taking a short train trip to our next destination, the town of Avila, which is about 150 kilometres east of Salamanca. We’ve got some time to kill at the station so I do a clean out of used train tickets and other miscellaneous redundant paraphernalia. I ask Issy whether she still needs her mobile phone contract for Jordan. She says she doesn’t remember buying a mobile phone contract in Jordan, so I take this to mean ‘no’ as the answer to the original question. The contract has a copy of the front page of her passport in it so I tear this up into small pieces and head off to put it in the nearest waste bin. Issy stops me. She asks me if I realise that people prowl train stations looking ... read more

The ticket process at new Salamanca Rail Station was more relaxed than Chamartin. It had been redeveloped with the proceeds of a cinema and fitness complex attached to either wing. The comfortable seats were clearly to the liking of the grey population of town, who sat around observing the proceedings of the day before their afternoon nap. A train sat on the allotted platform, but disturbingly showed no sign of where it was heading. The other half is always nervous about such lack of information, as indeed were half the people waiting who urgently sought out anybody vaguely resembling a member of train related staff. After multiple reassurances that the train was heading in the correct direction, the assembled masses climbed aboard. We set off across the open flatlands again towards Avila. Have you heard the ... read more

Today we visited El Escorial, which is where the Royal family lived and where many of its members’ tombs are located. We left before the sun had risen are were able to see the sky turn beautiful oranges and reds El Escorial is a beautiful building with over 2,000 rooms! The tomb chamber is bronze and marble (the entire place is very cold, specially in the winter) where the Charles and Phillips tombs are. It was rainy and cold day but we were still able to appreciate the incredible palace and monastery built in the Late 16th century. We were not allowed pictures inside but I was able to take some of the outside. He architects were Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herra. We even had some free time to roam around the streets ... read more

Today we went to Avila. It was a 90 minute trip, hoping to not only see the town and Cathedral, but also to visit the tomb of St Teresa. The fact that it is an UNESCO World Heritage listed site because it has the best preserved city wall also attracted us to the town. We only discovered once we got there that her tomb is in Salamanca. Nevertheless, we still made the most of the medieval city and its attractions. We spent a couple of hours exploring the Cathedral, but we weren’t able to take any pictures or video. One interesting part of the Cathedral was the number of storks nesting on its towers and pinnacles. We were also able to climb up and explore the town’s walls. At this stage, only about half of all ... read more