Trip to Avila

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My friends Winnie, Mike, and I headed off to Avila today for a day trip from Madrid. Avila is located 1 and a half hours west of Madrid. Avila is a medieval town and the birthplace of St. Theresa of Avila who was born and lived here in the 16th century. The town is surrounded by two kilometers of medieval walls and nearly ninety stout towers completely encircle the old part of town. They are an impressive fortification built in Romanesque times. King Alfonso VI ordered the construction of the Avila walls after his conquest of the town in 1090, using Moorish prisoners for the task.

We took our time heading off to Avila from Madrid as there is never any point in starting anything too early here. We arrived into the city about 1 o'clock and went straight for some Spanish food. We found a place which served a wonderful bean and chorizo soup. We thought we had ordered paella as well, but as it never came it seems the waiter decided our American Spanish accents were too difficult to understand.

After lunch and of course a stop off at the pastry shop we headed to check out the medieval wall, called the Muralla. It is fairly enormous and surrounds the small town. For only 2 euros you can walk along the wall and get a great view of the city and the countryside. Afterwards we walked around a bit more and found a small museum dedicated to St. Teresa. Oddly enough, they have a display of St. Teresa’s ring finger there complete with ring. It was really gross!

We walked around a bit more and then took the 7:30 train back to Madrid. All in all a very good day 😊.

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