For my birthday we decided to take a day trip to Ávila, a little town north of Madrid. Ávila's
main attraction is the old wall that completely encircles the old city.
You can walk around the top of most of the wall.
We got there on Sunday around 10am and the city was completely dead!The only other people we saw walking around were tourists from the train we came in on. All the stores were closed too. We realized in retrospect we should've looked online to see if any of the touristy things would even be open on Sunday. Once we got into town though and found a tourist office and got a map, we saw that the two main things we wanted to do, the wall and the cathedral, were open. We walked around the outside of the wall first and then headed into the city. The cathedral didn't open until 12pm so we headed for the wall. It is divided up into two sections that you can walk along. The first section doesn't cover much ground but the second section covers a good chunk of the wall. After walking along the wall we headed out to Los cuatros postes, the four columns. You get a great view of the wall and city from this view point. We had lunch here and then headed back into the city to visit the cathedral.
After the cathedral we headed home. Ávila was a fun place to visit.
Basilica San Vicente. We didn't get to go inside this church because it was closed to visitors until late in the afternoon and we were returning to Madrid before it opened.
The wall from the outside of the city. The round part sticking out is part of the cathedral.
Ben read online before going that the most ancient people who lived in the peninsula would carve statues like these. The people were nomadic and it is thought that they marked routes for the people. It is hard to tell though because the statues are scattered all over the country.
Walking alongside the outside of the wall.
The main plaza inside the wall.
A tiny old road that led behind the cathedral.
These little statues are scattered throughout the city.
There was a pretty good view of the cathedral from the first section of the wall that you can walk around on.
A view of Basilica San Vicente from the wall.
One of the nine puertas that was built into the wall.
Los cuatros postes, The Four Pillars. According to legends, it was here that Saint Teresa de Jesus and her brother were found by their uncle. The two were going to travel to faraway lands to die as martyrs.
The view of the wall and the city from The Four Pillars.
The cathedral.
The cathedral was surrounded by these lion statues.
When we got home we had birthday giant double chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for dessert.
fun birthday outing! :)not many people spend their birthdays touring ancient cathedrals in foreign countries!
ReplyDeleteOK - the picture of the steep stairs - for a minute, i was looking at it, knowing they were stairs going up, but for a minute i got really confused because it looks like they could be going down too! it could go either way! it was totally tripping me out and i started to get confused and thought they actually were going down! lol