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| Las murallas de Ávila |
Part three of my spring break adventure, Ávila! Ávila is a city west of Madrid that is best known for its walls. The walls of Ávila were built in the early Middle Ages and are Romanesque in style. They enclose the original part of the city. After finding the tourist office to get a map, I passed through the most famous gate of the walls the Puerta de San Vicente (Gate of St. Vincent). Once inside the walls, I went to the Catedral del Salvador de Ávila (Cathedral of the Savior in Ávila), one of the first Gothic-style churches ever built in Spain (or at least so said the sign outside of the cathedral.
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| Puerta de San Vicente |
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| Lion statues outside of the Catedral |
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| The bell tower of the Catedral |
After the tour, which also included a museum of the diocese, I walked to the center of the city to the Plaza del Mercado Chico (Plaza of the Boy Market - sounds strange once it's translated into English), that is basically their Plaza Mayor. Then I stopped at a very "chulo", or cool, restaurant called El Rincón (The Corner) is exactly that, a restaurant in a corner.
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| Plaza del Mercado Chico |
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| El Rincón in Ávila |
After enjoying a delicious meal, I headed back to the wall in order to walk along it. Walking along the wall was so cool and I got a lot of great views of the city and the surrounding area. For only 3.50€ I was able to walk along about half of the wall. Normally it's 5€, but with the international student card I received a discount. For anyone who studies abroad in Spain (or anywhere in Europe), I recommend getting it; in Alicante (part of the Comunidad Valenciana) it's called Carnet Jove, but in the rest of Spain it's Carnet Joven and it only costs about 8€ and with all of the discounts you can get it ends up paying for itself and then some (for example, I got into the Prado and the Museo Reina Sofía for free with it).
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| Climbing up the stairs of the wall |
I wanted to go to the Museo de Ávila, but I ended up not having enough time before my train for Madrid left. Once I got back to Madrid, I did a little researching because I wanted to go to the American Embassy just to take a few pictures because one day I hope to work there as an employee of the State Department, but it was over a 40 minute walk from my hotel, so I decided to go get some churros instead since the chocolatería (chocolate shop/churro and chocolate café) was closer. And I went to
the chocolatería in Madrid, San Ginés. It's open 24 hours, which in my opinion all chocolaterías should be in case you have a midnight craving for churros con chocolate. San Ginés is basically the most popular and well known chocolatería in all of Spain and it's walls are lined with photos of all of the famous people that have been there, including the Princípes de Asturias (the Prince and Princess of Asturias - the future King and Queen of Spain).
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| Churros con chocolate :) |
Then, since it's my last night in Spain, I decided to walk around a bit more in order to take picture of some of the places I've already visited at night. Let me tell you, Madrid is beautiful all of the time, but it is even more beautiful at night with everything lit up, such as the Fuente de Cibeles which was lit up with blue and purple lights. I'm a little sad to be leaving Madrid especially since I wasn't able to see the Museo de América, a museum with artifact Spain collected from it's former colonies and I also wasn't able to fit in another trip to El Escorial to actually go inside of it, but hopefully I am able to return some day (or at least I plan on it).
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| Someone turned the crosswalk guy into a matador! :) |
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Not a great picture because of the lighting, but I share it because I had to
overcome a language barrier to have it taken by an Italian couple, who I thought
at first were speaking Spanish, luckily everyone knows what handing them your
camera means; it's also lucky I know at least how to say thank you in Italian |
Tomorrow (or rather today since I see it is now after midnight here), I am off to my last stop for spring break Toledo, not the one in Ohio obviously, and although it's spelled the same it's pronounced "toe-lay-doe"
