Stunning days in Ávila

I felt very lucky a couple of weeks ago as I got to go back to  Ávila. I went to Ávila last year with the lovely Harry, and then returned for one day later in the tour, again with Harry. See my previous post here.

Anyway I was so excited when I was told I was going back to Ávila. I went in my first ever week of tour and had a wonderful time with Harry and my assistant, JC. I was very nervous that week and being with two people who had experience calmed me greatly. I also couldn’t have been in better place, Ávila is simply stunning. Anyway, I got to go back! Yay!! This time I wasn’t nervous and out of the three of us, Tommy, José and myself, I was the only person who had been before. So I was the experienced one!

The walls of Ávila

The main ‘site’ to see in Ávila are the walls . There are 88 semicircular towers and with the walls the area they enclose is 77 acres, and the perimeter measures over 2500 metres. It is also the largest monument in the world that is fully illuminated. Other than the walls, the Cathedral is a wonderful place to visit. I didn’t go in the first time I visited so I was pleased that I got to go in this time. Something that struck me about the Cathedral was the red stone. It was gorgeous.

The red stone can be seen clearly in the picture

Not the greatest photo, but the detail was incredible!

We also ate in a fantastic restaurant, La Casona Fusión. We went three times and the menus (they had two that you could mix and match from) were €10.50, although they did have a couple of things that you could pay a supplement for. We did this one day when we got chuletón which is a beef steak, and the supplement was €3.50 which I didn’t think was too bad. The €10.50 included a starter, a main and either a dessert or a hot drink.

This is some of my food from the restaurant, the meat is Chuletón which I mentioned above, the top picture on the right is Patatas Revolconas and is mashed potato with paprika, it is a typical dish from Ávila, and the final, not so typical, dish is Seafood Pasta. Everything I had at this restaurant over the three days was delicious!

An extremely happy memory I have of Ávila is dressing up a statue of Adolfo Suárez González, who was a Prime Minister of Spain. It started the first time Harry and I went to Ávila when he put his hat on the statue, it then continued the second time when Harry put his coat on the statue and later climbed onto the shoulders of the bronze Aldolfo. So I felt it was only right that I dressed him up and send a picture to Harry as he wasn’t with me this time.