Backpacking pt. 3 - Avila

Main square in Avila

St. Theresa Avila Statue

Our third and final stop was Avila. Upon arriving, the two of us had no idea what was in Avila nor did we know what to do once we got there. Emily knew the general direction of where some of the historical places are, so we walked from the bus stop in that exact direction until we ran into history. The first thing we saw was the basilica. It didn’t really look like a place to go inside so we kept walking towards the stone wall. Once we figured out where we were, we looked for a place to eat breakfast and stumbled upon a pastry shop. These pastries were so cheap and delicious at the same time! I ate five little baked goods and probably could have eaten another five. Once we finished that, we went to climb the city walls that surrounded the town. The medieval city walls were built in the Romanesque style. Avila is also one of the cities with the highest number of Romanesque churches, Gothic churches and catering establishments in relation to the number of its inhabitants (wiki).  This walk was pretty tough because the winds were blowing hard and the air was a little chilly. Some of the steps were double steps and we needed to literally hold on to the next step or the wall to make sure we wouldn’t fall trying to reach that next step. Oh, I can’t forget to mention that we were carrying our backpacks the entire time! This made us official backpackers. We walked around the entire wall, uphill and downhill (but mostly uphill). We passed St. Theresa of Avila’s church on our walk. St. Theresa is from Avila, Spain, hence the name. For lunch we had ham and cheese crepes which were tasty but not as delicious as the Nutella one from Salamanca. I also tried some of Emily’s Yemas which are a famous treat found all over Avila. I did not like this much. The taste was hard to grasp too. By the time we finished our day, we had two and a half hours before our bus left. So, what did we do? Nothing. No shops were open at all. Avila seemed like a ghost town. We sat in the sketchy bus stop for the duration of the leftover time. After three days of exploring and a 2 hour bus ride back to Madrid in the rain we finally made it home!