My visitors arrived! I was very excited to greet them at the airport on Saturday morning. I missed them both a lot. We spent Saturday hanging out at my apartment, and walking around the area near their hostel, which is down the street from Puerta del Sol. We had platos combinados for lunch and tapas for dinner. Sunday was an early morning to go to El Rastro, the Sunday market, to shop and search for gifts. Lunch at Museo del Jamon, a ride on the Teleferic in Casa de Campo and a visit to the Templo de Debod, followed by paella for dinner rounded out the weekend.
Monday (Nov 21), we took a Cercanias train, the commuter train, to the town of Ávila, located northwest of the city. It is a small city that still has an almost completely intact wall (muralla). The train ride was 2 hours, but the scenery was very pretty. Carrie slept, I studied, and Kenny took pictures out of the window. Once we got there, we wandered around for a little while, since we didn't have a map. After stopping in a cafe for a quick warm drink, we were directed by the barman to a nearby hotel to get a map of the city. From there, we headed towards the inner walled part of the city. Ávila is supposed to have a catedral, alcazar, and muralla. We only found two of the three. We wandered around and saw many monasteries, convents, churches, and palacios. We stopped in a military building, where you could walk through a museum chronically the history of the military and the Spanish military. It is still used as a school so you could only see the museum and the courtyard.
After our wanderings, we decided to have lunch. We had an amazing menú del día, at a place called Tres Sigles (three centuries). It was a bit pricey, but for 13€, I got spaghetti bolognesa, lomo a la plancha con patatas fritas, sourdough bread, two glasses of wine, and delicious tarta de queso. Kenny and Carrie also enjoyed their choices, and we shared our desserts (they got flan and tarta de chocolate). Even though we all wanted to take naps after so much food, we headed off in search of the alcazar. It wasn't on the map explicitly, but there was a building that looked like it could be it. It wasn't, it was just an older building. So we decided to walk around the outside of the wall to go to the catedral. On our way out of the city, an older woman stopped us and told us about a great lookout point from where you could see the whole city. After some debating, we headed out. It was a pretty good walk, but the view was definitely worth it. Since Ávila sits on a hill, you could see the whole city plastered on the hill, wall included, from just across the river. One short photo shoot later, we turned back to the city and walked straight up the center to the far side, where the cathedral is located. It cost 4€ and had a very long tour, so we decided against it, because I had to be back in Madrid to study for my exam.
We took our time walking back to the train station, and this time took a regular train (Media Distancia = medium distance) back to Madrid. Everyone napped on the train, the metro, and when we got back to their hostel. I did some studying, and Carrie decided to pass on dinner because she was too exhausted. Kenny and I went back to Museo del Jamon, and sat in the dining room, which was a new experience for me. Then we got some ice cream and called it a night, since I had my exam at 9:10 the next morning.
Pictures to come (probably after I steal all of Kenny's at the end of their trip) as well as more chronicles of our adventures
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