Ávila
AH-vila! Uh-VEE-la! Ah-vee-LA!
Another day trip from Madrid checked off my list! I didn't travel much my first few months of moving to Madrid (i.e. getting TEFL certified, finding a job, apartment hunting, being broke, you know the usual), so there was a streak where I spent every weekend traveling...somewhere. Back in February, my fellow camp friend, Taylor and I wanted to check out the famous walled-in city of Ávila and after a 1.5 hour snowy and scenic train ride through the mountains, I was face-to-face with this gorgeous town (and Taylor, a 30-minute bus ride from Segovia). After getting lost trying to find each other (my fault), it was a 15-minute walk into the walled-in part of the city.
Ávila is known for:
having the highest number of Romanesque and Gothic churches
having a complete (and beautiful) medieval town wall surrounding the city
the unique experience of walking along the walls
being a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Yemas (pastry made from egg yolk)
its Cathedral
This is the kind of town where you just can't stop taking pictures. We spent most of our day exploring and walking along the walls pretending we were in Taylor Swift music videos, eating (and honestly not liking) yemas and enjoying the scenery. Also, I would like to mention I had the tastiest aioli I've ever had in Spain...
I present to you... Ávila.
Tips on traveling to Ávila:
Visit Ávila during warm-ish, non-windy weather. Although this might seem obvious for any traveling, this is especially vital for making sure you're in good weather conditions to climb onto the wall (aka, the best part of this town!) If it's too windy (or snowing), they will close the wall to visitors.
Be sure to walk on BOTH walkways of the wall. Taylor and I almost didn't see the best part of wall! Thanks to a lovely security guard who pitied our level of Spanish and confusion, he let us up after the wall entrance hours were closed (Thanks, tio!).
Always check opening hours! Spain is notorious for awkward and ridiculous hours, especially in the smaller towns like Ávila.
From Madrid, take the train! I'm a huge advocate for taking the bus and saving a few euros, but the views from the mountainous train ride were breathtaking!
Try to see Ávila and Segovia in the same weekend. They are very close to one another that it may be worth it to plan for both. You could save a few euros and hours on roundtrip tickets.
