Day trip to Ávila

We decided to make an excursion to the famous walled city of Ávila, an hour or so northwest of Madrid. This weekend is dedicated to the Jornadas Medievales, festivities ostensibly celebrating the multicultural history of the city. I expected it to be akin to a Renaissance fair, but it was more like undirected cosplay for some, and a good excuse for everyone to drink and to eat roasted meats. A kind of daytime hallowe'en, with people dressed as medieval soliders, a few even in armor, north Africans in robes and djellabas, and then pretty much anything else: peasant, Palestinian, Xena, and yes, even Batman.

It was entertaining, but made anything resembling normal tourism pretty much impossible, so we just took it all in, enjoying the juxtaposition of ancient architecture and contemporary partying. Eventually we escaped the revelry to explore a few other corners of the old city, some of the surrounding contemporary city, and a nice park. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 2 in Córdoba

Image
Today we went to the Palacio de Vania, known for its many courtyards. Here are photos of the palace first floor interior , and the courtyards . After that we walked through the Plaza de la Corredera , and its small mercado . We continued through the streets of Córdoba, then had tapas lunch at the Casa de Pepe de la Judería (tapa of rabo de toro shown).
Read more

Day 1 in Córdoba

Image
In our first full day in Córdoba we were good tourists, visiting the mezquita-catedral and the alcázar.  The mosque was built in the 8th century (through the 10th century), the Moors were driven out of the region in the 13th century, and the major conversion of the building into a cathedral began in the 16th century (through the 19th century). Yung Wha and I joked that the Spaniards recognized the magnificence of the mosque, so instead of changing it they just overwhelmed it with Christianity. So, I've simply categorized the mezquita-catedral photos roughly into Moorish and Christian , with no other particular organization or commentary.  We then went to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. The Alcázar contains a remarkably well preserved collection of Roman mosaics and other artifacts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. We climbed to the top of one of its towers, from which we could view the surrounding grounds . And we enjoyed the gardens in relatively cool temperature unde...
Read more

Etapa 6 — Baena to Castro del Río

Image
We were out by a little before 7:00 today, we soon reached the edge of town , and by 7:25 Baena was already far in the distance behind us. For the next 20 minutes we enjoyed the pre-dawn light , and by about 7:45 the sun was up , but was still blocked by the mountains. By about 8:30 the sun was fully up, and we had reached the local highway, on which we walked for a couple of kilometers. There were very few cars, so it wasn't stressful. I got a kick out of the way the sun to our east cast our shadows on the trees . Eventually we reached the Puente de la Mutarra, which took us across the Río Guadajoz. Shortly beyond that we came upon a couple of picnic tables and benches that had been constructed for pilgrims on the Camino Mozárabe. We weren't terribly tired, but we stopped and rested there for a few minutes anyway, just so that the Spanish taxpayers' money would be well spent. From there on, the walk stayed fairly level, 'cause we were pretty much just following the ...
Read more