The Walls of Avila, and Other Fun Things!!

Our leader Paco is gone on vacation this past week and for the week to come, so. . . . we have had a little time on our hands to go exploring, so that is what we have done.

Yesterday, Saturday, we decided to head out to see Avila.  If you put an accent on the first 'a', then you will have pronounced it correctly.  (my keyboard does not have the accent mark to put there)
Avila is home to probably the best-preserved and most complete set of Romanesque-type walls that exist on the planet. I say Romanesque, but the Romans had a lot of help from the Jews and the Arabs who inhabited the area throughout the course of the building of the walls.  Even the name of the city is of Moorish origin.

We opted to not use the toll road that goes under (or through) the mountain and travels pretty much a direct course, choosing instead to go by way of the old highway that meanders past some pretty cool smaller towns along the way. It also winds up and over the Guadarrama Mountains, and snakes its way down the other side, affording us a nice country drive on our way over to Avila.  We enjoyed every minute of it, except for one wrong turn!!!!!!  (we did not lose much time on that one :>)  )  On the toll road, the drive is about on hour and a half.  The other way, a little under two hours.  It was well worth the extra time, in order to enjoy some of the rural aspect of Spain.

Let's just get to the pictures, okay?

No city is without its famous Cathedral
and Avila is no exception.  There were some
renovations happening, we didn't go in.

Some cool detail on the corners!!  Notice the little round balls
going down each side of the column!!

There is certainly a story of some kind going on here, but I
couldn't tell what it was

These steps are the original rock steps, very uneven and different levels

I think they felt very safe behind these walls

The earlier Romanesque parts are made with red and white
"blood:" limestone,  while the Gothic parts were built with

                                                                                             white stone.

The walls themselves were begun in 1090, and enclose an area of 77 acres.  There are 88 towers (you will see them below) and 2500 merlons (pointed parts on top of the towers).  The walls are about 10 feet thick; 39 feet tall. and we were able to go up on top and walked around up there where some Roman Soldier, long ago, walked during his turn to watch for the enemy!!  He might have even had his dog up there with him!!!

Well, we found a place to park, fairly close to one of the 9 gates (puertas), and the first thing we did was walk the entire length of the enclosure, in order to get to where all the action was.  That's probably why we were able to park where we did--the locals already had the good parking places all locked up.  Any way, here are some of the views from up there:

                                                                                                           

This is one of the gates

This picture is one of the rock fences that are in use today.  Animals are kept in their place behind these.