Ávila

After arriving Sunday afternoon to heavy rain, we spent Monday (with only intermittent showers) exploring Ávila.   The city is known for the intact walls which encircle the central city, built between the 11th and 14th centuries, and several prominent churches and basilicas.  

We walked to the church of Santiago (of course) which is just outside the walls.  The church was closed so we couldn't visit the inside.  Just after we arrived there, it started to dump rain and hail.  We were able to shelter in the arch near the door until the storm passed.   Once again, St James provides.

Entrance to church of Santiago

Church of Santiago viewed from the city wall:

The Avila cathedral is large, and built so that one end is incorporated into the city wall.  

There are a number of interesting crypts of nobles buried in the cathedral, including this one.  Not clear why the sculpture shows a chained monkey pulling a hirsute woman's hair.

Altar

Painting of St James

About half of the wall's circumference is walkable.

Most of the wall's gates are very large.  This small one, the Puerta de la Mala Ventura, is where the Sephardim were expelled in the late 15th century.  There are a few sites of former synagogues, but we were only able to find one, which turned out to be the building housing our hotel.

Our hotel, in the old city.  Apparently a former synagogue.

Tuesday, after breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we continued to explore.  There were a couple of sites that we'd not made it to on Monday.  We toured the Basilica de San Vicente. where the remains of him and two other saints were interred (due to underground water movements they didn't stick around).  Note the medieval chain mail armor on the guards: attire which was appropriate at the time of the carving but not at the time of Vicente's life and martyrdom.

We also toured the city museum: there are exhibits describing all the inhabitants of Avila from pre-Roman through Visigoth, Moor and the more recent Catholics.  But interestingly there is no mention of the Sephardim who had a significant community in the city before the late 15th century.

In the afternoon we drove to Madrid, dropped of our rental car and found the apartment we'd reserved in the city.  We now have a couple of days to explore Madrid before flying to Athens for the next leg of our adventure.