Avila is about an hour and a half north west of Madrid. It is 1117 meters (3665 feet) above sea level – which is higher than Carrauntoohil (the highest mountain in Ireland) and is the highest city in Spain. It has quite an extreme climate, with very hard and long winters, and short summers. We arrived on a glorious afternoon on Tuesday and it was 16 degrees – ideal for doing a spot of touring.

Avila is a World Heritage city and is renowned for its formidable medieval walls which provide a fully intact fortified ring around the old city and when you first see it resembles something out of a storybook or fantasy movie. The reason for its appearance is that the city was developed after this part of Spain had been re-conquered from the Moors to stand as a bastion against the Caliphate to the south. For the next few hundred years it flourished and reached its zenith in Spain’s 16th-century Golden Age when Torquemada was buried here.

Pilgrims also flock to Ávila because of its connection with Saint Teresa, patron saint of all kinds of things, from headaches to chess! The story runs that St. Teresa of Ávila had an unfortunate mishap and fell off a horse into the mud and heard Jesus say to her, “This is how I treat my friends,” to which she replied, “If this is how You treat your friends, it is no wonder You have so few!” There you are now!!

Ávila’s UNESCO-listed walls are considered among the finest city defences in the world. They have a perimeter of 2.5 kilometres and are never less than three metres-thick. There are eleven gates and ninety-seven turrets dating back to the 1100s which were part of a sophisticated defence strategy for the city. Even inside the walls Ávila’s palaces were reinforced to repel an attack should the outer limits be breached.

Scooting around Ávila!

Basilica de San Vicente

This is one of the greatest achievements in romanesque architecture in Spain. Like many of the medieval buildings the basilica’s granite walls have an eye-catching texture, a kind of mosaic of lighter and darker stones. Construction of the Basilica began in the 1100s and wasn’t finished until the 1300s.

And the hotel we stayed in was an old Palace and was full of character and tons of antiques – apart from Sheila 😝

We couldn’t reckon what this was used for… I reckoned it was probably the last guests in the room 😝

Out scooting around 😁

A beautiful sunset at the end of a wonderful day.