City walls AND an aqueduct! What a day!

Hola!

We had a fabulous dinner last night, at Café Zazu.  Such a great place, with only one problem:  They don’t open until 8:30 pm.  UGH!  At any rate, decided we wanted to go there, and left here about 8:15 pm.  It took about 10 minutes, and guess what?  Locked up tight and no lights anywhere.  Incredible!  However, as we were debating what to do next, a guy and a gal came up with keys! Progress!  We followed them upstairs, and got a lovely table next to the window.  (What was even nicer was that the HEAT was on and it was very pleasant.) 

Monastery across the street lit up!

Cathedral by night

Me in Plaza Mayor

Excellent dinner

Salad with dried tomatoes and parmesan

Excellent roasted veggies

R's shrimp with potatoes

My chicken slices with veggies

R's fruit tart

My carrot cake

Beautiful snow-capped mountains in the distance

Beautiful drive!

Verraco in Chamartin

Another in Chamartin!

Avila from overlook; love those walls!

Talk about solid...

Definitely built to last!

Late morning snack!

Avila Cathedral

Interesting granite

Main altar in Avila

This is really beautiful!

Love this Aqueduct!

Looked at their menu and decided on the following:  We would split two different starters, first a salad with greens, dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese, followed by a plate of grilled vegetables.  Both of these were wonderful.  We are both REALLY missing salads, and have resolved to spend the entire week after we get home on a salad-only diet!  For main courses, Robert opted for shrimp in a red sauce, and I had their Chicken Zazu, which was slices of chicken in a Dijon mustard sauce, layered with more grilled vegetables.  Both were absolutely fabulous!  For dessert, Robert had their crumble with red fruit (one strawberry) with ice cream, and I had their carrot cake with whipped cream.  Yummy, all!  We were actually offered complimentary glasses of port, but had to decline as it was already 10:30 pm and I was falling asleep!  We are heading back there tonight … yawn!  (During a brief chat with the owner about dinner hours in Spain, she told us she has reservations for a party at 11:30 p.m.!  When do these people sleep?)

Also, while it was very pleasant temperature-wise in the afternoon, it cools down very quickly after dark.  Last night was supposed to get down to something like 29 degrees, which is WAY too cold for me.  I froze on the walk back to the hotel.  Tonight, I will be wearing a turtleneck with my cashmere sweater, so hopefully things will be better!

Got home about 10:45 pm and I for one was in bed in a wink.  So glad I had posted earlier, as there was NO way I could have posted after dinner.  Will do the same tonight, for sure!

Up this morning about 7 a.m. and again, blue skies and sunshine, but a very, very cold wind. Dressed and ready to get out of town about 8:30 a.m.  Fortunately, one of the nice gentleman at reception was kind enough to get our car out of the garage, and brought it down to us at the side street next to the hotel. Good to be back in the car once again, heading over the river and through the woods and making our way to Ávila.  The path that Robert chose went through one of the villages known for their verraco, and we were able to add two more statues to our list.  We know there are many statues in the area around both Salamanca and Ávila, but we are both going to have to put in a lot more research work into figuring out where they are and how to get to them.  It’s odd but Spain doesn’t seem to highlight its ancient past as much as other countries, and that’s a pity.  It definitely does give us something to think about for future travel!

Finally got to Ávila around noon, and were able to find parking in St. Teresa’s Plaza.  It’s a new and interesting concept!  You go up to the machine and look for a ticket – but there are no tickets!  What happens is that their computer system registers all the license plate.  You park, get out and go into town, and when you come back, you enter your car’s license plate number in, and voila, there is your parking fee!  Pay the fee, and you’re good to go!  (I would like to add here that someone in line in front of us had parked then tried to get out without paying, was forced to stop and pay. Duh… and of course they were about four vehicles ahead of us!)  

Ávila is surrounded by stupendous walls, built around 1090 to keep out the Moors.  We stopped first at a viewpoint out side of the city, as the walls are beautifully kept up and just sparkle in the sunlight.  Once parked, we walked upstairs and out into the sunshine. Robert wanted to find the Tourist Information Office, as we needed a map, but we weren’t sure where to find it. So, after stopping for a few minutes for coffee/water and croissant/cake, we wandered into the main square.  There was a wonderful bakery there, who also had maps of the city printed up, showing their two locations!  Great find!  From there, we then visited the Cathedral – and truly, folks, I think these places may actually warm up about August!  It was FRIGID in there!  The audio guide was good, and I like it when they have background organ music playing; really gives the place some atmosphere.  From there, we were able to find the Tourist Info Office, but they weren’t particularly helpful as verracos were concerned.  We had been hoping to get a site map, but nothing doing.  However, we have definitely added Ávila to our “to do” list, as I really want to walk on those walls!

From Ávila, we decided we wanted to divert to Segovia to see the Roman aqueduct.  It took about an hour, but was very, very much worth it! The aqueduct is absolutely stupendous (I am running out of adjectives, can you tell?)  There is some dispute over the exact date it was constructed, but there it was, in several courses, running right through the center of town! Estimated date of construction was during the reign of Domitian, probably finished around the year 100 AD. It stands over 93 feet tall at its highest point and has 167 arches in all.  It has been functioning throughout the centuries and provided water to Segovia until the mid-19^thcentury!  I would really have liked to walk around and under it but, unfortunately, we hit Segovia right in rush hour traffic.  So, we’ll just have to add Segovia to our list of “must” return to places!

From there, it was about two hours back to Salamanca, and this time we took the autoroute.  It was quick and empty, although not nearly as scenic as our trip out this morning. Got back to the hotel about 4:30 p.m. and made it up the street/staircase yet again!  (Yeah!)  Now back in our comfortable room, and I’m going to get this posted and then take a nap, if I ever want to see dinner tonight!

Tomorrow we are packing up and heading for the Madrid airport, to get ready for our flight on Friday noontime.  So, more later!

Lots of love!

m

xxx