Mercido de Chico. It seems like all Spanish towns have atleast one plaza. We sat at a table and ordered two 'vino de casa and tapas '. We did that twice and were full. The bill came to 6 euros which seems like quite a good deal.
We really enjoyed watching all of the local people start wandering into the square to sit and chat and let their kids run around. It was pretty cool. Apparently it's the place to bring your dog, too, no matter how big.
Saturday: Plaza de St Theresa. Plazas are very interesting places to just sit and "people watch": very family friendly with little kids, women wear lofts of charm bracelets, man purses are common, lots of walking...especially older pairs (women friends and men friends) just strolling and chatting (pix). Wedge platform sandals are in, Columbia trail runner shoes are not.
Slept late until 10 am and had breakfast downstairs. Jan pushed thru the morning with a mild flu. We visited some sites along the wall, stormed the ramparts and looked at St. Theresa's church and convent (pix of convent). We also went by the palacia episcopalian which had taken over from the church of st Ignacia.....I guess the orthodoxy didn't think much of the contemplatives .
Jan took a siesta to let the flu run its course a bit and I went over to one of the many plaza tapas bar for cerveza and tapas and then walked it off with a tour outside the walled city. The walls are a UNESCO world heritage site.
Condom vending machines mounted on the city walls. 'nuff said. Paul was propositioned while he was on his walk. Now we know why the vending machines are there !
"Judias Blanca's" con chorizo - a classic white bean that Avila is famous for with it's own special domain name. We had the classic bean and chorizo (sausage) soup. (pix)
Manuela, the dog, is a gentle older yellow lab dog that follows around behind some local (alcoholic?) guy. We meet them everywhere around Avila... At least five times so far. He chats with us but we don't understand anything except the dog who is introduced to us each time as Manuela.
The scooter gang -- a bunch of 10 year old kids showed up at the plaza again tonight. Must be a regular thing for them to do.
We saw two blind guys selling lotto tickets near the plaza this morning. Just sitting against the wall on stools...until one got up to walk out in the plaza and check something on his phone. Lol
Had a very early dinner at 6:00. Very Norte Americano, I'm afraid. At the table next to us there was a stag party with the groom dressed up like Cupid (pix). His bride came by with her girlfriends later. She was dressed as Goldilocks. Then the groups went separate directions again. Now they are at the restaurant near our hotel and very rambunctious! :)
Naive Norte Americanos. Took a while to figure out the electrical outlets. Luckily we came prepared with a converter but didn't realize the outlets were actually holes in the wall (pix). Also took us a long time to figure out the lights in the room; it turns out that you have to insert the tab from the room key in this slot and leave it there to complete the connection (pix). Who'd a thunk ???
Just relaxing and reading this evening (Paul jumped the balcony fence). Hoping to be able to stay up late enough to go out and see the city wall all lit up. That won't be until abt 10
At 10:30 pm we did go out for a "paseo" (walk) and it IS true...people were just sitting down for dinner at all of the cafes outside! The city walls were beautifully lit up. Like a fairy tale!
Tomorrow...on to Tui.
No comments:
Post a Comment