GK Tours. Day 69
Saturday 11th January 2025.
Avila, Castile E León, Spain
Another short drive through the Spanish countryside today, taking us past flat, agricultural land with mountain ranges in the distance.
We were heading for Avila, a walled city which came into view from quite a distance.
Our approach had been hilly as we climbed to Avila, the highest provincial capital in Spain and the temperature was dropping.
Our stop was in a private Aire, right at the bottom of the city walls called Aparkarea – Parking de Autocaravanas Ávila
My goodness, the walls are magnificent. Glowing in the sunlight, in good condition and ready for the next invaders I’m sure 
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As it was cold we were wrapped up, even Meg had her equafleece on which brought her lots of attention – maybe cos she walks like a catwalk model when she’s in it 
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To get into the city we had to climb, I counted 100 steps to the gate. We were using the GPSmyCity app as it had a route with all the highlights to see.
It was a busy Saturday afternoon, a good mix of locals and tourists, many of whom were Spanish. We did see quite a few groups of jolly men and assumed they were on stag weekends or the like.
Avila is tidy and clean. They pride themselves in looking after this wonderful asset.
The Cathedral is magnificent, even the back had a lovely entrance, jutting out of the city walls. The romanesque Basilica de San Vincente is beautiful and you can walk 3/4 of the city walls if you would like to.
Even the post office is in a fabulous building, I didn’t get a picture but letters are posted into two lions mouths on the walls of the building 
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Avila is beautiful and you could spend a couple of days wandering round it’s ancient streets, though it’s so clean and well preserved it actually doesn’t feel ancient .
It was getting rather chilly as the sun started to dip, so we headed back to the van. We couldn’t believe how much we had climbed as our route just kept descending!
Gareth managed to get a fab pic of the walls lit up too 
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