Avila is in the MOUNTAINS!!!

Thursday began the next chapter of this crazy story. It started with us going to school to pay for trip to Granada next weekend. From there we headed to the bus station and got on a bus about 2pm to Avila. Now Avila is a bit further out than we have ever been before, about 70 miles from Madrid. It is worthwhile to mention that there are three of us that embarked on this journey (Jeannie, Jill, and I). It had been a semi-nice day in Madrid so I was wearing a light wind breaker while the girls were wearing thick coats. As we are driving, we were getting closer and closer to snowed covered mountains. Realizing that it is most likely going to be quite cold, I lean across the aisle and say "Jeannie, why didn't you tell me that Avila was in the mountains?" (hence the name of this entry). The reality is that none of us had a clue. However when we arrived it was not too cold. We started to walk without any idea of where we needed to go. Jeannie finally asked a man on the street and we were almost there.


Finally we arrived at El Convento de la Encarnacion, the convent where St. Teresa of Avila took her first vows and spent more than 30 years. The girls were taking picture of the outside when a woman with keys asked us if we wanted to see the church. We said sure and so we got a private tour of the chaples of the convent. They were absolutely beautiful. It was so awesome to pray where a saint prayed, lived, and worked. In the private chapel where she took her vows, they opened the wall so that her old living quarters are exposed. Then we went into museum part. Some of the articles have practically remained untouched since the 16th century. There is a part of a wooden post that St. Teresa used as a pillow, supposedly. It was extremely interesting. It was a bit strange though because we were the only people in there at the time and the lady locked us in and told us to ring the bell when we were finished. Jill was really creaped out and could not stay in there long.

Next we were off to the famous walls, or Murallas, that surround the old part of the town. The walls were built in 1090 after the town was reconquered from the Moors. They are a wonderful work of history. We tried to find the entrance so we could walk on the walls. The entrance closed at 6 and we arrived at 5:30 pm and they would not let us go up. They were still neat to see from the ground.

Our last stop was to try to find the church with the relics of St. Teresa. (They have her finger on display.) So we are asking people on the streets, "Donde esta el dedo de Santa Teresa?" We tried to ask people, but we could not find this church and decided to give up since we figured it was probably closed as well.

So we walked around and explored the town. At this time I was getting cold becaus ethe sun was beinging to set so I bought a scarf and a hat. After walking for a while I was getting hungry, but nothing sounded good...except a healthy American meal of McDonalds or Burger King. I saw a sign that with an arrow that said 3 minutes. We decided to follow it. After about 10 minutes of walking we accidently came across our bus station (thank God). We asked person on the street if he knew where it was and he said atleast another 15 minute walk. We decided not to go. I went and found a pizza place. The adventure ended with a bus ride with only 8 people, 3 of which were us.