Avila

We had intended to visit Avila in 2010, but the weather changed and we had to get back to the warmth of Lisbon. Avila has the best intact city walls in Europe, so it is said, and, in 2010, we had to content ourselves with a long-distance view as we drove by. 2017 was different, as we spent most of the day and night in Avila, mostly on or about the walls.

Familiar sight: stork feeding young; nests on every high point

Nice Modernistta benches we have seen all over Spain

Castille y Leon

A bit of the walls from without

In the old city, at a patisserie, Vicki spies a new (to us) pastry:
the farton

We had to try some; looks more like a turdon with powdered
surgar

Also the micro-mini pain chocolat

With the legalization of marihuana some years back, the Spanish
are coming up with all sort of interesting new ways to smoke

Towers

St. Teresa is the local patron saint, and there
is a small St. Teresea industry here, shops,
pastries, icons

Some Art Nouveau here and there

This is the Celtic pig dug up some years ago--it dates from 200
to 500 BC--and which has become the city emblem

Official Avila pastry; we'd already met our
daily quota with the fartons

Avila's Parador, evidently the oldest of Spain's
paradors, a network of state-owned hotels
known for their historical interest, amenities,
restaurants, etc.

Avila street scene

Church of St. Teresa, with tour bus pilgrims

St. Teresa

Siege view of walls

We spent the night with 30 or so other rigs without the walls,
at the city's convention center parking lot, where there is an
aire de camping cars; at the convention center that weekend
was the Spanish National Association for Yoga, so it was
fairly quiet except for the deep breathing and occasional
"Namaste"

El Escorial, 2

Continuing our 2017 visit to El Escorial...

Now we are in the first floor of the immense two-story cloister; no view into
the cloister, however

Ceiling over grand staircase

Painter explaining ceiling painting to royalty

Now we are in three large halls with paintings; there are scores/ hundreds of
paintings at El Escorial but only these few are displayed, labeled; here, a very
giant El Greco

Penultimate Supper; looked like rabbit to us

Architectural archives

Now in the royal mausoleum; infant mortality very high in those days

Gloomy staircase leading down to the crypt where the Biggies are buried; I had
hoped to get pix of the tombs of Phil II and particularly Charles V, but the guard
there was all business and no cell phone to be distracted by

Take a picture of the tiles, she said

Now in the Bourbon section of the palace; a meeting room for dignitaries done
in the most atrocious mustard/Gothic ever

The best thing about our visit to El Escorial was meeting up with the travel
book/map  distributor, Philip, who supplied us with the much-needed 8th edition
of the Portuguese El Camino book we had sought in Madrid; after coffee with
him and hiswife and son, we took his advice for a stroll in a park near El Escorial

Another good thing: this Bosch board game in the gift shoppe!Only  a single panel
of any Bosch was in view in the palace/monastery, and it was unlabeled...

El Escorial in our rear-view mirror; isn't there a CW song about this?  headed for
Avila

El Escorial, 1

We visited El Escorial, the 16th century royal residence, in January of 2010, during the January thaw of an historically cold winter in Spain. We had been in warmer Lisbon, but saw a January thaw coming and made a dash to Madrid for a brief visit there, with side-trips, we hoped, to El Escorial, Segovia, and Avila. It was cold, wet, and gloomy in central Spain, but above freezing for nearly a week. Our visit to El Escorial was not our happiest. In addition to the cold, wet, and gloom, El Escorial itself, the palace/monastery, is grey, gloomy, cold, not welcoming...pretty much what its creator, Philip II probably had in mind...and, in addition, the town itself was not particularly welcoming for 7 meter RVs. This time we did better in the parking department, landing a spot just outside the basilica entrance, metered, but we ended up able to spend the night there. The weather was improved, too, bright and sunny, but with temps dropping below freezing that night. Fortunately, our current 5.4 m rig can cope better with cold, and parking limitations. The palace/monastery, however, remains cold, grey, gloomy, unwelcoming...not my favorite place in Europe. Not to mention the "NO FOTOS!" policy, scrupulously enforced. Thank the gods that Versailles, not El Escorial, became the model all the later monarchs wanted to emulate.

Basilica side entrance to El Escorial; located here is a present-

day school, K-12, it seemed, with kids everywhere during

recesses

Larger partial view: EE is huge

Pano view

EE's setting, in a high valley, surrounded by mountains, an
hour's drive from Madrid; our rig is just out of view, but over
there near the other RV

Court of the Kings

The Library at EE, the one place we like

Ceiling done by a follower of Mr. Twisty (Michaelangelo); it
depicts the 7 liberal arts; here, Grammar

Philip II was a real stickler for grammar; notice the whip in
Ms. Language-Person's left hand and the putti turning away in
fear

Copy of Papal Bull outside the library threatening ex-
communication for anyone stealing a book; so helpful to
have friends in high places

Now we are in the basilica, the church,
Baroque to the hilt, slathered in Peruvian gold

Phil and two of his wives, eternally praying:not pictured: Mary
Tudor

Altar; why put a monastery in your palace? you
ask; Answer: Phil needed a lot of people
prayingfor him

In Florence, I think, it's called tranquil grey;
here, it's austere, cold grey

Famous Cellini sculpture

At this point I was finally nailed: "NO FOTOS!"