Dinner in Avila!

Hola!  

 

Wow!  A very nice afternoon in Avila, and an excellent (although a bit mysterious…) dinner.  We tried to book at the restaurant below the apartment, but unfortunately, it appears they are closed on Wednesday evenings.  Be that as it may, we then made our way to the Hotel Palacio de los Velada which was scheduled to open soon – 8:30 pm as opposed to 8 pm.  Still too late for us, but not many other options within walking distance.

Restaurant in the enclosed cloister

Avila Cathedral

Love those Lions!

Side entryway to Cathedral

Bell tower of the Cathedral

 

So, we loitered in the neighborhood for half-an-hour before claiming our 8:30 pm dinner reservation.  Truly a lovely hotel, and their dining room was in the cloister, which was beautiful.  Not being able to understand much of the menu, we did manage to figure out that their special of the evening – 3 courses, starter, main and dessert were available for €27 each.  

The main courses were bacalao (cod, I believe) or beef … hmmm…which would I choose…To begin with, we had a tasting of two small sausages – possibly chorizo; we didn’t ask.  At any rate, they were delicious, so we were encouraged.  The starters were the mystery to both of us – turns out there were three – a bowl of sweet potato soup with bread croutons, along with a bowl of white beans with sausage.  There was also something that looked very cake-like, and had a piece of pineapple on top … I’m thinking it was some sort of grain or legume; possibly lentils. R thinking possibly lentils or black beans, but didn’t taste that way to me!  After that, we had our rare sirloin steaks – with potatoes – and they were amazing!  Almost didn’t need steak knives to cut the meat, it was so tender.  Dessert for R was some sort of cheese tart, which was actually pretty good!  Mine was ice cream – absolutely NO idea what kind, but it contained pine nuts, which I could have done without.  At any rate, there was chocolate sauce on top of it, and it was in a hard dark chocolate cup – and that was great.  All in all, with a bottle of lovely dry red wine, I think the bill was something like €50, which sounded pretty good to us!

Started with a small bite from the kitchen

White beans on left; sweetpotato soup on right

Sirloin steak with potatoes - yummy!

R's cheese cake dessert

My mystery icecream in chocolate cup

 

From the hotel, it was just a few minutes walk back to our apartment, and we are now in for the night!  Heading to bed soon.  We’re thinking of an Avila day tomorrow – Cathedrals and some of the other churches, as well as some wall walking!  I’ve told Rabsolutely NO moving and picture taking at the same time, as I recognized some very ancient steps that look very familiar – like those in Aigues Mortes!  So!

More tomorrow!!

 

Much love,

m

xxx