Ávila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, at about 1,130 metres, and you feel it in the air even in summer. Its walls, begun in the late eleventh century and finished in the twelfth, run for around two and a half kilometres with 88 towers and nine gates, and they are among the best-preserved medieval city walls in Europe. The Church of Santa María de la Cabeza stands just outside the old town, close enough to the ramparts that a rider can park and walk in a few minutes, and it belongs to the group of Romanesque churches that UNESCO added to the old town's listing.
The ride to Ávila from the Madrid side is a pleasure in its own right. The road climbs through the pine forests of the Sierra de Guadarrama and the granite country of the Meseta, with the Sierra de Gredos filling the southern skyline, and though traffic can be heavy on weekends it thins quickly if you head out on the minor roads. The winters here are cold, with real snow, and the summers are dry and bright, so spring and autumn are lovely. In the early morning the walls glow gold against a very clear sky.
Ávila is a city of saints. Teresa, the sixteenth-century mystic and reformer, was born here, and the town has a way of keeping her story close at hand. Local specialities reflect its past, with yemas, a sweet made of egg yolk and sugar, in every confectioner's window, and the grilled chuletón de Ávila, a huge beef chop from the local breed, in every restaurant.
Fuel is no issue, since Ávila has stations on all its main approaches. The small villages like Tornadizos de Ávila and Cardeñosa are quiet, with a few bars. If you are staying a while, walk the top of the ramparts at dusk, when the swifts are screaming around the towers, and leave your jacket with the bike, since in Ávila even a warm day can end quickly once the sun goes behind the granite.