Sunday began very early for some as our biological clocks kicked in and some were up as early as 3 AM! After breakfast, we left for the city of Avila. The best thing about Avila...the cooler weather. It was significantly cooler. Our tour of Avila included the very colonial streets, the Cathedral, and much about the life of St. Teresa of Avila. Following the tour, there was a time for some snacks--including some very good calamari sandwiches.
Following our time in Avila, we headed back to Madrid. We made a stop at our hotel to freshen up and lucky for us we have a mall right across the street so some students headed there for food or other necessities. We then took our first Metro ride, which is also across the street, and headed to the Prado Museum.
This was our first opportunity to really see how much World Youth Day is making an impact of Madrid. Plenty of signs, street banners, stands, speakers set up, big screens, a massive altar for the opening mass, and of course many people!
Our visit to the Prado was very short due to our tight schedule. However, we can all now say we have been there and some of us actually got up to the Goya and Velasquez paintings.
The visit was short due to our need to go to mass. It was quite a walking trek from the Prado to mass but we all made it. To the boys delight, mass was one of the shortest Sunday liturgies ever--25 minutes! However, a good time to pray and reflect a bit.
The Plaza Mayor was our next stop on our way to dinner. Dinner was enjoyable and by the time we arrived back to our hotel it was almost 11 PM. Some of us headed right to bed, while others enjoyed the Madrid-Barcelona soccer game on TV!
Happy Birthday to Clemente Arias! Celebration will follow later this week.
It takes too long to upload photos to blog so you can view Day 3 photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102724799321486999240/Day3AvilaAndMadrid#
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