• Football day

      23. februar, Spanien ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

      We got the kids up 6 am this morning for Natalie and Andy to pick them up and get the train back to seville. Except then the flight was delayed over two hours. Seville airport is not a great place to waste 2 hours of your life!

      I went across the city to the southern edge where one of my jerez football teams have their stadium. It was good sitting in the sun, but neither team were very good and it was all very poor. I left at half time and with it being Sunday there were very few buses back so a 40 minute walk home up the hill to the centre. I'm sure it must be good for me after all the tapas and sherry!

      After lunch my other team were playing in the opposite direction, so I got a bus there and watched them win a scrappy game 1-0 (the other game finished 0-0, so I don't think i missed much) and walked home in the evening sun.
      Læs mere

    • A day out in Jerez

      22. februar, Spanien ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

      Breakfast of churros and chocolate in the sun in the market square, and a wander around the fish market afterwards. Emily doesn't like the sights or smell there, but finlay is fascinated by all the different types of fish, mostly ones we don't see at home.

      Then a long lunch at a restaurant that Natalie and Andy love and want to go to everytime they come. An afternoon in the sun on our terrace, and trip to the flamenco bar in the evening. The bar was so packed (the flamenco festival started yesterday) that we couldn't get in to see the show but the kids wiggled through and someone kind helped them to sit at the back up on the bar. They enjoyed it so much.

      They go home again tomorrow and we need to get the kids up at 6 am to get the train back to seville and then to the airport. Just a fleeting visit this year!
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    • Armstrongs here! Yay!

      21. februar, Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      Natalie, Andy, Finlay, and Emily arrived in Seville a couple of days ago and came to Jerez on the train this morning. We met them at the station and lunch outside on the terrace in the sun. For tea finlay requested that we cook clams that he really loves, and we bought yesterday fresh in the market. Tonight Natalie and Andy have a dinner in the best restaurant in town and finlay and Emily and are staying overnight with us. I'm very happy!Læs mere

    • Sanlucar

      18. februar, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Yesterday morning we took the bus from Jerez to Sanlucar de Barrameda, a town less than an hour away on the coast where the river Guadalquivir meets the Atlantic. We've been there many times before as its famous as one of the three sherry towns, and especially for manzanilla. And also for wonderful seafood.

      Lunch in the sun in the main square, but the food was disappointing. The restaurant is one we've been to before and the food has always been excellent, but this time it just seemed rather ordinary.

      In the evening we went to another restaurant we've been to before, with wonderful local langostines, but again it all seem a bit ordinary. The langostines are huge (and €8.50 each!).

      Thankfully lunch today in the tapas bar of one of the manzanilla bodegas was up to scratch.

      Back to Jerez on the bus (bus fares just €2 each) after a disappointing trip. Although we did manage to spend an hour on sanlucar's spectacular beach.
      Læs mere

    • New tabanco entre tercios
      Lunch at GabrielasGood food at Gabrielas

      Restaurants

      16. februar, Spanien ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

      One of the joys of coming back to Jerez is revisiting our favourite restaurants and bars and discovering new ones. So far this trip we have really enjoyed Albores, Almacen and Fundador all of which we went to 10 years ago and they have got better. So last night was a big disappointment. We started out to go to the tabanco round the corner which has good hard to find sherries, but it was closed. Then on to another we wanted to try out but they were on vacation. So back to some old favourites that were dreadful. The one that used to be Vina T and is now Dos Esquinas the food was poor and the Tabanco Plateros, where we discovered some wonderful sherries, only had ones from the barrel from an unknown bodega. The evening was saved by calling at the new tabanco across the road which has been beautifully done up - entre tercios.
      Today we had lunch in the sun at faithful old Gabrielas where the food is still as good as ever.
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    • Our friendly stork
      Prawns and smoked sardines

      Lovely weather

      15. februar, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

      I hope no-one at home is reading this but I wanted to make a note for our diary of the trip. The weather the last 2 days has been simply glorious - blue skies, 20c and sunny all day with just the slightest of breeze. We couldn't have asked for better. And a stork came to visit! It sat on the chimney we can see from our terrace for about half an hour. Woke up this morning and it's completely overcast and has remained so, but still warm.
      We have cooked some lovely food too - a whole hake last night with leeks and potatoes and for lunch today we cooked a half kilo of fresh local prawns, smoked sardines on toast and papas alinadas, with a salad. Yum.
      Læs mere

    • Cylinder idol
      Set of idols. The little one is bottom rightZuberan young Mary

      Museum and cathedral

      12. februar, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      This morning I walked across the city to the museum. I've been there many times before, but it's still nice to go and see favourite artifacts. There's always something I hadn't noticed before. This time it was a little cylinder idol from the second or third millenium BC. There are two much bigger ones but this one is just a few cms tall and really nicely worked.

      Afterwards to the cathedral, especially to see a painting by zuberan of the young virgin mary dozing while reading a book. Given that very few people were literate in jesus' time, is there anything in the bible that would indicate that Mary could read and write,? It's common for renaissance painters to show her reading during the annunciation.
      Læs mere

    • Saying bye to Davina

      11. februar, Spanien ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

      After a busy day on Saturday (Davina's watch said we walked 19000 steps!) we had a quiet day on Sunday. Church in the cathedral and an excellent lunch at the Fundador taperia were followed by a lazy afternoon in the sun on the terrace. She went off in a taxi at 11.00 to the airport to fly to Gatwick via Madrid.
      Today returned to normal with shopping and washing. It has been breeze and partially cloudy with even a brief shower.
      Læs mere

    • Cylinder idol like the one I made in bronzeVery fine carved rock crystal

      Day trip to Cadiz

      9. februar, Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Yesterday we took the train to Cadiz, the last time Davina was here the museum in Cadiz was closed, so she wanted to go back and visit it. It's a small museum but with some wonderful pieces, especially from the phoencian period. Lunch in a bar we know with good food from the time we stayed in cadiz a few years ago.

      In the evening we tried a new tapes bar just down the street (it was very good!) Then some drinks and a show in our favourite flamenco bar.

      Today it's hot hot! 20 degrees and full sun., and lunch at the taparia at the fundador bodega. The food there is spectacularly good, the opposite to what you get in a tapas bar at home, of meat balls, patatas bravas and squid. I don't include the tapes bar in wendover in that - the food there is excellent.
      Læs mere

    • Sunny friday

      7. februar, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      We walked down to the market for Davina to choose some fish for dinner (she chose slabs of tuna and shark), and took the opportunity to get some churros and chocolate.

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