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Back to Jerez
  • Tim Lynette Wilkins
  • Tim Lynette Wilkins

Back to Jerez

A 27-day adventure by Tim Lynette Read more
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  • Trip start
    February 3, 2018
  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    Time for a oloroso
    View from the roof terrace in the eveningSitting roomLunch in the sunA flock of storks flew over to welcome us back

    Arrived

    February 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    The journey yesterday was unenventful, we even arrived a bit early, and didn't even lose any of the bags. The apartment is really nice, well-appointed and comfy. The weather is chilly but the sun is shining and sky clear blue so we are happy. We had lunch sitting in the square in the sun and a light dinner in a little cafe/bar right opposite and the food was really good. We couldn't resist stopping at our favourite sherry bar for an oloroso afterwards. Today we got up late and had churros and chocolate for breakfast next to the market and then stocked up in there; Tuna steaks tonight. It's so nice be back here!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    Flamenco
    One for Andy - chips smothered in melted cheeseOut at night

    Flamenco

    February 4, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Last night we went out to the tapas bar that has real local flamenco that we went to many times before. It is now so well-known that they are putting on a show every night, and also in the afternoons some days. It was packed but still really good. Our apartment is so central that it's just two minutes walk to the bar in one direction and the same to the favourite tapas bar in the other. We woke up this morning to find the street wet where it had rained overnight, and sky dull, cloudy and grey - no lunch out in the sun today! But it's supposed to clear again later, and get a bit warmer.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    The tio pepe wind vane
    Decoration on a building towerMore storksThe gonzalas byass vineyard in the middle of jerezDecorated tiling in the doorway of a house

    Day 4 and 5

    February 6, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Yesterday we just wandered around revisiting some places, and discovering new tapas bars. Today we spend most of the time on the roof catching some sun. It was lovely when the sun was out, but decidedly chilly every time a cloud came over.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    Roman woman
    Punic facemaskStone age column deityIslamic period flaskFlint arrowheads

    Jerez museum

    February 7, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The museum in Jerez is quite small, just two floors of an old mansion, but is really well put together. It covers everything from Stone Age pottery from the surrounding, Roman, Punic , and visogothic pieces, to Islamic and medieval artifacts.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    Churros and chocolate
    Making churros, cutting the fried dough sticks

    Churros and chocolata

    February 8, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Churros and chocolata for breakfast again in the market square. It's extruded dough plunged into deep hot oil and eaten in a cup of hot chocolate.

    Janet is coming in tomorrow morning for the weekend so that means getting up early(!) to get the train out to the airport to meet the flight. Jerez is on a very similar longitude to London so the day starts and ends at about the same time, but it's on European time so of course the clocks are out by an hour. Sunrise in London is about 7.30 now, so here it's about 8.30. Shops don't open till 10 usually, and nothing gets going till then at the earliest, so no point in getting up till then. The pics of breakfast today were at 11, and the sun was only just beginning to warm up even then.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    Lunch in the sun
    Jerez stationMore chorros!Station

    Weekend with Janet

    February 10, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Janet arrived yesterday morning for the weekend and we took the train to meet her at the airport. I'd forgotten what a pretty station it is in Jerez. The weather was dull and grey and miserable but we managed to get out for a good meal. Today it's blue and sunny again and we went down to the market to get some hake to cook for tonight and then after that we'll go out for some flamenco.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Xerex deportivo f c

    February 12, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Back to see my Xerex football team. Once again they are top of the league, having had a disappointing season last year ( they only came sixth!) they won 2-1, so with Barnet also winning with a goal in the 93rd minute, it's been a good football weekend. Let's hope that the bees can make up some ground and scrape out of relegation again, and that the azulblancos (blue and whites) can get promoted again.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    San miguel church (and sherry!)

    February 15, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Yesterday we went to see the church of San Miguel. It is the biggest church in Jerez after the cathedral and parts date back to the fifteenth century. The walls and pillars are completely covered by carvings, but despite the size and Spanish love of heavy decoration, it is still very elegant. The churches are starting to prepare for Easter week, which is a huge thing here, and the council is beginning to build the stands and street seating for the many parades that will take place. In the evening we went to one of my favourite restaurants, just very basic but always good. I had a plate of olive oil soaked chips, with caramelised onions, chunks of jamon, with chorizo and fried eggs on top. Totally delicious and only 4 euros!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Half way through

    February 16, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    I can't believe that we have been here two weeks already so we are half way through! We just have one week left in Jerez, then we go to Chipiona for a week on the coast with Andy, Natalie, Finlay and Emily, and then back home. I hope the snows gone!

    It was 21 degrees here yesterday and absolutely beautiful, and supposed be the same today, but next week is forecast to be cooler and cloudier, and the last week to be dull and showery. But the forecasts aren't very good so far off, it's Atlantic weather so it can change easily day by day. Hope it improves - on the beach in the rain doesn't sound so good!

    Yesterday I went to see the church of Santiago. The last time we were here it was closed for restoration so I wanted see how it is now. It is very plain inside, unusual for a Spanish church, and quite elegant, the storks have returned to nest on the towers. Lying in the sun yesterday afternoon I thought a cloud was going over the sun but when I looked it was a huge flock of storks coming in from Africa, there must been at least a hundred of them.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Carnival

    February 17, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    It's carnival weekend in jerez. Yesterday afternoon there was a kids band playing in the square and all the kids had a day off school. Each class was dressed in fancy dress - one was all chickens ( and the teachers as hens), one as angels etc. Today there is a parade later but already the streets are full of people in fancy dress - the Spanish just love dressing up!

    Last night we went to have a five-course tasting meal in an expensive restaurant, each course accompanied by a different sherry chosen to go with the food. It was really good, and we discovered new sherrys that we didn't know. And they don't just give a tasting sample but a big wine glass full! By ten o'clock the restaurant was packed full - maybe the economy here isn't so bad for some people.

    Just time for a little flamenco on the way home.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Comments

    February 18, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

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  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Carnival

    February 18, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Carnival yesterday, so everyone ( except us!) was out in fancy dress. We followed the procession through the city, and there were bands playing in the squares, all the bars were full and doing a roaring trade which went on through night. Surprisingly the city was very quite and empty when I went out to buy a paper this morning!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Cathedral

    February 19, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Yesterday I went to revisit the cathedral. Built in the 1760s, it was a time when a lot of wealth flowed into Jerez. It is heavily decorated and quite bulky, and the ceilings are especially carved all over. The bell tower is separate from the main building and at the moment can't be seen at all as it is covered in scaffolding and sheeting for repair and restoration. The organ is new since the last time we were here, and although it looks and sounds like a traditional organ, in fact It is digital. The big pipes are at the back of the building, and the smaller ones at the front, which we found rather confusing as all the sound comes out of two huge speakers at the front. The keyboard has a big touch-screen with the music on it, and all the stops are all digital touch-screens too. It works well though and the sound is really good.

    Like all the other churches here, the cathedral is getting ready for the huge Easter events, getting out and preparing the big heavy platforms that gangs of men will carry through the streets.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    More sherry

    February 20, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Yesterday afternoon we went to a sherry tasting at one of the big bodegas, Lustau. When the financial crash hit Jerez, lots of the big name bodegas, such as Domecq, went bust but of course they still had warehouses full of maturing sherry. Lustau must have had cash resources so they bought up lots of the stock. Since then they have been marketing it in addition to their own. They seem to have been very good at selling it, presumably cheaply, to the big UK supermarkets, so if you buy own-brand sherry from Sainsbury's or Waitrose for instance, in little letters on the label on the back it will say "Lustau". My favourite sherry was Rio Viejo from Domecq, and for ages it hasn't been available in the Uk, so I've had to import it from Spain, and every time I asked a bar or restaurant here in Jerez what their house sherry was it was Rio Viejo. This time it appears on the the wine list and in the shops, and in the bodega at Lustau there were rows and rows and rows of barrels of it. At least now I know that are still making it, even if I will have to still buy it in from Spain!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    Leaving Jerez

    February 21, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Tomorrow morning we leave Jerez to go to Chipiona. Really?? We've been here three weeks already? How can that be?? Well - just have to come back again next year.

    We'll get a train to the airport first thing and pick up a hire car, drive it back into Jerez and get our bags and go to chipiona. Then we should have the afternoon and evening to get ready for Andy, Natalie, Finlay and Emily to arrive on Friday. We'll drive to the airport and meet them there.

    There was a restaurant in Jerez we all liked before. It was in a small old sherry stockroom and had really good food. It has been closed and full of workmen all the time this time, but it reopened on Monday so we went yesterday. The food is still excellent and thankfully they have done it up keeping the atmosphere, and still with the original tiled floors and carved wood beam ceilings.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler
    View from living room
    Living roomRoof terraceAlong the beachView to the lighthouse

    Arrival chipiona

    February 22, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    Well all the arrangements worked well. We got the train to Jerez airport and got the hire car, drove back into to Jerez to get all our bags and drove to chipiona. The apartment is right overlooking a fabulous beach and has great views out to sea, along to the lighthouse, and overlooking the main church. The town is mostly dead - it's a seaside town out of season, we'll have see if more restaurants open at night. The apartment has a great roof terrace where we sat with a glass of sherry and watched the sun go down. It look due west so the sunset views are spectacular. We'll drive back to the airport for midday tomorrow to meet Natalie and Andy and the kids. I hope they like itRead more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsBack to JerezTraveler

    The Armstrongs arrive

    February 23, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Mostly everything was ok at the airport. The flight arrived early, but their hire car wasn't ready so that held us up a bit. They settled into the apartment and checked the terrace and the beach. Finlay has been learning some Spanish words so it was really nice to here him saying hola or Gracias. It's great that the apartment is just over the road so they can come and go as many times as they ok. I think that tomorrow will be a day for sunshine and rest!Read more

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