Jerez 2020

A 30-day adventure by Tim Lynette Read more

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Trip start
January 31, 2020
Jerez 2020 Traveler
Brilliant start
January 31, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
All the arrangements worked perfectly and we are here safely. The taxi arrived on time at 3.30 and got us to the airport on time despite the M11 being closed and needing a long detour around the countryside. The assistance people at stanstead met us at the taxi drop-off and took me in a wheelchair (I wasn't complaining!) all through bag-drop, through the priority passport control and to the front of the line for security, then all the way to the gate and out to the aircraft steps. All done with perfect charm and friendliness. The Ryanair people on the plane had no idea what to with my crutches but managed to put them on the luggage rack, and a minivan was already waiting at the bottom of the steps at Jerez to whisk us to the front of the queue at passport control, get our cases in baggage reclaim and out to the front of the taxi queue. I couldn't have asked for a better service at both ends. In fact I think I'll carry crutches now every time I fly!

The apartment is just as it was, and the weather is 20 degrees and with patchy sunshine, so lunch in a tapas bar just around the corner was lovely.Read more
Great start! Hope the rest is as good. I'm off to see the Troy exhibition tomorrow taking advantage of my new location! Davina xx
1/31/20Reply
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Settling in
February 1, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
After the journey yesterday, a long good nights sleep last night was very welcome. Today a trip to the supermarket to get stocked up, but first breakfast in a cafe next to the market. Last year it was closed for refurbishing (actually complete gutting and redesigning) so it was good get back and find that their churros and chocolate was as good as always. From the market we bought a huge fish called corvina. It's very popular here but I have difficulty finding the name in English. I think it's a type of sea bass called "meagre" - anybody know better? Anyway with the head and tail cut off, it just fits in the oven, on a bed of potatoes, and onions, garlic and parsley, doused in lemon and dry sherry. In the Afternoon a couple of hours in the sun and listening to the Barnet match on the radio. They won. I still have a sore ankle but I can walk for a while before it hurts and I have to rest on the sun lounger!Read more
Enjoy both of you x sheila
2/2/20Reply
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Sunday football
February 2, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Went to buy my Sunday paper and was delighted to find that my paper stand has discovered the Sunday times. A couple hours in the sun doing the crossword then off to the football. Previously I would walk the 20 mins to the stadium but this time I took the bus. Xerex deportivo are in the playoff places again - another promotion would be their fourth in five years, (or is it five in six years!) having only been founded in 2013. It was a really good match and Xerex won 3 - 0, and also missed a penalty. The other Jerez team, Jerez industrial, are also doing well, clear at the top of the table, although two divisions lower. Maybe I can get to one of their games too!

The spiral staircase is from our living room up to the terrace. One of my targets in doing the physio on my foot was to be able to get up this to sit in the sun ( and get down again!) I'm pleased to say that I seem to be managing ok!Read more
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Climate change?
February 3, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Yesterday and today it's been hot - 23-24C in the shade and really hot in the sun - too hot for us! The locals say it is unusual just like spring weather in February. We only brought a small amount of sunscreen and are using it up quickly. It's ironic that we came here for some warmth and sunshine and are avoiding it in the middle of the day. Then the temperature plummets to 7-8C in the evening and we put the heating on in the apartment. The forecast is for it to remain warm, sunny and dry for the next fortnight.
Out this evening it was still very mild. The weather apps say 14C but it was really pleasant sitting outdoors having a sherry after a good tapas dinner.Read more
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Quiet couple of days
February 4, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The last two days we've pretty much stayed in and just enjoyed being here. It's been 23 or 24 degrees and beautifully sunny although a chill wind got up yesterday and through the night last night, and today the temperature has dropped to 18. It's been quiet, apart from the noise of people in the street below the apartment, the only noise has the clacking of the storks on top of the church at the end of the street. There seem to be two birds there and they are really big so I think must be about time for them to fly away and go wherever they go in spring and summer.Read more
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Janet arrived for the weekend
February 7, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Janet came on the morning flight ( it was an hour and a half late) for the weekend. The weather changed yesterday afternoon so this morning it was heavy black cloud and quite chilly. Thankfully by mid afternoon the sun came back and it's warmer. And a flamenco guitarist was playing outside the sherry bar at the end of our street so all is well again!

The picture is of the one that hangs on the wall of our bedroom and is so very Spanish!Read more
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Tasting at Diez Merito
February 8, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
The morning started with thick fog, and it looked like it had rained. Breakfast on chorros and chocolate , followed by a tasting a at a bodega called Diez Merito, that we haven't been to before. The lady doing the tour and tasting give us, at our request, a tasting of different quality sherries of amontillado and oloroso so we could compare their cheaper wines (6 euros a bottle) against the better ones ( at 15 euros a bottle). We found that the more expensive were better, but not by much, and certainly not by the difference in price. We bought the cheaper amontillado and then this evening tasted it in comparison to the one from Dios Bacco that we'd bought a few days ago. Pleasant surprise, we preferred the cheaper Diez Merito one. This afternoon the heavy clouds broke up and were able to sit on the sun for a while.Read more
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Lunch in the sun at Fundador
February 9, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
The day started a little overcast but brightened up and I walked down down to buy a paper. By lunchtime it was nice and warm and sunny and we walked across the city to have lunch in the courtyard of the sherry bodega Fundador, where we had lunch this time last year and really enjoyed it. The food was excellent again. A lie in the sun in the afternoon on the roof, and a dinner of chorizo and lentils rounded off a pleasant last day with Janet.Read more
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Oranges
February 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
The amount of walking that I'm doing here is certainly helping my foot. Today I walked for a hour and a half inside most of the walls of the medieval city. It gets swollen and sore afterwards but at least I'm not now using crutches or a walking stick except when I get tired - I still intend to use the crutches on the journey home in a few weeks, and get all the help I that I can through security and the rest of the queues!

The city harvests all the Seville oranges around the end of January. Last year we were just in time to catch some to take home for marmalade, but this year they were all gone - disaster! Then in my walk today I passed just one small square where they had missed them so managed to pick some, they were even low enough down that I could reach them easily. I'll check again before we go home to see if they are still there in case we need more.Read more
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Night out in Jerez
February 12, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
We went out to eat at a very old favourite restaurant and on the way back stopped for some sherries and flamenco. Jerez at night can be very pretty, I'm not sure why , maybe it's the colour of the street lights. Or maybe it's the sherry!Read more
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Day trip to El Puerto de Santa Maria
February 13, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
We took the train to El Puerto (de Santa Maria) and for once didn't go there to visit our favourite sherry bodega. The bullring there is famous, it's the third biggest in all Spain, and in the season (May) gets all the top toreadors, and we had never been there. It is spectacular and well worth the visit.Read more
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El Puerto 2
February 13, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
After the bullring we wanted to see the castle. It's not big but a very good looking castle and we've never found it open. Today there was supposed to be an English tour (and sherry tasting) at 11.30, but, guess what, it was closed for a private function. So we went to the town museum, which was very small but had artefacts from excavations in the nearby hills. They were OK, but nothing spectacular, so we gave up and went for a coffee in the cathedral square. It must be the most hideous cathedral in Christendom! Then went for lunch in a restaurant that we know, that is owned by the daughter of the family who own and run our favourite bodega, and has wonderful food right by the river where many of the Spanish ships sailed to the new world from.Read more
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Sunday
February 16, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
Lynette went to mass in the cathedral today so I went with her to remember what it was like. We've been many times before of course but last year the bell tower was covered in scaffolding so it was nice to see it uncovered and cleaned. On the way we came across a group of men practising with one of the huge heavy floats ready for the Easter processions. They are carried on the backs and shoulders of maybe twenty men (or maybe more!) and they are so heavy that they have to have relays of teams to carry them. After the cathedral l went for a walk around the Sunday flea market in the castle square.

We had lunch in the sun in the local plaza where one of our favourite restaurants has just reopened, and the food is as good as always. On to the football stadium, with a good big crowd today, and another win!Read more
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Semana Santa
February 17, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
They are truly insane here with their preparations for Semana Santa - the big processions carrying statues of saints through the streets in Holy week. At 11.30 tonight, after Tim had gone to bed, we heard the sound of the ponderous music they march to getting louder. Opening the shutters and looking over the balcony we saw dozens of men carrying one of the platforms up our street. As it's a narrow pedestrian street with two bars at the top they had to stop whilst they moved the tables and stools out of the way. Then with a mighty heave back onto their shoulders they were off again. Crazy!Read more
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We are on holiday
February 18, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Yesterday morning we woke up to thick fog all over Jerez. It lasted till late morning but then it was gone. Today we took the bus to Rota, a small town with an incredible beach (and Spanish/American naval port). We'll stay here till tomorrow then go on the catamaran to Cadiz for a couple of days. It was fantastic to see the beach and the ocean again and we had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the beach. Then the clouds rolled in and it stayed overcast all afternoon. The hotel room has a huge terrace overlooking the pool and sea , and we had hoped to sit with a glass of something and watch the sunset. Ah well! I did go for walk on the beach and a paddle in the waves ...the water was crazy cold, but I suppose it is the Atlantic in February!

I have great memories of coming here with Natalie and Finlay when he was maybe six months old and they stayed with us in Jerez. I think it was his first experience of beach and sea. We had intended to come here with them all the next year but the apartment we wanted was not available so we took the one up the coast in Chipiona instead. Then we had a few glorious days before the Atlantic storm arrived and it rained rather a lot!Read more
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Rota
February 18, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
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Sailing into Cadiz
February 19, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
This morning started bright but with a sea mist so strong we couldn't even see Cadiz. After a lazy morning we caught the midday catamaran from Rota to Cadiz, and by the time we were half way across the bay, the clouds rolled over and there was rain along the horizon. It cleared up after an hour or so and the afternoon was clear bright and hot. There were some HUGE cruise ships in the port so the city had much more tourists than when we were here last year.Read more
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Back to Jerez
February 20, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
This morning we had a quick visit to the old cathedral in Cadiz, which was left in place when the current cathedral was built and is now a rather nice parish church for the city. Then a walk to the central post office to post cards for Finlay and Emily in the lion-head postbox ,followed by a long lunch and the train back to Jerez.Read more
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Saturday
February 22, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
It's starting to get really hot here, and it's a beautiful morning and perfect for chorros and chocolate for breakfast. Over the last couple of days the flowers of the orange trees have opened and the air is full of the scent of orange blossom. It's also getting really busy - it's flamenco festival week, at the end of the week it's also Jerez carnival, and this weekend the city seems to have filled up with visitors and the bars and restaurant are packed to bursting.

Nice place for peace and quiet though is the archeology museum so it was good to visit and see some of my favourite pieces again. The marble column is Neolithic deity figure and is the model of the bronze one I sculpted and had cast for a present for Lynette. The marble head is Roman and I love the detail in the girls hair braids.Read more
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Sunday and monday
February 24, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
Sunday evening I went to a football match at the minor club in Jerez. They are two divisions below the other club , but are at the top of the table and could go up. When we first came to stay in Jerez their pitch looked like the Sahara desert, mostly sand and covered in ruts. During our stay the council, who own it, dug it up and reseeded it and now it's wonderful! Barnet's pitch has really suffered with the weather and lots of matches have been called off as its unplayable. They would give anything for a pitch like the one here now!

Yesterday was a walking-about day and I went past the Jerez bullring. It's all closed up now as the season doesn't start till May. In the evening we went to one of the best restaurants here, which we have been to every time we are here. They have a five course tasting menu (they are very small courses!) paired with a different fine sherries with each course. We were pleased to find it as good as always.Read more
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Oranges
February 25, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
I'm going to miss the fresh orange juice here. Juicing oranges are 3 kg for 3 euros, 40p per pound!
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The Alcazar
February 25, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
The fortified central part of the city inside the moorish walls is the Alcazar (castle) and although extensively modified after the Christian reconquest, is still an interesting and beautiful building. It's quite small and I've been there many times before but it's still worth a visit.Read more
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Flamenco festival
February 26, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
This week is the annual flamenco festival and the city is heaving. It's full of flamenco fans from all over the world, so you can hear English, American, German accents as well as lots of people from other parts of Spain. And strangely , to me anyway, there are lots of Japanese flamenco fans. We went to a show last night in a tiny hall. In this hall alone they are doing four shows a night.Read more
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Carnival de Jerez
February 27, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
This weekend is also Jerez carnival weekend. It's unusual, I think, that it coincides with flamenco week. We will the main events, but today was the children's parade, followed by a competition for the best costumes and then a school choir competition. We went to the parade but avoided the competitions!Read more
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Going home
February 27, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 13 °C
We sat out in the plaza last night for a goodbye meal. It was quite balmy and the restaurant tables outside were packed. Today it will be 25 degrees and sunny here. There was snow in wendover yesterday and today it will be sleeting and hailing tomorrow. Welcome home. A group of people set up in the square while we were eating and gave an impromptu flamenco show.

I'm glad to be going home, and at the same time sad to be leaving. I don't think we'll come back to the same apartment next year, we've been here three years now and it feels like home, but there are now four bars and restaurants in the street outside and it gets very noisy. We will look for somewhere quieter, but still in the middle of the city.Read more
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