Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia

[lugg]

I recently spent a week in the Andalucian province of Cadiz, visiting Jerez first for a couple of nights. I barely scratched the surface of this city, but here is a little of what I did get see in the day and half.
Jerez is home to the famous Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art and so of course as a horse lover I had booked tickets for a show. I have very few pics of the show itself due to restrictions on photography, I did sneak a few but they are pretty poor.


The grounds of the riding school are very grand, much grander than any other riding school I’ve visited. Both the outdoor and indoor arenas are huge .








These next photos are of the exterior of the indoor school




A couple that I managed to sneak during the show…



After the show we wandered down towards the stable area where you could get close to a couple of horses.
I noticed that a few storks had decided the roof of the stables was a “des res” and quite suitable for bringing up their young.





There were a couple of grumpy Przewalski's horses



…and a couple of aged/retired or rescued Andalusians


The hotel we stayed in was just a short walk from the riding school so I snapped some flora as we walked back along the street and through the hotel grounds ,





I did manage a few dips in the hotel’s lovely pool, a welcome relief from the heat and humidity,


Time to explore the city a little and try some sherry of course. The hotel was an easy walk into the city ; a little of what we passed on our way to the medieval centre.
Old blends with new…



The detail on this horse and carriage sculpture was outstanding,


Of course there were real life tourist carriages too,





The start of the cities heart, some streets are pedestrianised which makes walking pleasant , we had a vague idea of the general direction we were heading – to the cathedral first and then to a sherry bodega for a tour and a tasting.








We saw a lot of these wall shrines over the next few days




Spot the model stork ?we saw a few of these – not sure if they were there as decoration or served some function


A glimpse of the cathedral’s tower helped us find our way


Jerez cathedral – the Cathedral San Salvador was a church until 1980. The present building was started in 1695 but is a mixture of styles due to the length of time to completion. It stands on the site of a former mosque. The tower pre-dates the present building and it is thought may have been a minaret originally.
Traces of the blue decoration on the stonework remain but are faded and parts of the stonework look in sore need of some tender loving care,


The style inside is restained, quite dark in places although light floods through a beautiful dome




Of course there are the occasional splashes of colour



Back outside, we saw the statue of the founder of the Gonzalez Byass bodega and became aware that we were very close as the smell of sherry was quite potent.

[lugg]

My overwhelming memory of the tour is of the smell which of course the photos cannot portray. It was really informative and well organised. Not great for small children though who quickly became bored !

Sherry can only be described as such if it is produced within the sherry triangle. The three points of the golden triangle are the cities of Jerez, Sanlucar de Barrameda to the west and El Puerto de Santa Maria to the south. Sherry bodegas are based in cities and are the storage and processing areas. Gonazales Byass also produces Brandy and stores and matures some Scottish whiskey. Nowadays it even produces some wines. I did wonder if that was because the popularity of sherry has decreased in Spain in recent years. The grapes are grown elsewhere – these were purely for show,



La Concha so called for the style of the glass roof show cases the many countries which import Gonzalez sherries . We were told that it was built Gustave Eiffel ( yes he who is more famous for a certain tower ) for the then Queen’s visit in 1862.





A huge storage and processing room – there is a detailed precise method of maturation which includes a complicated mixing of the sherry according to age- which is then recorded .





Barrels are not completely filled to allow the fermentation and development of a yeast crust on the surface . This barrel had a glass front so we could view the yeast
Of course barrel repair is integral to the business ; we were told that in the past old barrels ( after 80 years or so of use) used to be sent to Scotland so that they could be used to age whiskey, nowadays the whiskey is sent to them for aging. I think they are made from American oak.



Parts of the bodega were previously inner streets within Jerez city ,






One area stores barrels signed by the rich and famous and the not so famous. I did wish that I had a piece of chalk with me ...







Purported to be the largest weather vane in the world, and it is according to the Guinness Book of Records,




I did not quite understand this but seemingly mice are traditionally encouraged to have a tipple;
We did not see them, but here is photographic evidence!

We of course enjoyed our own tipple before leaving.
That’s all guys . Next stop Cadiz.

[Deleted]

Very fine report, especially for me because I do not get to Spain as often as I should. I thought the first few photos were amusing because with all of the green lawns and such, it was as though you were still in England. Perhaps we are all attracted to what seems the most familiar right at the start?

The riding school looks very impressive and those horses are beautiful -- this coming from someone who generally has little interest in horses.

Beautiful flowers, and it is interesting to see the storks' nest, which are very famous in far away Alsace. The storks had completely deserted Alsace for about 20 years, but then they finally came back, perhaps due to global warming.

The pedestrian areas and the cathedral are quite lovely, but I most of all approve of the price of drinks and tapas on the chalk board.

Sherry has never been drunk much in France but it remains famous. One odd thing is that the French name of the wine (and the region) is Xerès. I sometimes wonder if the X is not used defiantly since the letter X does not exist in the Spanish of Spain. The people of Messico probably know more about that.

[htmb]

Looks like somewhere I'd enjoy visiting, Lugg. Even though I don't really care for sherry, the tour looks interesting. Thank you for this report.

I haven't been to Spain since 1974, but I remember being surprised at the large stork nests and the impressive birds.

[bixaorellana]

What an enjoyable and informative report, Lugg. My mother keeps asking me why don't I visit Spain. The reason has been because I remember it so vividly from when I was a child and know it would be entirely different this many decades later. But your report has changed my feelings entirely. You clearly show that what there is to see now trumps sloppy nostalgia.

How clever to combine two such different interests in one visit. The horses are beautiful, of course. Years ago I saw them being offloaded from a truck behind the auditorium in Pensacola, Florida. It was so much nicer to get to see your view of them in their home.

I rarely drink sherry for the simple reason that since I know so little about it, I have no idea how to select and buy it. Obviously I need the sherry tour in Jerez de la Frontera! It's fascinating to see what a delicate and complicated process the production is. How were the tapas?

Wonderful photography throughout -- I'm totally in love with the arches beneath the grape arbor with its lacy lantern. Excellent coverage of the city, especially since you say you were there only a couple of nights. Would you go back for a longer visit?

Re: the X ~ I believe that is a very old usage which may persist more in the new world than the old. The city of Jalapa in Mexico is as often spelled Xalapa as Jalapa. (x & j are both pronounced as English h) Sherry seems to have grown from trying to pronounce jerez as an English word.

Anyway, thanks so much for this fascinating tour, Lugg!

[lugg]

Thank you . I think I learnt how to pronounce Jerez correctly ....as Hereth and Cadiz as Cadeeth - would that be about right Bixa ?
We did not have tapas at the bodega but we did we have some gorgeous tapas especially in Cadiz. Hopefully I will get around to adding Cadiz to this thread in the next week or so. My favourite were Torillitas de Camarones, naughty but nice.
I do like very dry sherry with ice to drink occasionally but also I like to cook with sweet sherry, this Spanish chicken recipe always gets lots of compliments and is one of my favourite meals to make - easy and tasty. Not sure that its particularly authentic though.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1351512/Roast-dinner-recipe-Spanish-roasted-garlic-chicken-shallots-capers-sherry.html

[onlyMark]

Just seen this thread. I'll come back to it tomorrow.

[onlyMark]

I've only managed a night or so in Jerez but it was one of the areas we were looking at when we thought of buying somewhere. I like the town and there is a lot more to see than I ever managed to do.
These are good photos and I am obliged to you for posting them. I have no idea about the plastic stork either. It's good to see the inside of the horse place and the sherry bodega as I never had the time to see them. There is a lot more history there to discover and I really must get back some time.
Thanks again for the thread, good stuff.

[lugg]

Thank you so much Mark - I would definitely love to go back to this part of Spain and hopefully will. If only it were easier to get to. Malaga may be more convenient for me in the UK ie I can go from a more local airport ( Stansted is a hell of a long way from me) but unless I hire a car from Malaga its 4 hour train journey as there are no direct trains that I can find.

I am going to add Cadiz in here soon so I hope you enjoy that too.

[bixaorellana]

Yes to your pronunciation, although I no longer use the th sound, since Spain kept it but Mexico didn't.

I'll definitely try dry sherry over ice -- thanks!

I'm very much looking forward to your Cadiz thread. I had to look up the torillitas ~

The roast chicken sounds wonderful from the description I can see in the url, but The Daily Mail won't let me open it.

[Deleted]

Cadix in French.

[onlyMark]

The pronunciation of Jerez tends to start with the J sounding like the guttural 'ch' in the Scottish word Loch and with a 'th' at the end.

[onlyMark]

Looking forward to Cadiz as I had a week there last year.
Are you near Gatwick at all? Easyjet fly to Seville, as do Ryanair.

[amboseli]

Lovely pictures of Jerez. We were there two years ago in June on a daytrip. I don't remember much, other than it was a rainy day.
Looking forward to Cádiz as well. Have visited three times during our last holiday in Conil de la Frontera in June of this year (and also visited two years ago). Lovely city!

[lugg]

Thank you all and for the explanations re pronunciation
here's the recipe in full Bixa
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
4 thick slices of bread torn or cut into rough chunks
1tsp sweet paprika for the bread, plus 1tbsp sweet paprika for the chicken
75ml (2½fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
200g (7oz) shallots, peeled and broken into lobes
14 cloves of garlic, unpeeled but bruised slightly
1tbsp plain flour
1.75kg (4lb) chicken pieces, with bone and skin
125ml (4fl oz) Pedro Ximenez sherry or other sweet sherry
Small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves removed and roughly chopped
2tbsp capers
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7.
Toss the bread in the teaspoon of sweet paprika along with a little salt and ½tbsp of the olive oil and put in one side of a roasting tin. Toss the shallots and garlic with 1tbsp of the oil, season and put in the other side of the tin. Roast for 10 minutes until golden.
Remove the bread only and put to one side. Put the flour, the rest of the paprika and seasoning in a bag and mix, toss the chicken pieces into the mixture and massage them to coat evenly. Put the remaining oil in the roasting tin, add the chicken and toss with the shallots and garlic and roast for 10 minutes.
Add the sherry, stir and roast for another 20 minutes. Lower the oven to 180°C/gas 5, stir again, roast for 15 more minutes.
Stir and add the bread, parsley and capers and roast for a further 10 minutes.

It might sound there is a lot of faffing but not really

[lugg]

So following on from Jerez we moved to Cadiz for 4 nights.
We stayed in an apartment in the heart of the city, experiencing life as a resident to a certain extent. Such a lovely city, full of interesting things to see and do, great food and market with the added bonus of the lovely beaches right in the city itself. It seemed to me that the majority of tourists are Spanish. I might be wrong , because Cadiz port accommodates huge cruise ships in the port .Cadiz is more or less approx. 30 mins by train from Jerez depending on whether it’s a high speed or local train. I experienced both and what a treat they were, in comparison to the generally grimy English trains, with the added bonus of low costs, I think from memory a cost of approx 6 euros . On the train itself announcements were made in Spanish and in English.
A few photos of Jerez train station, the trains and the journey from Jerez to Cadiz,
Such an attractive station





Cadiz is situated at the end of a long peninsula and is surrounded by the sea . It is connected to the other side by road bridges – the train however takes the long way round , past the natural park and lagoon area before travelling up through the isthmus itself
Speeding past fields of sunflowers ( Amboseli captured much better pics and a few small towns it is not long before you reach the inland lagoons and then the coast






The location of Cadiz ;.
….. The old town is at the end and is roughly circular surrounded by sea and the new part runs down the peninsula


The train station is in close proximity to the cruise ship bays. The behemoth ”Independence of the Seas” was in port as we walked past.


We had a couple of hours before we could move into our apartment so we bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus ,an incongruous red double decker bus, it was actually a great way to get our bearings This is looking south down the peninsula and away from the old town ,


Little did we know it then but this was about as close as we would get to Cadiz cathedral .


We got off at the stop for Playa Caleta which is close to the part of the medieval old town where we were staying .

Our apartment.. 1st floor middle on right


The neighbours … 


Street view


Immediately from the door was an Andalusian patio which goes from ground to roof level with glass floors in between. Some of the rooms open onto this which means that at night time you get to learn a lot about your neighbours habits if you leave the windows open . Plus its almost within handshaking distance to the residences across the street . So different from what I am used to and I guess creates community spirit ( or not) Despite the heat and no air con the apartment was relatively cool. I guess these old houses were built with that in mind.

[lugg]

So next I am just going to post some photos, in no particular order ,of the streets and architecture in the old town . We wandered around , often quite aimlessly, just soaking it all up.







I loved this square with its beautiful magnolia trees and florists, ( Amboseli - youwent here too I believe?)



















A few minutes walk from the apartment was the marketplace , whilst maybe not the most attractive building externally it held many delights inside…especially such a huge selection of fish,








We certainly enjoyed shopping here to make a couple of evening meals and lunches. However the tapas and food was outstanding. I wish I had taken more pics but I guess I was just too busy eating 


Tortillitas de Camarones- I had read about this dish before I went and just knew that I would love it and so I did,

Popular snack ,salty Churros



Foie Atun –actually this tuna liver was delicious,

My niece may look as if she does not like this but it was actually her favourite dish of the holiday… ratatouille with a quail’s egg

[lugg]

Of course we spent some time on the beach . There are 3 to choose from in Cadiz but we spent our time at the bustling town beach La Caleta, used in a Bond film as an alternative Havana. So I will finish this report with a few photos of this beach.
There are two old castles on either side of the bay- one at the end of a causeway.
Castle San Sebastian at the end of the causeway,

Castle Santa Catalina at the opposite side of the bay,

Looking down the coast , Playa Victoria and the more modern part of Cadiz,


The building in the centre of the photos below is the El Balneario de la Palma and was built between 1924 and 1926 originally as a spa to replace the old baths. it became used for other purposes from 1936 up until 1975 when it was abandoned , eventually becoming a site of cultural interest in 1990. Its mainly used for shade now and the locals play ball games underneath.




My overwhelming memory is that Cadiz is a city with heart , that is enjoyed by the people that live there. I really hope to go back one day to see more.
That's all guys.

[bjd]

Thanks for this, Lugg. Another area that I don't know at all. Going back to the beginning, I was surprised by the pictures of Jerez de la Frontera -- it all seems rather dark, whereas I had thought southern Spain would be all white buildings with red geraniums.

I think I would enjoy Cadiz more -- it looks more like a real city people live in. The area is known for being windy -- was that the case? Was it very hot?

[bixaorellana]

Yaay ~ another stellar report from Lugg! First, though, a belated thank you for the chicken recipe, which looks fabulous. I seldom roast a whole chicken, but simply must try that dish.

Great pictures from the moving train, something I've never achieved.

Re: "behemoth" -- so accurate! Those things are just as horrible as the high-rises that blank off the coastline, ruining the view that was the reason to be there in the first place.

I know this is a dumb thing to say, but much of what you show reminds me of Mexico, even though the influence must be Spain>Mexico, and not the other way around. There's even a statue of Our Lady of Solitude, patron of the city of Oaxaca.

So many lovely pictures: the magnolia, the spotless tiled hallway, the gorgeous balconies, the beach w/castle, etc. And the food! *moan* I am lusting over the photos and the menu.

[onlyMark]

The photos certainly capture a lot about Cadiz. I am a fan of the old city and stayed just round the corner from the market.
I didn't experience any particular wind there but once in the labyrinth of streets it makes little difference in any case. Walking out to the Castle Santa Catalina is good for slightly cooler breezes when there is some wind.
The large bridge in the distance from the train - is it open yet?
I echo that the food is good there, the whole town is very photogenic and it's good to see some excellent photos of the place. I bet there are photos to be had from about every entrance hall with the various tiles in them and hidden courtyards.
The tapas menu looks like I could spend a few days there eating my way through it without a problem.
Muchas gracias.

[lugg]

Thank you much appreciated.

Yes Mark, the bridge is open but presume not to rail traffic ( and maybe is never meant to be anything other than a road bridge)
It was not too hot -there was a breeze but not really windy . The staff at our hotel in Jerez did talk about the sometimes unbearable hot temps in the Summer . When we were there it was quite overcast and we even had a little light rain.

[amboseli]

lugg, yes, we were on that square too!

[htmb]

I'm just now catching up with the rest of these wonderful pictures. It looks like my kind of place. There one photo of a hallway lined with tile that is just gorgeous!