JEREZ

Hola,

And thank you for reading and all your comments.

You're right 'Little Sis' - although Barry was fine until the conversation changed to matters of chemical engineering. I think he must have introduced the subject himself as nobody else was likely to bring it up. Barry had an inexhaustible supply of hazardous waste anecdotes, sadly none of them interesting or amusing. It almost forced me into the line dancing camp - but not quite!

We struggled, as Jude and Andy guessed, to say anything positive about Cadiz. It was, believe it or not, a European city of culture in 2012. However, as the current phrase goes, it left no legacy. Culture lasted only 12 months. On the other hand Jerez was a different kettle of pescado altogether. We rented a car and parked in the modern bit highlighted by the Minotaur sculpture below.

Walking into the old town a well dressed old gentleman engaged us in conversation and presented Pauline with a flower from the bunch he was carrying. The old town had a vibrant market, the caracoles were still alive and crawling in the vendors' trays and the pedestrianised part was truly free of vehicles. Our first stop was the Gonzalez Byass bodega below.

They produce Tio Pepe amongst many others and we had an interesting tour of the grounds with, of course, tastings and tapas afterwards. We had some generous samples of Tio Pepe, Croft Original and two others we had not encountered - Alfonso, a very tasty amber coloured dry sherry and the spectacularly good dark and sweet Solera 1847. Neither of us are lovers of sweet wines but this was sensational. A bottle was bought and is stored for our return.

A visit to the Alcazar followed, good views as below,

including a view of Tio Pepe weathervane, apparently the biggest in the world.

The cathedral looked good from outside but apparently was not much to view inside. Below is a view of the cathedral with the uncle (Tio Pepe) of the founder of Gonzalez Byass standing in front.

We concluded with a very cheap deal of a large beer and tapas for a mere 2.50 Euros each. There is a lot more exploring here to do and next visit we may well camp just outside and have a few more days.

Below shows us both together with Cape Trafalgar and lighthouse in the background. We drove to this spot because we had failed to reach it on one of our epic coastal walks. It was within sight but we had almost been cut off by the tide. We couldn't see if we had more rivers to cross before we got there but we did know if we did not turn back, a high tide would mean we couldn't have returned. The path signposts were non-existent and on previous experience could not have been trusted. Our hike in the other direction had led us to a sheer drop off the cliff edge where the rocks had eroded. So we turned round and walked the 4 hours back without reaching our destination.

And finally. We have had some great food but last weekend we opted for a starter of deep fried sea-anenomes. (Well, I opted, Pauline wanted the shrimp fritters.) The batter and form was like an Indian pakora but there the similarity ended. As you sliced them in half it was like something that might have been served at the 'Restaurant at the End of the Universe', or something Doctor Who might have investigated. The inside was fluorescent green and the contents sort of drifted slowly across the plate, seemingly expanding in size as it went. Fortunately it tasted (marginally) better than it looked, but I wasn't quite sure at the end whether I was more frightened of the food or of Pauline's scathing stare - should have had the shrimp fritters!

Bueno Appetito,

J&P