{"id":852,"date":"2018-04-16T12:28:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T19:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/?p=852"},"modified":"2018-05-23T08:56:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T15:56:44","slug":"jerez-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/jerez-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerez – Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So, we\u2019ve been a little slack in the blog department.\u00a0 The last few days were perfect for spending time on the computer, but they were also perfect for NOT doing anything else.\u00a0 It has been a cold, wet, and windy week here in Ronda and Jerez.\u00a0 The temperature is 10 to 12 degrees below normal so instead of 25 it\u2019s 13.\u00a0 And wet.\u00a0 But change that to was.\u00a0 Today, Saturday, is a balmy 20 with brilliant sunshine and endless blue sky.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that we didn\u2019t do anything, but we had to pick our battles between the downpours.\u00a0 It was reminding us of the wet coast but I think the weather is getting back to normal.\u00a0 Just in time for WWIII to break out.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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We hopped a ride here to Jerez with Carlos, the son of Charo, our airBNB host in Ronda.\u00a0 Beautiful countryside, rolling green hills, small mountains, and pretty little villages along the way.\u00a0 It took a little over an hour as opposed to a 3-1\/2 hour milk run bus trip.\u00a0 It was a short 30 minute walk to our new digs and since, we\u2019ve poked around town off and on when the rains eased up.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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People here have been very nice to us and Jerez has a nice easy feel to it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a smaller city but not too small, feels very working class, not a lot of tourist activity as far as we can see, and yet it has a good energy to it.\u00a0 Especially when the sun comes out. \u00a0We checked out the markets as we need to buy groceries and people seem happy, to the point of almost breaking out into song.\u00a0 We went to buy a couple of artichokes today; the market was packed but a couple of women let us into the line when they realized we were visitors.\u00a0 We gave the merchant a euro for 2 large artichokes which apparently was too much so instead of change, he gave us another artichoke with a big smile.\u00a0 Three large alcachofas for $1.60. \u00a0We also snagged a \u00bd kilo of fresh strawberries for one euro.\u00a0 We love this place! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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There are lots of old relics here like everywhere else and it even has a mini Alhambra but the main attraction seems to be alcohol.\u00a0 Hence the name sherry.\u00a0 An entire region built on one of the worlds oldest wines and while Teresa is not a huge fan, I can attest that sherry is pretty darn tasty.\u00a0 Even the British wanted this stuff badly.\u00a0 They sent Francis Drake into Cadiz in 1587 where he swiped a few thousand barrels for Queen Elizabeth I.\u00a0 The Spanish King apparently wasn\u2019t amused. \u00a0And besides the wine, Jerez is known as the city of flamenco, horses (the Royal Andalusian Equestrian School is here), tabancos, which is a tapas joint with sherry of course, and motorcycles, which I did not know.\u00a0 In 2014 it became the worlds first motorbike capital.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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So, we tried the tabanco thing at one of the local favorites, Las Banderillas, a corner joint dedicated to bull fights, where the Salmorejo (tomato based gazpacho) was a big hit and the beer and sherry are 1\/3 the price of the actual food.\u00a0 We wandered by a local winery, Bodegas Diez Merito, which just happened to be open and celebrating\u2026something, so we walked in, got a free tasting (well, I did anyway) and bought a small bottle of Oloroso.\u00a0 The locals were lined up at the counter with plastic jugs and were filling up with their favourite (Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso, Viejo) for about <\/span>\u20ac<\/span>6 for 2 liters.\u00a0 And some of them did break out into song. \u00a0We love this place!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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We still have to get to Cadiz for a day trip, the equestrian school of course, and some more tapas places.\u00a0 The improved weather is very welcome, and we\u2019ve even found a French bakery close by with great baguette, pan chocolate, and waaaay too many pastries. Someone please give the Donald some sherry and tell him to chill.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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  So, we\u2019ve been a little slack in the blog department.\u00a0 The last few days were perfect for spending time on the computer, but they were also perfect for NOT doing anything else.\u00a0 It has been a cold, wet, and windy week here in Ronda and Jerez.\u00a0 The temperature is 10 to 12 degrees below normal so instead of 25 it\u2019s 13.\u00a0 And wet.\u00a0 But change that to was.\u00a0 Today, Saturday, is a balmy 20 with brilliant sunshine and endless blue sky.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that we didn\u2019t do anything, but we had to pick our battles between the downpours.\u00a0 It was reminding us of the wet coast but I think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1925,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/1925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}