My First Visit to Spain

February 2005

The opportunity of cheap flights - how could we not do it! 49p for the flight out and it would have been the same for the return journey had we been able to return on the Monday. However, it still only cost us £7.99 to return on the Sunday night. In total, with airport taxes, our flights with Ryanair cost about £30.

We had to leave at "silly o'clock" in the morning. So early I did consider not going to bed but gave in at about midnight. We were up again at 2 am and left at 2.30 - just in case of any delays on the roads. Although we needn't have worried as the roads were quiet and we made it to Stansted in plenty of time for our two hour check-in.

When taking off the sky was a beautiful colour up above the clouds, and the journey soon passed with chance to go back to sleep or read.

We landed in Jerez airport, and were taken to El Puerto de Santa Maria by José Manuel, José and Maria's cousin. After leaving our things at Maria's apartment, we went for a walk around the markets and the town, following some of the red line around the tourist route!!

We had a look at the castle of El Puerto de Santa Maria, which was not open unfortunately.

San Marcos´s Castle is one of the most representative buildings in the town.

It's towers and battlements, standing out against the sky of El Puerto, they constitute an unmistakable silhouette and probably one of the oldest images in the architectural monuments of El Puerto.

Apparently, Christopher Columbus stayed here.

From here we walked on to the "Iglesia Mayor Prioral" which is a very beautiful big church that would be classed as a cathedral had it been in a city.

It was closed on the Saturday but it was our first point of call after breakfast on Sunday, when we could go in and see the inside of this magnificent building.

A slight distraction on our wander.........

On Saturday afternoon, we took a bus to the nearby shopping centre that has a Toys R Us and Carrefour and lots of other good shops. Maria had to show the shop assistant in one place how to use the chip-and-pin machine! We went to MacDonalds but Maria was disappointed as they didn't have the MacFlurry she was hoping to get. We met up with Jose Manuel and Maria Jesus and went for a drink. Interesting ice creams and flavoured hot drinks.

On the Saturday evening, we went out to a lovely restaurant called La Rufana with a tree growing through it. I tried, amongst other things, Almejas a la marinera (marinated clams), Gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns) - very good. It was an observation that everything is cooked in garlic in some form or another. Although my lamb wasn't cooked in any garlic, there was garlic on the chips!

After dinner we went to a club on a boat for a drink but we were falling asleep by this time and had to leave after one drink. I was so tired, I went straight to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The cold wouldn't stop me from sleeping, I had all the blankets!! (Thank you J & M, but I didn't realise I had ALL the blankets!)

On Sunday morning, we met up with one of Maria's aunties for breakfast, before our visit to the "Iglesia Mayor Prioral" which was now open as there was a service taking place. It is a really beautiful ornate building inside too. The statues that are used on the parades are kept here.

"Iglesia Mayor Prioral" from the air

Plaza de Toros

The great circular building surrounding the bull ring reminded me of a roman arena. The Bull fighting season starts at Easter so not much was going on here at the moment but it was open for a look around. The ring is massive and you can see horn marks in the wood at certain points at the side of the ring that the matador can stand behind, praying that the carpenter has done a good job fixing these in place!

This was the view of the Plaza de Toros as we left and started our walk to the beach.

It was a pleasant walk and it seemed warmer than Saturday.

The beach has been ploughed ready for the holiday season.

We were met near the beach by José Manuel and Marie Jesus who took us into Jerez. More cousins joined us at:

The Alcázar of Jerez

Situated on the Southeastern corner of the walled enclosure is a complex defensive system. The term Alcazar is derived from the Arab word al-qasr and defines a group of buildings, surrounded by walls, which were used both as a fortress and as a palace. It was like a small autonomous unit, sea of the political and military power that ruled the city and its territory.

The Alcazar was built in the 12th century and it is one of the few examples of Almohade architecture that still exist in the Iberian Peninsula. During the 12th century Jerez became one of the most important cities of Lower Andalusia. and was home to a population of 16000 inhabitants.

The gardens recreate the atmosphere and aesthetics of the gardens of the palaces of the Al-Andalus period

In the Arab baths, these stars in the ceiling let the light come in

Before leaving here we also visited the Villavicencio Palace. In 1664 Bartolomé Fernández de Villaviencencio inherited the alcazar. His family had a lot of restoration work done among which was the construction of this beautiful palace, built over the ruins of the old islamic palace.

On the second floor there is a municipal pharmacy from the 19th century. Here you can see beautifully carved wooden shelving and its flasks and jars.

On the top floor of the tower of the palace is the Camera Obscura, which shows a bird's eye view of the city and it's surroundings.

We had a look inside Jerez Cathedral, which is a beautiful 18th century building.

This picture is from www.khaosproductions.com

Then on to visit the Winery Tio Pepe almost next door for a guided tour.

Our tour guide could speak fluent Spanish, English and German.

The different grades of Lepanto brandy. It starts off clear and becomes darker, being ready after 15 years.

Some of the barrels of Lepanto. The dark musk on the wall is the cause of the fermentation process due to evaporation where they lose up to 20% of the liquid.

The tour train

One of the happy mice.... it has been tradition for many years to leave out some sherry and tapas for the mice, fresh every day.

Included in the cost of the tour was drinks and tapas before leaving. One of the very few times we've seen Maria tipsy.

The food area had been set out as they are at Feria. We only used a small part of the restaurant area which is probably full at the height of the holiday season.

After the Winery we went to a cafe for a drink and something to eat. We had some more interesting food.

(And it was actually raining!!)

It was soon time to make our way back to the flat, stopping at Maria Jesus's mum's house on the way. I seem to remember going somewhere for more cakes too. We had to pack and get to the airport for check-in. Whilst we were waiting to go through at the airport, a call for José was put out over the tannoy. José and José Manuel went to see what the problem was. Some luggage had been packed with some bullets in. Luckily, wrong José!!

We had a long, tiring and boring wait. I read most of my book. The plane was delayed for a couple of hours, which we later found out was due to snow in Madrid. The pilot was able to get a shorter flight path home and we got home slightly quicker than we would have done normally.