Whistle stop tour through Jerez de La Frontera

So, the time had finally come for us to meet alfredo our Spanish teacher, face to face, and of course put all our well learned conversation skills to the test 🤣🤣🤣 We started weekly online lessons back in January when Alfredo was living in Sheffield, but fortuitously for us he moved back home to Jerez in November, and was extremely keen to show us his home city -- how convenient was that for us 😃


The motorhome Aire was “interesting “, in the middle of a huge retail park - but extremely handy for getting broken spokes on one of the bikes repaired at Decathlon 👍 Turns out that Alfredo lives only a couple of minutes away, so the next morning he came to pick us up for our day out in Jerez 😃


Although a lot smaller, and not as visually stunning as Seville, Jerez does have a certain charm. We wondered around the centre, explored the amazing central market and saw fish like we have never seen before 🤣, passed by numerous grand palaces (many still occupied by business nobility, others now hotels), saw the Jerez Alcazar, the huge imposing cathedral, numerous other churches, and of course the famous Tio Pepe and Gonzalez Byass Sherry Houses. 


Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, the founder of Gonzalez Byass and later Tio Pepe Bodega - which would become a brand sherry - statue next to the Cathedral



Cathedral


Palaces & Palm Trees - very Jerez 🤣


Imposing Jerez Alcazar

Buying honey at the Christmas market - made by Alfredo's cousin


Central Fish Market


But what was perhaps most interesting was actually experiencing the typical day to day culture of the city (and of Spain) - so at around 12.30 we headed to one of the central bars for cerveza (or sherry wine) and tapas - and seemingly so did everyone else in Jerez! By around 1pm the city was buzzing, all bars and cafes full, as everyone stops work (and whatever else they might be doing), and heads to a bar to meet up with friends and family for a cooling drink and snack, all before heading home for lunch at @2pm. We lost count of the number of people, both friends and family members that Alfredo bumped into - he seemed to know everyone 🤣 It was lovely to meet his 2 sisters, and one very kindly bought us roasted almonds from the street vendor to take to the bar to accompany our cerveza - another Jerez tradition 🤣



Cheers!


Our final stop was at a famous flamenco bar which has a daily 2pm show - a fascinating performance in an extremely interesting and ancient quirky venue 🤣 Jerez is the home of flamenco, and so taken very seriously 😒 


Ancient Flamenco bar and Cruzcampo pump

The range of sherry wine flavours & colours



Flamenco finale 💃 


Unfortunately we couldn’t stay longer - had left Rubes in the van sleeping, so needed to head home for a bit of Ruby time 😃 But we did feel like we had got a real taste of Jerez life (quite literally 🍺🍷) in the short time we were there, and was great to finally meet Alfredo face to face - funny that that should actually be in Jerez and not in Sheffield where we first started our relationship - and friendship 😃


A great day out!




Comments

  1. Erica10 January 2023 at 09:38

    Great you got to meet Alfredo & sounds like you’ve enjoyed a real taste of Spanish life 😊
    💃 love flamenco - didn’t know it started in Jerez 👍

    ReplyDelete

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