Andalucia Day 23 Jerez de la Frontera

We go to Jerez by the Cercanías train, the Spanish local train service which is modern and quick and takes just 10 minutes from El Puerto to Jerez. We are slow, decidedly, walking around Jerez after two days of wandering the streets of Cadiz. Also my internal compass is a bit tired too, because it takes us a while to find the tourist office. Armed with a map, things improve. Jerez is pretty much in the same style as El Puerto and Cadiz, the orange tree square outside the Alcazar and the Almeda Vieja are pleasant green areas, in particular.

Still hungry from the late and scanty supper the evening before we soon turn our attention to lunch. There's a ruta de Tabancos, tradicional bars where you can try the local sherries accompanied by tapas. We're a little worried they might be a bit too touristy but in the end choose Las Banderillas, specialised in 'bull' meat.

On entering we have some doubts because the waiters pounce on us speaking in English and suggest the fish tapas.

We order a Copa de Oloroso  and a Caña and two tortillitas de camarones, very good crunchy and piping hot. But really we were here for rabo de toro so even though the tapa is €5.50, expensive for a tapa, we order that. When it arrives it is tapa only in name, on a larger plate it could easily be considered a main course. Delicious, tender, succulent and enough for two. We finish off with another Copa de Oloroso and one of Pedro Ximenez, dark sweet creamy like drinking liquid bronze, very nice. We spend just €14.50 altogether and are well pleased.

Back to Alameda Vieja for a snooze on a bench and then more roaming the streets.

Back in El Puerto we stop at Monasterio de la Victoria partly to see the building itself and also because there's a Patchwork exhibition.

The church and monastery are partly in ruins but the architecture is still beautiful and we especially like the arches in the columns.

But what suprises us is the patchwork, patchwork such as I have never seen before, a painstaking labour of love requiring considerable artistic ability and the utmost patience, amazing.

Back at the flat I have a go at cooking Secreto Ibérico, a cut of pork meat which is very popular in Spain. It turns out well but more thanks to the taste of a generous dash of Pedro Ximenez than because I got the recipe right....

Kilometres by car: 0

Kilometres on foot: 16