Jerez - town and horses (Throwback post)

Jerez station

After Cadiz, we moved on to Jerez de la Frontera, one of the key places for that much maligned drink - sherry. But we'll save the sherry for the next post, and for now, focus on the city in general. Although in fairness, when even the name of the town is so synonomous with the drink, that is pretty hard to do.

Jerez

Jerez is actually a lovely place to visit. It is an attractive town, with interesting old architecture. And we discovered that it is quite easy to get lost. There are a couple of places that we saw or went in that we have no idea where they were, because we found them when we were just wandering around the streets with only the vaguest idea of our location.

There are a number of churches scattered around, and one shrine in particular (which is one of those that we found when we were lost so don't know which it is or where), which appeared to be dedicated to the healing of children.

Shrine, Jerez

Hanging all around the entrance were discarded prosthetic limbs and other such aids, almost all in young child sizes, with clothing, toys, letters and prayers. I'm not quite sure whether anyone actually thought they were healed - I mean I think we'd have heard if anyone had grown back a leg for example - but clearly a lot of people draw hope and comfort from the belief that it could happen.

Jerez Castle

There is a castle here, but it didn't desperately excite us after Malaga and Granada, so we just took a look from the outside.

The cathedral on the other hand, looked very impressive outside, but was unfortunately closed to visitors whenever we were there.

Jerez Cathedral

Jerez Cathedral

Equestrian Art School, Jerez

We did pay a visit to the rather grandly named Real Escuela de Arte Equestre - or Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. We didn't go for one of the shows, we just looked around the place and dropped in on one of the practise sessions for a while.
When we were there at least, the training is not like a full rehearsal of a show, more a collection of different horses and riders practising different things at once, but it is interesting to watch them.

Equestrian Art School, Jerez

Jerez bars

We found a number of nice little places for tapas and drinks too.  This is quite a traditional seeming place, so the tapas feel more classic somehow, less like they have been updated for urban trends or tourist expectations. And the guy still trundles his little barrowload of fresh seafood around to the bars, selling them by the cone.

Jerez bars

It is helped by being low season, but Jerez doesn't really feel like a touristy town, outside of the obvious places, as most of the visitors come in on coaches to do a tour of the sights and then leave again. So especially in the evenings, the number of tourists was pretty low. That meant that when we went into the bars, most of the people there were local, so you got a much better feel for life here.

Flamenco, Jerez

It also means that when they have their flamenco sessions, even though visitors like us are there, it still feels like an authentic experience, rather than a show for the tourists. We went to one little bar that our airbnb hosts recommended, and were lucky enough to arrive just in time to grab a seat before the place filled up completely.

Flamenco, Jerez

The flamenco group that came on was a trio, with a guy on guitar, another guy on the cajon (a type of hand drum), and a female vocalist. They were excellent, and certainly popular with the locals.

One man, who must have been in his eighties at least, was very enthusiastic, clapping along, and getting up to dance too. I suspect that in his youth he was probably quite a good flamenco dancer, as he was pretty nifty even now, despite being obviously less nimble.

Jerez

Jerez

Jerez