We left Cadiz in very windy weather and headed inland to Jerez de la Frontera. This is where the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art is based and they have a show once a week. I really wanted to see this while we were in Spain but there weren’t many places to park up. We managed to find one Aire on the out skirts of town called Camper and Van. It was in a out of town shopping mall.
When we arrived it was full with a couple of vans waiting in the car park. We decided to wait for a while whilst searching for somewhere else to go. After about half an hour we saw a couple of vans leave. Luckily we were in the van so managed to get to the gate and claim our space. With parking sorted I went on line and booked our tickets to the show in a couple of days time.
That evening we headed into the shopping Mall for dinner. Donald had seen a steak house that he fancied going to so we headed there. We were a bit early and it wasn’t open so we browsed the shops for a bit. We returned when it opened and discovered that the smalest steak you could order was 500g, They bought it out to the table before cooking it, where it looked huge. When we looked at the ticket we realised it was 700g! A lot of steak for one person.
Our next challenge was to find out how to get hold of our digital Covid pass. I spent a couple of hours searching on the internet on how to do it, with no luck. Eventually I decided to put a post on the Camping and Caravanning in Spain Facebook site. Within minutes I had responses from two lovely ladies. One told me that to get an electronic version you needed a Spanish phone number, the other said you could get it printed in a Salud, whish is a health centre. We googled where the nearest one was and set off.
We arrived at the health centre and, with the help of google translate, managed to get our passes printed. Technology never ceases to amaze me, and has certainly made life in a foreign county mush easier.
Next we set off to find out where the Andalusian School was so that we knew where we needed to go the next day. The walk took us through the old village along footpaths that had trees and lamp posts in the middle of the walkways.
We found the school then went to a restaurant for lunch, sitting outside in the sunshine watching the world go by.
After lunch we decided to explore the town. Jerez is famous for it’s Sherry production and there are quite a few Sherry houses. We didn’t try any on this trip as Donald had begun to feel a little unwell, not sure if it was a reaction the Covid vaccination or the very large steak!
We found a lovely plaza with a fantastic statue of horses and carriages, a castle with loads of orange trees where we took shelter as a rain shower came over. They have a stunning cathedral right next door to a Sherry house. The town is full of some really old buildings, narrow streets and quite steep hills. The whole place is quite beautiful.
The following day was the day of the horse show. I was really excited to see this and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The horses are incredible, the handlers control of these magnificent animals quite breath taking. The show lasted around 2 hours but it flew by watching the horses move in time to the music. When the show finished we returned to the van were we stayed for the next few days as Donald was still feeling unwell.
Cadiz to Jerez
Mileage 12.5
Route A-491
Camper and Van – €14 pn
