Hotel Jerez & Spa Jerez De La Frontera

... and got ready to go out. Thinking I was back in L.A., I brought a red dress and heels with me. Everyone else had decided that the beach was a casual place, so flipflops and jeans would be perfect. Trust me, you'll notice the contrast in the photo I post! Anyway, we walked around the small city until we settled at a tapas bar. Cadiz is a very small city with little cobblestone streets and antique looking buildings. We walked around the ...

So today we didn't have an excursion because we had our own private tour guides in Rachel's host family from three years ago. They met us at the pier and were so happy to see Rachel it was great! They took us on a walking tour of historic Cadiz and we had breakfast at one of their places they like and we had churros an coffee with milk. Loly knew everyone we walked by it seemed and although they spoke no English and we speak little Spanish we were ...

... of the sweetest sherry called "Nectar" for 8 Euro. I really didn’t like their regular sherry though. They were pretty cool though. When celebrities or royalty come visit, they have them sign a barrel of Tio Pepe instead of signing a guestbook! And they have a family of mice that are sherry connoisseurs. One of the distillery ...

... something to see. After the show we headed to another white village town called Arcos de la Frontera. This was another cobble stoned hillside town set among 2 churches and a convent. We had a nice lunch and walked around the town. The streets were narrow and tiny and mike did a great job of navigating through the narrow roads (he's getting much better)...we left and started our 2.5 hour drive from there to Nerja our destination for the next 7 days ...

... for days. Today, I learn there is no access to the Cape (rocky terrain right to the shoreline) and no museum which was a pity and a big omission I thought, so on we motored to our destination, Arcos de la Frontera. (“de la Frontera” is a suffix for lots of town in southern Spain, meaning “on the frontier”; these were border towns separating the Spanish “re-conquest” ...

... across from the High Alter. The baptismal font in the St. Anthony's Chapel is the largest that I have ever seen - would make a nice birdbath for the backyard! There are some paintings by Murillo inside and many beautiful examples of Stained Glass work. Photos never do it justice - but a few are included for you to look at. After viewing the Cathedral and the Giralda we had about an hour to explore the Barrio Santa Cruz - a beautiful pedestrian only area ...

...bon on se rends moi et Amy à Tarifa plage des surfeur...rencontre de deux continents et de l'océan et de la mer ...sur la pointe de l'île tu vois une chaînes de montagnes et c'est l'Afrique ...Tanger...le Maroc..25min de bateau pour traverser...hummm! l'énergie qui avait là ce jour là...woww! cé kchose!

They Said: The second of our "Route of the White Pueblo" towns was Jerez de la Frontera, a city famous for two things: its horses and its wine. We took the first bus from Arcos, left our bags at the Jerez station, and headed for the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. Over an hour and six or seven wrong turns later, we arrived and saw the pure-bred Spanish horses in training as Alli reminisced ...

... was not so hot. (especially because my ankles had swelled up to about twice their normal size) But the view and everything more than compensated for the discomfort in my feet (and stomach...i´m falling apart). And i´m proud to say that my feet are getting better. Once i find some more band-aids my life will be a lot better (and my socks a lot cleaner). And my stomach is back 100% so there´s no need to worry about me dying. So far so good. More updates to come!

... off this seemed like a completely different city that the others I had been to in the South of Spain, but of course there is also more Moroccan influence here. When I went to bed after a long afternoon soaking in the sun in Câdiz, it was in a dorm room with 9 other people! I had almost forgotten what it was like to share a room with so many people. Despite the fact that everyone went to bed at ten different times I still managed to get a good nights sleep...