Thursday 27^th March – Rota (Jerez)

36:36.917N 6:21.232W

Today we were up before sunrise for our trip to Jerez.  We walked through Rota in the early morning light to the bus station to find that the timetable we had been given was wrong; the first bus of the day shown at 8.00 did not exist. Fortunately the 08.30 bus did exist and we were soon driving through the vineyards to Jerez. 

We wandered through the city of Jerez and loved it.  The markets were especially good; the fruit and vegetable market and the fish market were very well stocked and I wished that I had trolley with me.  We bought some churros from a stall to eat as we walked around.

We were at the Andalucian equestrian centre (Real Escuela Andaluza Del Arte Ecuestre) by 11am for the horse show that I had booked for us.  They ask you to be there an hour before the show and this is by design so that you can look around the training arena and see the guys schooling some of the horses before the show.  The show was very good as you would expect, particularly the dressage displays (akin to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna).

After the show we went to see the cathedral and to do the obligatory visit to one of the Sherry bodegas. We walked across town with Richard, as usual, taking us the non-tourist route around the back-streets.

The cathedral is a very impressive building, built on Moorish mosque remains, and it has the original minaret next to it.  When we first arrived it was closed but it has the large Tio Pepe bodegas right next door so we went to visit that.

Sadly, having enjoyed our tours of the port wine lodges in Porto (which also had the advantage of being free), this tour was expensive, crowded and felt rushed. Going for the tapas option with the wine tasting at the end also proved a poor choice with the cheese and ham having dried out – not recommended.  Fortunately the people we were with and those on the table beside us turned it into a fun event.

When we left the bodega we found that the Cathedral had opened and we were able to look around inside.  Like the outside, the inside is very impressive and worth a visit.

We decided make the most of our day in Jerez and so retired to a local restaurant near the market for some delicious tapas and drinks (very good value after our earlier experience) before heading back to the bus station. 

Getting home was a bit of an adventure. We arrived at the bus station in good time for the last bus; which duly failed to appear. We waited and waited with a few other people. Various reports suggested it had already gone or that there were no more buses expected for Rota.  Just as we were giving up and thinking about a taxi, it finally appeared; it had been late leaving Seville. We were soon under way and back at the bus station in Rota, exhausted after a long day.