When our daughter in law came back from Spain last year she raved about a trip they had made to Jerez to see the dancing Andalusian horses at the The Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. So having booked tickets online we knew we had to be in Jerez at Noon.
Yesterday references had been made to our problems with the parking garages we have been using. Just imagine driving your smart-car into the house, down the basement and trying to find a slot amongst the support beams - it's something like that here. To add to the hassle all the controls come from computerised tickets on a 24 hour cycle. So driving in, extracting the ticket to the garage from the machine and then driving down the ramp to the third floor we came across another scanner. This one controlled the gate to the hotel's section. Problem one; I had put the car in the wrong position to approach the ramp (bounded by a kurb). Scanned the ticket - gate went up and I had to back up to avoid hitting the out gate, took too long and the gate came down, the car was out of position. No problem just get Doreen to scan the ticket and I drive through. NOT. The ticket was good for one scan! Just leaving the car where it was, in an empty bay, it was decided to sort that out later.
Coming back later I figured I would just push the button on the first machine and get another ticket and start the process all over again. Since I wasn't built like a car (I might be after all this food) the sensor didn't allow me to push the button to obtain a ticket. Hmmm what to do? Ah - press the help button - did that and got a uni-lingual Spaniard. I gave up and then he chased me down in person and we came to the understanding that I could leave the car where it was. So this morning when we came to get out the ticket I had did not work at the exit machine - pressing the Help button again I assumed the travelling attitude of the Grand English Ladies of yore - talk loud and aggressively and you will get want you want. The chappie behind the speaker obviously looked at his camera, saw the lineup behind me and opened the gate.
On to the road, another sidebar, the GPS we had borrowed had European maps installed but TomTom obviously considered Spain to be another part of Europe - it wasn't on this GPS. But we had a backup the app on my phone. Today it wasn't finding the right satellites and we were without our directions for a while. Upshot was we were late getting to Jerez, even allowing an extra hour for the journey, but we did see a lot more of Sevilla than we had planned to!
But back to the travel stuff - good quick ride to Jerez, an hour South-East of Sevilla, but encountered another Spanish peculiarity, a Toll Road. Nothing new about that what was different was the position of the tollbooths - in the middle of the stretch between Sevilla and Jerez, not at either end. So what would stop cheaters just coming off the ramps before and going back on one ramp later. Just a question?
Arrived at Jerez and Doris the GPS lady did get us to near the spot except as usual the place you are looking for doesn't match up to the actual location. Found a parking spot - a bloody miracle, and walked over to the School for the performance. The ninety minutes went fast. Stole a piccie (no cameras allowed) during a pee break and this is the fine interior of the Arena (horse barn). We saw performances from both horses and carriages. Impressive.
We had time to kill and had decided to visit Cadiz a thirty minute ride away. With Doris leading the way we found it and a parking garage, this time the problem was finding a pedestrian exit. Had a bite to eat in the first place we saw (always) a mistake, and then explored the City.
Siesta time (from 1400 t0 1630) is not the best time to see places but enough stores were open to get a flavour of the place. Another modern place with small streets and very clean. We did get caught in a rain burst, no problem it only lasted five minutes.
Drove back to Sevilla in the evening and after a stop to pick up a bottle of wine and a snack for later we were finished by seven PM.
HoponHopoff today and the weather looks overcast - that's good not too much sun beating down on the open bus.
On to the road, another sidebar, the GPS we had borrowed had European maps installed but TomTom obviously considered Spain to be another part of Europe - it wasn't on this GPS. But we had a backup the app on my phone. Today it wasn't finding the right satellites and we were without our directions for a while. Upshot was we were late getting to Jerez, even allowing an extra hour for the journey, but we did see a lot more of Sevilla than we had planned to!
But back to the travel stuff - good quick ride to Jerez, an hour South-East of Sevilla, but encountered another Spanish peculiarity, a Toll Road. Nothing new about that what was different was the position of the tollbooths - in the middle of the stretch between Sevilla and Jerez, not at either end. So what would stop cheaters just coming off the ramps before and going back on one ramp later. Just a question?
We had time to kill and had decided to visit Cadiz a thirty minute ride away. With Doris leading the way we found it and a parking garage, this time the problem was finding a pedestrian exit. Had a bite to eat in the first place we saw (always) a mistake, and then explored the City.
Siesta time (from 1400 t0 1630) is not the best time to see places but enough stores were open to get a flavour of the place. Another modern place with small streets and very clean. We did get caught in a rain burst, no problem it only lasted five minutes.Drove back to Sevilla in the evening and after a stop to pick up a bottle of wine and a snack for later we were finished by seven PM.
HoponHopoff today and the weather looks overcast - that's good not too much sun beating down on the open bus.
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