September 9, 2015
18°C, slightly hazy – ideal walking weather for the 14 klms from Cádiz to San Fernando. Could it really have been 40° a week ago?
Great to get started, the Camino led us through the old city and along the beach for an hour or so. A bit tedious walking the uneven dirt road beside the railway line across the isthmus so we were glad to stop.
Cadiz to San Fernando
The Camino follows the beach out of Cádiz
Salt marshlands between Cádiz and San Fernando
Puente Suazo has connected the island of San Fernando to the mainland since Roman times
Cázon en Adobo from the best Freiduría in San Fernando, wrapped in a paper cone (dog fish ie shark, in vinegar and cumin batter from the fish shop)
Stage 2 San Fernando to Puerto Real, 13 klms.
A good Sendero (path) through the Natural Reserve of salt marshes to Puerto Real, a pretty town with wide streets – nice walking today, cool and overcast.
San Fernando to Puerto Real
The path beside an old iron bridge
Traditional salt harvesting near San Fernando
Olives at Puerto Real Market - got the ones soaked in sherry
Tortilla de Berenjena (eggplant) - read about it, had to have it!
San Sebastian, 16th Century - from Gothic to Baroque & a Mozarabic tower
Typical house of Puerto Real
Stage 3 Puerto Real to El Puerto de Santa María, 11 klms, a short day and a pleasant walk through pine trees of the Natural Reserve.
El Puerto with its narrow cobbled streets and white walled houses and river side tapas bars is a pretty place. Leaning on a barrel outside Obregon Bodega with a glass of their fino felt just right on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Puerto Real to El Puerto de Santa Maria
Approaching El Puerto de Santa María
Always wanted to lean on a barrel outside a sherry bodega, glass of fino in hand
El Puerto's Plaza de Toros, oldest in Spain, can hold over 12,000 spectators
Old fish market, El Puerto (El Resbaladero means the slippery place!)
A day in Sanlúcar de Barremeda.
Sanlúcar is the home of the Manzanilla Sherry – bone dry, perhaps tasting of the sea air, so we diverted by bus for a day off the Camino.
Magellan departed from here on his round the world voyage, spending more on Sherry than he did on weapons!
Plaza Cabildo, Sanlúcar
Sanlúcar is famous for its seafood tapas ...
... and we're here for the Tortilla de Camarones (prawns in batter) and of course the Manzanilla
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la O, 1392, Mudejar Gothic
San Francisco Monastery, 1495, also served as a 19th century prison
Returning on the early bus from Sanlúcar de Barrameda to El Puerto de Santa Maria, we walked the 15 klms on to Jerez.
This is the center of Sherry production, but we didn’t see a single grape vine!
El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez
Coloured sea salt in the streets of El Puerto for the Festival of the Virgin of Miracles
Didn't see any grape vines, but saw fields of cotton
Resting outside a lovely but abandoned building
The giant bulls that dot the Spanish hillsides are actually ads for Osborne Sherry
Arriving at the City Walls of Jerez