BLOG #12 SEPTEMBER 22ND 2012
Our last full day in Jerez starts with the usual breakfast
spread but followed this day by our venturing into the main plaza for churos
and chocolate. Along the way, the girls (Sandy and Jane) found several trinkets
to buy while Ron and Paul stood guard outside the shops. A youngish Spaniard
came up and said, it is the same the world over, women gaze into windows and
spot things supposedly drastically reduced and which should not be passed by
while the husbands stand aimlessly outside the shops in the hopes that the
ladies would soon decide to move on and forego the shopping experience. He was
a nice chap and was obviously married….although this AM he was out alone on the
Avenue.
We ultimately found
our churos spot, Don Mateo’s next to the plaza. The chocolate was not too thick
but was still very tasty into which the chorus were appropriately dunked at
least once, if not twice. Our refreshment done it was 1115 and time to find the
Basque new tapas bar who had a huge sign in the main plaza. The place had been
closed on Friday when Jane and Paul stopped by as the owners were at an
international tapas competition in Valladolid, Spain however today the bar was
open and hot tapas lined the bar top looking excellent but we were full of churos!
With time in hand we set off to potentially catch that train ride around town.
The 1200 train pulled up and from around the building flooded another mass of
humanity. The 1200 train have bought in mass for a busload of tourist again.
Sound familiar this happened to us twice on Friday. However with a few harsh
words to the blonde lady who “short changed” us on Friday she sold us 4 tickets
and we were separated inserted into the few slots available amongst the 4 train
cars. The important fact was we got on the damn thing this time.
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| Jerez Flamenco La Cune Bodega |
I t was a good long 45 minute tour around the entire city
and well worth the 4 euros in cost a head. Afterwards it was time for
refreshments so we stopped at the White
Cross bar to let Sandy sample the Goat Cheese tapas that Paul had on Friday.
Time again for siesta as we must get ready for the flamenco show this evening
at 9:30PM.
I started the blog last evening shortly before we went to
the flamenco show and now Sunday AM I am ready to finish up this particular
blog. We chose to walk to the show and got hopelessly lost we were not even
close enough for Govt work either, so we stopped into a hotel lobby and asked
for directions the poor old chap had not heard of this particular Flamenco show
before and so we opted for two taxicabs to ferry the lot of us onwards. To our
surprise the taxis arrived and our lead driver had also never of this show and
did not know the address even with his GPS. However the 2nd driver
knew where we needed to go and clued in his partner in crime who duly dropped
at our destination. The tapas were 6
cold and 6 hot different food groups each washed down with healthy amounts of
white and tinto wine. As with everything in Spain the starting time of the show
was just an approximation! I don’t know
if the artists were late because of artistic temperament or what but the
performance did not start until nearly midnight. By then us old folks were
really dragging. Eventually they graced us with their presence and entertained
us. It was lot different from Granada. I suppose there are different types of
Flamenco, there is the tourist Flamenco and the real Flamenco. The singers are
a much bigger part of traditional flamenco you can hear the Arab influence in
the wailing and passion of the singers, of which we understood not a word, but
you feel the passion. There was only one male dancer and he was pretty awesome,
but I enjoyed the Gypsy show in Granada more. We trekked back to the hotel at
about 1AM. It really was very close. We walked a lot of miles again today, we
must be getting pretty fit!
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