Arcos, Jerez, Cadiz + Royal School of Equestrian

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Arcos de la Frontera, Jerez de la Frontera, Royal School of Equestrian in Jerez and Cadiz 8th - 11th Sept 2014
Waved goodbye to Ronda and headed off to Jerez, the equestrian capital of Andalucia.  There was a half way stop though; Arcos, a town typical of the hilltop region but reputed to be the most spectacular of them. Known as pueblos blancos (white towns), the towns are fortified hillside towns, the buildings whitewashed in traditional Moorish style. Typical of our Spanish experience so far, light 3 course lunches with a glass of wine were on the menu everywhere and we settled in to relax alfresco at one of Arcos' restaurants for the incredible sum of 8 euro per person (AUD $12)!

After a little more driving on roads that are so much better than we anticipated, we arrived in Jerez, returning our 7th and last rental car without incident. (Mostly our rentals have been with AVIS and with the AVIS Preferred card has made it really easy and inexpensive, highly recommend.)

Four nights in Jerez absolutely flew by and it quickly became one of Sandra's favourite towns of the trip. Not only did the town fully celebrate the equine, every third street seemed to lead to a plaza full of activity and tapas bars. Tuesday we went to the Royal School of Equestrian Art for their Andalusian show day. Seeing the show was to realise a 30 year dream for Sandra, ever since she rode and worked at Andalucia Park on the Gold Coast where the Spanish Dancing Horses were the feature tourist attraction. When we returned the following day to see more of the training and take a stable tour, it just so happened that the annual practical examinations were being held where 6 of the 45 applicants are successful in being admitted for the 4 years work experience and training that they pay just E1,000 per year for.  Those who had successfully passed the written Spanish exam were nervously preparing for the riding exam and we watched some of them ride for the examiners. As well as the stable tour, we visited the saddlery where 4 people work making tack and then visited the equestrian and carriage museums, the latter which has 50 beautifully restored buggies and carriages.

Jerez is also the home of sherry so we toured a bodega, Pedro Domecq, which was interesting, and we learned that regardless of how young, old, cheap or expensive, Sandra doesn't like sherry at all whilst Andrew only found one of the darker, sweeter ones to his liking. With festivals all over Spain this time of year, we found another happened to be on in Jerez while we there. Celebrating the wine harvest, 20 restaurants have set up in a park in tents for a week and there is a big stage with music every night. Tapas and a drink is 3 euros. Everything is cheap here in Southern Spain.

Thursday we rode the 50 minute train to the Costa de la Luz coastal town of Cadiz. Surrounded on all sides by water, Cadiz is the oldest town in all of Europe (founded 1100 BC by the Phoenicians) and a port stop for big cruise ships. Quite a few day trippers were on the train with us heading to the beach for the day whilst we just wanted to take a look about the town and try a tapas restaurant we had read good reviews about. Mission accomplished on both counts and at La Candela we found the best tapas we have had in Spain so far! There were no tables so we sat at the bar that overlooked the kitchen and glad we did, we got to see everything that came out of the kitchen and each plate was a piece of art and the dishes we ate tasted just as good.

Thursday evening in the plaza right outside our hotel (Palacio Garvey) an Irish band played for the crowd and made for a very pleasant final evening in Jerez.  Tomorrow off to southern Spain's largest city and the capital of Andalucia, Seville.

Typical street in the town of Arcos. Whilst driving through the countryside, 
these white towns look amazing in the distance. 

Arcos church

View from Arcos to newer areas

Shoes on display at the chocolate shop, too good looking to eat I think.

A hawker (yes, pun intended) had a range of birds that tourist could get their photo taken with

One of the many plazas in Jerez

Jerez cathedral

Royal school warm up area before Andalusian show

One of the magnificent bay stallions in the walking bay

Waiting for the horse show to commence (no photos allowed during the performance)

Feeling very happy and lucky to be living out a 30 year dream of
visiting the Andalusian show at the Royal School of Equestrian Art.

Saddlery where 4 people work making tack

Making tack including saddles from scratch - in a separate room there is a video 
presentation of how they make saddles

Exercise area with horse/buggy - they have horses bred and trained especially for their buggy show

Guided tour of the stables

Tack room for the Equestrian school

Horses waiting for auditions - there were 45 students (an unusually low number) who applied for the 2014 intake. Only 6 are accepted. The students do a written exam in the morning and those that pass it have to do a riding audition in front of 5 judges. They have to ride a random horse from the school and they only have 10 minutes in this area to get to know the horse before doing a dressage routine in the main arena. Some of them were very nervous. We watched some of the kids audition.

Front entrance to the arena - great mosaics all throughout Andalucia

Jerez sculpture

Jerez fountain

Sherry tour at Pedro Domecq

Sniffing the very old sherries in the wine making process

Lots of famous people have signed barrels that are working away

Tour finishes with a choice of sherry tastings

It was fiesta gastronomica de la vendimia week in Jerez to celebrate the wine harvest
 and in this park 20 restaurants set up tents to serve tapas and drinks. A big stage too for nightly 
live music. One tapas + one drink is 3euros ($A4.50) what a bargain.

Sculpture near the Jerez train station

Fountain in Cadiz that is in time to classical music. 

Monument in Plaza de Espana, Cadiz

Canons used to defend the walled town of Cadiz.  
Europe's oldest city it was founded in 1100BC by the Phoenicians.

Cadiz also has lots of Plazas and a great wet market

Best tapas we've found so far in Spain was at La Candela in Cadiz - it was amazing! 
Note the colourful beer bottle top screen for the washing up guy, it looked very effective.

Cadiz cathedral

Great Irish band played right outside our hotel on our last night. 

The Plaza Rafael Rivero right outside our hotel full of foot tapping Spaniards