"The City of Horses" Jerez de la Frontera by scanos

Naively, I thought that the sun would not be an issue in late September here, and at first I attributed my queeziness to the lacing of gin in my coffee adminstered by the counter hand in the station cafe. Another culprit, I thought, was the protein overdose from the buckets of chorizo that I had eaten in Sevilla's many tapas bars. No, it was good old sunstroke. I finally acknowledged this when I later moved to the cooler climes of Madrid. So welcome to the hottest part of Spain, and Europe, even in September. Go easy on the Tio Pepe and don't perambulate in the midday sun with the Englishmen and frenzied canines.

I arrived in the city on Sunday 17th September 2006 right in the middle of the annual horse festival. The procession of real cowboys, show jumpers and coaches took over the city for two hours, dazzling tourists and locals alike. The costumes were stunning, authentic and worn with pride. I could see from the strutting and posturing that this was a time honoured event, celebrating all the city's ancestors and events- particularly la conquista de Jerez in 1260.

Tapas Life Jerez

I travelled to jerez from Seville and found a number of great tapas bars with real Spanish people in it. The variety of tapas were amazing. In particular I enjoyed the spinach and anchovies. It was also very cheap in comparison to Seville. Being in the city of sherry, it´s very popular in the tapas bars, particularly the white sheery.

Sherry Barrels jerez

The city continuously reminds one of the importance of this famous drink, as you can see from the hugh number of barrels dotted around the city. The brand names , as you would expect are everywhere, particularly Tio Pepe.

• Pros:True spain with friendliness a
• Cons:None
• In a nutshell:Sheery , Horses and Tapas blended delightfully together, figuratively.