Cadiz and Jerez

We started day 6 off in Jerez. Here we gained some insight into the production of sherry. The region is renowned for their production of this beverage.

Here is the guard opening the gate to the Sandeman winery.

While we were waiting for the gate to open wide we managed to snap this picture of a horse and buggy getting ready to enter the arena across the street. It seems there was a competition going on. The horse was a beauty as you can see from the picture.

The casks. It seems the youngest is in the top row, then the middle aged wine is in the second and the bottom holds the oldest. I always wondered how they managed to move the wine around and was happy to find out they really don't. Fiber glass or flexible plastic tubing is used to transfer 1/3 of each cask to the next level. The bottom level 1/3 is bottled and filled with 1/3 of the wine from the casks above and so on. The youngest gets the years pressings to top off the 1/3 siphoned from that layer. Nice to know that people aren't hauling away casks and piling them some where else in a different order.

This was our guide through the winery. She was wearing the traditional garb of the area.

The storks seem to like to build their nest on top of the tallest free standing structure they can. This nest will be knocked off when the harvest starts. However for now they are safe. The same storks will return here again next year and rebuild their nest.

After tasting three different sherries we got back on the bus to continue our trip to Cadiz

It was very hard to take a picture of the harbour at Cadiz, this is about as good a one as I could get. The bridge is much the same as the Golden Gate Bridge in the U.S. In fact it was built by the same company.

The main square of Cadiz. The building with the flags is the equivalent of our city halls. The sign across the front says "Welcome Refugees". Almost every city that we visited sported signs welcoming the refugees to either Spain or Portugal. Such a big hearted people!!

In the evening we traveled out into the surrounding farm area of Seville to visit a bull raising farm. Somehow that did not come out right, but I am going with it.

The ranch is owned by a Marquesa  and her late husband.

Some of the young bulls.

Our local guide explaining the operation of the ranch. This man has worked as foreman on the ranch for over 25 years.

The practice ring.

Some cape moves.

Then it was into the ranch house for dinner. But before that we were allowed to wonder around a few rooms in the house.

Harvey could not resist trying on this hat. I think it might be a touch too small. Don't you?

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.