Day 25: Jerez de la Frontera

No school on Saturday, so we took a train to a nearby city called Jerez de la Frontera.  Jerez is known as the cradle of Andalusian culture and is only a forty minute train ride away.  Jasper kept us entertained by being silly on the train.

Jasper wearing two pairs of sunglasses at once!

Our first stop was a guided tour of the Gonzalez-Byass sherry bodega which makes the Tio Pepe brand of sherry (which apparently is quite well known, but we had never heard of it).  It was interesting and just short enough that the kids didn't completely lose their minds (a small train took us between buildings).  There was a generous tasting at the end.

A terrace at Tio Pepe with a grape vine roof for shade.

The train that took us from place to place at Tio Pepe.

Inside the "solero" where the sherry is aged and mixed before bottling.

Kristin's in to her sixth glass of sherry and it's barely noon!

After the bodega we went to a restaurant for some lunch, we ordered every vegetarian dish on the menu, beers and wine, and the bill only came to 21 euros.  I don't know how anyone in Spain makes any money.  After lunch we went over to the ancient Alcazar but it was closed for the day, so we took a photo outside of it to pretend that we went in.  The kids won't remember any of this anyways, so we might as well make it look like we showed them a good time.

Kristin trying to sober up with some tapas (and more sherry?).

The Alcazar from the outside.

The we walked about 2 km to an epic miniature city set up just for kids to run around in.  We arrived to find a sign on the gate saying it was closed due to flooding.  So we gave up and went to the nearest pub for more beers and sherry.  Jasper acted cute so the waitress brought him a free donut.  He exclaimed "Just like in Tim Hortons!".  No one in the restaurant understood the reference.

Pints with Papi!