Where's Bertie? He's in a free Municipal Aire (with free electricity) next to the bullring in Jerez de los Caballeros. Exact location: 38.32622, -6.76254
Weather: Some cloud this morning, clearing to give a completely clear afternoon. Warm (20 degrees).
I don't think we did justice to the town of El Real de la Jura, visiting neither of the castles nor the town's viewpoint, and we're pretty sure we left town on the day their festival starts. However, we left this morning happy that we had seen a decent amount of the surrounding countryside as well as sampling some of the towns wares.
With today's intended destination being another village/small town without a supermarket, I made sure that we swung past the 'Dia' supermarket that we should have stopped at three days ago. Being about the size of one of the bigger village Co-ops in the UK, it didn't have its own car park, but we were able to park outside and managed to get all bar one item on our extensive shopping list. Nothing felt unduly overpriced either.
Twenty five minutes later, we pulled into the Aire in Segura de León, which is where we had intended to spend the next two nights (I'd already researched and downloaded a walking route for tomorrow). We sat there in the deserted Aire for a couple of minutes and contemplated. The last three reviews of the place were negative. The most recent was possibly an accidental giving of only 2* (in that their words didn't say anything bad about the place), but one of the others cited the impossibility of sleeping with youths drinking and being rowdy nearby (bizarrely, the third negative review complained of not being able to sleep, and having to leave at 4am, due to noisy sheep nearby). With an abandoned sports ground on one side of the Aire, and a recreation area perfect for gathering youths on the other side, and with our intended stay spanning the weekend, we weren't convinced it was a good place to stay. The decision: we would chance driving another half an hour to Jerez de los Caballeros, to this 8-space Aire. The fact that it offers free electricity makes it more likely to be full, but the time of day and day of week were in our favour. Leaving Segura gave us a view of what we were missing: a town on a hill with a castle and a big church - probably very pleasant for a stroll around, but then there's not a lack of towns with those very same ingredients in Spain.
More driving through attractive, hilly, green, sparsely wooded land, mainly being grazed by cows, but also with the odd flock of sheep and some horses (we came across two donkeys on the side of the road, in two separate locations today too) brought us to Jerez, where we found the Aire just half full.
What a fine Aire it is too - I can see why it's got so many positive reviews. It's in a walled compound, with eight generous pitches with hedges as their dividers, each with their own electric point, making it more like a campsite than your standard free Spanish Aire. The service point isn't ideal; it has the essential ingredients but set out in a way that causes people to misuse it.
By the time we got back from wandering around the town for a couple of hours, all eight spaces were taken.
As for the town, we didn't have to walk very far to realise that it's an interesting place. We're happy to be here for a few days.
Weather: Some cloud this morning, clearing to give a completely clear afternoon. Warm (20 degrees).
I don't think we did justice to the town of El Real de la Jura, visiting neither of the castles nor the town's viewpoint, and we're pretty sure we left town on the day their festival starts. However, we left this morning happy that we had seen a decent amount of the surrounding countryside as well as sampling some of the towns wares.
With today's intended destination being another village/small town without a supermarket, I made sure that we swung past the 'Dia' supermarket that we should have stopped at three days ago. Being about the size of one of the bigger village Co-ops in the UK, it didn't have its own car park, but we were able to park outside and managed to get all bar one item on our extensive shopping list. Nothing felt unduly overpriced either.
Twenty five minutes later, we pulled into the Aire in Segura de León, which is where we had intended to spend the next two nights (I'd already researched and downloaded a walking route for tomorrow). We sat there in the deserted Aire for a couple of minutes and contemplated. The last three reviews of the place were negative. The most recent was possibly an accidental giving of only 2* (in that their words didn't say anything bad about the place), but one of the others cited the impossibility of sleeping with youths drinking and being rowdy nearby (bizarrely, the third negative review complained of not being able to sleep, and having to leave at 4am, due to noisy sheep nearby). With an abandoned sports ground on one side of the Aire, and a recreation area perfect for gathering youths on the other side, and with our intended stay spanning the weekend, we weren't convinced it was a good place to stay. The decision: we would chance driving another half an hour to Jerez de los Caballeros, to this 8-space Aire. The fact that it offers free electricity makes it more likely to be full, but the time of day and day of week were in our favour. Leaving Segura gave us a view of what we were missing: a town on a hill with a castle and a big church - probably very pleasant for a stroll around, but then there's not a lack of towns with those very same ingredients in Spain.
More driving through attractive, hilly, green, sparsely wooded land, mainly being grazed by cows, but also with the odd flock of sheep and some horses (we came across two donkeys on the side of the road, in two separate locations today too) brought us to Jerez, where we found the Aire just half full.
What a fine Aire it is too - I can see why it's got so many positive reviews. It's in a walled compound, with eight generous pitches with hedges as their dividers, each with their own electric point, making it more like a campsite than your standard free Spanish Aire. The service point isn't ideal; it has the essential ingredients but set out in a way that causes people to misuse it.
By the time we got back from wandering around the town for a couple of hours, all eight spaces were taken.
As for the town, we didn't have to walk very far to realise that it's an interesting place. We're happy to be here for a few days.
The first square we came across, containing our nominated Fountain of the Day
Then we came across one of the gates in the old town wall.
The side door (or more precisely the facade in which it's set) was eye-catching too.
Steeply back down through a residential street we went, with the view stretching out before us.
Mick imitates art. The cap under his arm is a subtle but accurate part of the recreation.
I approved of this town's signage. We could have used the QR code to read information in English, but they've used sufficiently basic Spanish in their signs that I could understsand most of them.
Just up the road through the gate, one of the ornate church towers came into view.
Huffing and puffing up through the town brought us to an even more ornate church tower.
I'm impressed that that sign incorporates a Braille version
ReplyDeleteIndeed. This town gets top marks for accessible signage, together with QR codes that actually seem to work. They deserve to increase tourism as a result.
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