Lets admit it, by the time i have written up a blog for everyday of my holiday no one will even care that i had one, or we will be onto the next on and you know how often we go on holiday!). SO im going to cut it down and just stick in the interesting pits and some photies.

Sunday

The shower broke this morning, luckily after i had already had mine! I held the shower hose onto the tap so michael could at least wash the soap out of his hair.

We went out for tostados con mermalada but ended up on the beach. I pursuaded michael to get his tootsies out and walk in the sea. We walked on and on and on, prorably most of the 8 k's of the beach.

On our way back we came across a manga convention. It was full of kids dressed as manga characters and there were big tents where you could do origami, or play card games and buy fanasy t shirts. Complete geek fest!

Finally made it back to the center and walked down a little alley to find a little flemenco festival!

Mon

Managed to fit an old semi broken hose to the shower and went out for toastados by the market. They have special churros stands where you buy them wrapped in newspaper like fish and chips, then go to a cafe and order and hot chocolate to dip them in.

The market was full of fruit and veg stalls. We bought clementines that were green on the outside but delicious on the inside. Also saw a girl get her leg stuck in a hole in the grating.She got it out though.

Went of in serch of food, and after the mandatory trek found a german bar and had some lovely tapas and a cana.

Mooched around some more and found a bar with a big picture of barney form the simpsons and a speech bubble saying 'pon me mas' (give me more beer). Had a few canas then headed of in search of food. Found a tapas bar/restaurante with lots of big legs of serano ham hanging up. We had 6 pinitos de pollo ('ito' signifies little, whcih they wern't) and some chips and headed off.

Tue

Set of in the car as its a holiday and most things are closed. Food lots of shopping centers around Jerez so had a look and ate kebab (very spanish!)

Drove around Jerez to get the general idea but couldn't be bothered to get out (still ill). Like most places it is nicein the center but a bit scanky on the outskirts.

I was woken from my siesta by a little boy outside the window shouting 'mama, quiero ver la prosecion' (mum, i want to see the procesion). So i said 'michael, i want to see the prosesion'.

Had coffee while figuering out where the noise was coming from and followed the crowds to the the cathedral. The streets are so narrow there was no chance of seeing anything and spanish religous prosesions take hours to move, so we stood on the steps of the cathedral and managed to see the top of one of the floats.

Wed

Went back to the cathedral and climbed the tower. The views were pretty impressive. As cadiz is sort of stuck out on its own you can see to the sea in all directions.

We came down and had a look at the fish in the market which made me feel a bit sick. Pottered about for a bit then went in search of lunch. We were trying to find a street we had seen before full of fish restaurants but these roads have a habbit of disapering when you want to find them again. Anyways we were walking around when we both suddenely stopped and sniffed. a delicious smell was waffting from a small tapas bar we wouldn't have otherwise seen. First we ordered potatoes with chorizo, and bacalao (salf cod) salad. They were so yum we ordered carne mecha too which is roast pork in a thick meaty gravey. It was delicious and with 4 drinks only came to 15€

We walked around the shops for a bit and i came away with my wallet a bit lighter by the time we sat down for churros and chocolate. The waiter short changed me 1€ too!

Thur

Tried to find the fried fish street again but still could't so went back to the german bar. I made Michael walk through the city gardens by sea. They were quite small but very pretty and well kept.

Despite it being windy in the morning it was hotting up. Nothing for it but the beach! We even swam in the sea! It was F*****g freezing, but we soon got used to it. It was a really nice beach with a really shallow shore an no stones.

Found a bar alled the wookstock bar and had a few pre dinner drinks. It was a cool bar playing oldschool music like pink floyd and had loads of international beers.

We walked in the drizzle to a little pizza place i had spotted earlier. It was good Pizza! We went back to he bar for a post dinner drink and headed off after we heard the last orders bell (in Spain?!)

Fri

I had totally caught michaels cold by now but we set of in the rain to the subteranean archeological building where the owner of our apartment works. She had invited us to look around and it was pretty interesting seein gthe cannons and things that they had taken from the sea and the processed the different materials had to go through now they were out in the air.

We stopped for lunch at the good smelling tapas bar and on the way back walked past that bloddy fried fish street, it was right by the apartment! (never got any fried fish!)

Weirdly there were loads of dragonflies everywhere today, like swarms of them.

We decided to head for home a day early as the weather was getting bad, and we were not getting much better. We had seen and enjoyed as much of cadiz as we were going to that week and headed home to recover!

Holiday blog 1: Colds and cockerels

Blog time! I wrote a little diary while we were on holiday so i could remember all the good things to tell you, but it turned out a bit longer than planned so i maight have to do it in installments, which isnt so bad coz then i can put more pictures in, and maybe even a video clip if i can get it to work.

We have all got the lurgy here, even over our holiday, but michael is out in the kitchen cooking me up a casarol to make us feel better.

Here goes with the holiday:

Saturday

Left pretty late coz i had booked an emergency hair cut in the morning, then took a slightly longer route by tarifa but got here fine. Some idiot had forgotten to print of a map or the adress of our apartmet, so i had to run to an internet cafe to print them off so we could find our way through the maze of narrow streets to our house.

The woman was waiting and showed us in, showed us the clean laundry on the line and the towels still in the washing machine. Oviously we change the bed ourselves. On carefull and sniffing i suspected that very little had been cleaned, and whoever took the photos for the website must have been a dab hand at photoshop. I finally found the toaster in the cupboard but there is still no kettle. Nevermind, its small and cosy and fine for what we want.

We popped out for a quick look around and to park the car. Its very pretty in the old town, right by the sea. We walked by some gardens and stopped in a square for a cana some tapas of albondigas (meatballs) which were delicious! We also saw a woman feint in the cafe.

As we walked back we saw new parts of the city, and parts we seemed to have past a few times already, so round and round we went till we finally found home.

Decided to stay in for the evening as michael had caught my sore throaty ague thing with extra bunged up nose and aching.

I must have woken up 20 times in the night, there was a baby crying,a kid with a recorder, doors banging, people chatting outside the window, scooters starting and someone dragging a bloddy dustbin up and down the cobbled street. Finally got some sleep but was rudely awoken by a cockerel?!