Road Trip: ES/PT Day 6

The sixth day of our spring road trip was once again spent entirely in Spain, as we worked our way first in a southwesterly direction and then more-or-less due north.

 

Among the >200 different routes to get onto the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail (which ends at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain) is Cádiz (ES).

Of course, we never made it out of town, entirely too distracted by the great painted tile murals,

narrow medieval streets,

and two cathedrals.  The 17th century former Catedral Vieja Santa Cruz is filled with somewhat gruesomely lifelike and life-size statues of Christ, as well as many other artworks depicting His suffering and family.

Whereas the "new" 18th century Santa Iglesia Catedral is filled with clean, almost antiseptic Neoclassical lines with only a splash of Baroque detailing.

Kayaking appeared to be more popular than the star-shaped 16th century Castillo de Santa Catalina.

Nearby are the strangler figs planted in 1903 by a couple of missionary nuns back from India. 

Although our next stop is famous for sherry and flamenco, we merely took in the historic center of Jerez de la Frontera (ES) with it's 16th century old town hall,

17th century Catedral del Salvador,

and 11th-15th century Alcázar (a Moorish fortress taken over by Christians in 1261).  We very nearly never left this town, having become trapped in a ticket-less parking garage that failed to read our license plate (third time's the charm)--leaving us at the mercy of a kind passerby who donated 40¢ to feed the machine for one more try.

After finally escaping, we drove on until we could walk around the Church of Our Lady of the Greatest Suffering (!) in Aracena (ES).

The church is adjacent to a 13th century Castillo that was built on a hill upon Moorish foundations.

Nestled into this rather large "white village" is the truly monumental Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Parish church, which was started in the 16th century...and finished in 2008.

It was the nearby stork nests, however, that caught our American eyes.

That evening, we pulled into Jerez de los Caballeros (ES), checked into our digs, and enjoyed a stroll past the Baroque brick tower of the Iglesia de San Bartolomé, which was rebuilt in 1759 after an earthquake.

Our final capture of the day was the view of this (yes, white) village, which is named after the Knights Templar who took over the ancient town in 1230.

And that brought us to the halfway point of this unusually long trip.