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El Puerto de Santa Maria

31 March 2026 / Juliet Stratton

Our first day in the town was spent as a Tourist, visiting the Castle, Palacio, bullring, mercado and the Basilica.

First stop was at the San Marcos Castle. It looks like a castle, and is called a castle but once inside you realise its much more – a 13th century fort built on a mosque, a christian church added on and a bodega, influenced by the Romans, Phoenicians, Andalucians and Christian King’s and Dukes. Finally the Caballero Group (wine merchants) took the building over in the last century and modernised it so that it’s now an Asset of Cultural Importance.

So in summary, its a castle, a mosque, a church, a Bodega and a beautiful building!

Next we wandered around the Aranibar Palacio and learned the history of El Puerto de Santa Maria, an important port and commercial city located at the mouth of a river coming from the sherry triangle, passing Cadiz and onto America. With this trade came money, and traders who had money to build large Palacial houses, creating a town known as “The city of a hundred palaces”.

The houses were built around a central courtyard, on three floors with a mezzanine, and opposite to British or colonial houses, the servants lived on the top floor and storage was on the ground floor with living accommodation on the first and second floors. Many palaces included a tower, a chapel and wine cellars. The Aranibar Palace is one such house made of limestone, decorated in Spanish marble and walnut and mahogany from America.

Then we walked around to look at the exterior of the bullring, a pretty modern looking building that was built between 1877 and 1880, a 60 sided polygon with a diameter of 99 meters, owned by the local council and still operating today.

Then we mooched around the local market before looking at the Basilica and Plaza Espana, indulging in tapas and sherry and watching the antics of the storks nesting on the Basilica parapet.

A Day in Cadiz

29 March 2026 / Juliet Stratton

After exploring our base of El Puerto de Santa Maria one day, the next day we took the small ferry boat across the bay into the relatively small city of Cadiz. A beautiful calm crossing there and back. It was so clear, we could make out the naval ships in the Spanish/American base of Rota, a little further up the coast.

The day started with breakfast of coffee and massive croissants in Plaza de Espana, the main square. Afterwards we meandered through its narrow streets to the cathedral, buzzing in preparation of the forthcoming Easter celebrations.

We then headed around the city edges to one of its old forts, for a drinks break. Lunch was tapas in the market before chilling in some cool gardens before getting back on the late afternoon ferry.

We managed to look inside one or two churches that are preparing for Easter.

The “Sherry” Birthday in Cadiz

29 March 2026 / Juliet Stratton

In the (much younger) past, David would spend his birthday with my brother, exploring a city and its beers. Eventually this extended to a long weekend, with more exotic locations and different friends. This year he has opted for a long month in the sherry area of Cadiz and El Puerto de Santa Maria, a place we both love and know from our Samson and Suzi travelling days.

We arrived two weeks ago and have just been joined by some family and friends. We’ve rented an apartment right in the town centre, a 5 minute walk from the highly ornate Basilica which is the central point for all of the town’s Easter Penitence parades. We have a second floor view over a pedestrianised area that leads directly to the Plaza Espana, in front of the Basilica. It was imperative that we introduce them to sherry, a drink usually synonymous with people of an older age but drunk in Spain in this area by every generation so we booked into a tour of the Guiterrez Colosia Bodega, right on the banks of the Guadalete river.

Historical info first- the sherry vineyards are located in a specific area around Cadiz, created by chalky soil and seawater sediment, dating back to 1100BC when the Phoenicians planted vines, the Romans who established the first quality controls insisted that wines from this area be marked with AAAA but it wasn’t until 1264AD that the Arabs named this area “Sherish” that the word sherry was formed. In the 17th century investors from Holland, Scotland and England boosted production, hence the export and import of the product, assisted by ships built in the port that travelled to other Mediterranean areas and the UK.

We were told that this Bodega was started in 1838, assisted by wind and moisture in the area which created a perfect growing conditions for the Palamino, Moscatel and Pedro Ximinez grapes used in the wines. The proximity to the river ensures the perfect humidity to create a “flora” or natural yeast to ferment to wine further, Sherry is a fortified aged wine, aged using a Solera system. We learned about the old American oak barrels that are anything up to 60 years old and the solera system of mixing ensures a consistent level of quality and taste.

The Guiterrez family took over the Bodega at the beginning of the 20th Century so descendents of Jose Dosal Guiterrez, their great grandfather, still work in the business.

The solera system works by removing a quantity of wine for bottling from the bottom barrels, that quantity is replaced from barrels in the middle row, and the middle barrels are topped up by wines in the barrels on the top row. The top rows are the only ones filled up with new wine, so blending downwards can always produce a consistent product regardless of the uality of the latest years’ crop. However, the barrels are only ever emptied by a third, maximum, so some of the wine in the barrel could be up to 180 years old!!

In 1969 the family bought the Palace of the Count of Cumbrehermosa Cargedor de Indias and extended into the building and cellars, expanding the storage and bottling capacity and also creating a bar and restaurant that promotes and uses its wines within its recipes.

The lunch that followed was accompanied by 6 glasses of sherry, ranging from very dry to dry, sweeter then very sweet. Each course was to be eaten with a specific sherry. An interesting and tasty afternoon out!

Homeward Bound, A Summary

2 January 2026 / Juliet Stratton

Today, Friday, is our last day in Bali, we leave our hotel this afternoon for a 19 hour journey back to Manchester, where Graham and Diane head north to Hull and we stay overnight before flying back to Alicante on Sunday morning.

This has been a journey of two halves, a lively cruise and a chilled beachside Hotel. The cruise was brilliant, excellent food and drink, service and staff were amazing, stops at ports were perfectly placed to explore in a day (all except one), the ship was comfortable and could be as busy or as quiet as you wanted and waking every morning to a different view was interesting and refreshing.

The Hotel stay has been the opposite, chilled and relaxing, more suited to a honeymoon visit 😊 The location of the Hotel (on a peninsular and south of the capital Denpasar) plus the time of year we are here meant traffic was beyond chaotic, limiting our touring of the Island. We would liked to have visited Ubud, a spiritual and cultural area north of here, but 3+ hours in traffic to get there was not an option we were prepared to consider. The Hotel is typically Balinese in spirit and style but offers nothing in the evenings except a guitarist or pianist for a few hours between 6 and 9pm, other than that it’s Balinese Bongos from dawn to dusk, a sound that is now driving us mad 😂

I think it’s safe to say we are all pleased to be going home, back to British staples (we’ve missed bacon and sausages this past two weeks!!), our own beds, the cooler weather and a proper cup of strong Yorkshire tea and Spanish coffee!!

It has rained whilst we’ve been here, hard, sudden and heavy but then the sun comes right back out and dries up all the rain.

Finally, Graham and David managed to fit in a scuba diving day, few pictures showing them preparing to leave, spotting a turtle (as well as other things) and returning very tired. More photos to follow another day!

A Day At The Zoo

2 January 2026 / Juliet Stratton

All kids need a day at the Zoo during their holidays, and this day out was just right for the Wright and Stratton kids, lots of different animals in a well maintained enclosure in a clean and comfortable environment. Graham and Diane got to feed an elephant, I fed a marmoset monkey and David did a bit of aerobics with an orangutan!