During Christmas break we went on a few little day trips to explore the neighboring towns. The first one we went to was Medina Sidonia. We had a lovely drive through agricultural pastures and rolling hills. The city itself sits on top of a large hill, so the views are awesome. I was mostly excited to go here because according to the guide book, "it is considered the cake and pastry capital of the province of Cadiz." Well it was old, founded in 1852, but I was disappointed in the pastries. Trent really liked them, I think I'm just not a nutty shortbready kind of girl....maybe I need to go back to France for dessert!
One thing on the cons list for things about Spain is their lack of originality in the dessert department. There are ventas, shops & pastelerias on every corner, literally all selling the exact same sweets. I'd like to find the factory that is dishing them up because someone is making a fortune. Granted, some of the shops are more authentic and the treats homemade, which is obvious to the taste buds, but for the most part...you'll find the same items at all the shops. It's a strange concept coming from America where each shop tries to outwit and be different from the next, thereby securing its place in the world. That concept doesn't apply here.
Anyway, let me jump off my soapbox. The town itself is quite small. It has roots from way back to the Phoenicians! We parked, crossed our fingers that our car wouldn't get broken into, paid a pretty sketchy looking parking entrepreneur and went on our way. The old town consists of the main plaza, a church, the town hall and a few eateries. Further uphill we hiked to the old church where you can climb the bell tower. It was very cool, but freezing cold because it started to rain on us. We couldn't see much from the tower because of all the cloud cover, but I would imagine the views would be wonderful.
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| this is the tower we hiked up |
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| here we are on top of the tower |
1 comment:
Fun to see you exploring!
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