We like the sherry triangle. Of course lots of tourists come here, nevertheless it does feel profoundly Andalusian, and though it's a much overused term the area feels authentic, or as Gill might put it 'has integrity'. I guess the area acquired its Pythagorean moniker because someone in somebody's marketing department noticed that the three towns near Cadiz famous for sherry production - Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Sta María - formed a triangle. However this is equally true of any three places with something in common picked out on a map. So Toyota, Detroit and Cowley could be dubbed the petrol head triangle, Nazaré, Bondi Beach and Waikiki - surfers triangle... and so on.
To get pedantic about this, which I inevitably will given my propensity to wreck any amiable conversation by introducing spurious facts and my habit of slapping a dead cat or two on any table I happen to be sitting at, I feel I must point out that if you do draw a line around the area where the sherry bodegas are located it forms an irregular quadrilateral not a triangle. You can see why when I was in work my relationship with the Marketing Director became somewhat strained.
In truth we are not staying at Camper Park Sanlucar because it's only a kilometer or two from the northwestern point of the mythical triangle. We are here because it's easily cyclable to Sanlucar heading west and Chipiona is equally accessible going east.
Both are lovely towns, Sanlucar is famous for Manzanilla, a dry sherry, Chipiona for a sweet sherry style wine made from the Moscatel de Alejandrí grape, one of the oldest varieties in existence. We have a favourite tapas restaurant in each place.
We headed to Bodega El Castillito in Chipiona first.
As the name suggests it is situated across the road from the town's small fortress. It is a bodega more than a restaurant specialising in a range of local moscatel wines.
Still, the tapas on offer is very good, though as one reviewer noted the portions are small, pinchos sized really, designed to be a snack to have with a drink.
The place offers tostas too, which are a bit more substantial, so we ordered a tuna based tosta to beef things up, if it possible to do that to a fish.
We also needed a few groceries so afterwards we pedalled along the handsome seafront..
past Chipiona's impressive lighthouse...
before stocking up at Carrefour. Since our last trip I have swapped sherry allegiance. Having extolled the cool crisp flavours of fino for years I've developed a bit of a thing for oloroso, a darker more sumptuous proposition altogether.
This one from Carrefour one was quite expensive, I don't tend to buy pricey things on a whim, but I did today.
Next day - back to Casa Balbino in Sanlucar. Another unassuming restaurant serving delicious food at affordable prices.
Like Osteria del Orso in Bologna, Casa Balbino's reputation rests on serving traditional dishes at lunchtime to locals at prices that ensure it's busy every day. It attracts visitors too, not least because the place is well reviewed by Lonely Planet and listed third out of Sanlucar's 221 restaurants on TripAdvisor.
It's best to turn up a few minutes before the Spanish lunch break begins at 1pm, then the chances are you will get an outside table with a lovely view of Plaza del Cabildo's tall palm trees and beautiful fountain.
Within ten minutes the place will be full and a queue of hopefuls forming near the entrance. There are twenty or so tables outside and at least as many inside near the bar. The staff are amazing, orders are taken, everyone gets served within a few minutes resulting in the happy hubbub of humans tucking into a good lunch.
The menu hasn't changed for years, nor it seems the prices. We opted to share two plates - pork loin with beer sauce and a tuna with potato dish.
With that we had a plate of croquettas each and glass of Manzanilla.
Afterwards just sitting in the square for a while watching the world go by finished lunch off beautifully.
According to Chatgpt Andalusia has seven UNESCO World Heritage sites - I could have guessed most of them - The Alhambra, the Cathedrals of Seville and Cordoba, the Renaissance palaces of Baeza and Ubeda, Donana National Park. The Antequera Dolmens Site and Medina Azahara would not have sprung to mind. However I could have put our last half hour up there as an example of a more informal, 'world heritage'. Civilisation doesn't simply consist of big monuments but also a myriad of ordinary moments of civility, kindness and pleasure. If you visit the Alhambra you are struck by the grace and sophistication of a past culture; lunch out in sunny square in Spain reminds you that civilization manifests itself today in the commonplace as well as the exceptional.
Bodegas Hidalgo - La Gitana are a couple of minutes walk from Casa Balbino. I had plans to buy a bottle of their celebrated Manzanilla from the shop. Sadly the place was being refurbished. A hand written sign directed us to a temporary shop a few doors down, but we failed to find it. Instead we walked to the bike rack and pedalled back along the seafront.
Both here and in Chipiona yesterday municipal workers were out with mini-diggers removing tons of sand from the eplanades. Structures on the beach had been flattened. The severity of the winter storms that battered Iberia in the first few weeks of the year have been described as 'once in a lifetime events'. Let's hope they are, not signs of changing Atlantic weather patterns due to global warming.
Tomorrow we are moving on. Hopefully the weather will become more settled. We have had a sunny couple of days in the Sherry triangle but the forecast looks uncertain. One thing is for sure, sitting in a motorhome watching the rain come down is not why we run away to Spain in the winter.