We picked a rental car in Seville and drove south to Jerez. We soon found that having the air con on the coolest setting and full fan doesn't make a car cool in an Andalusian summer.
Jerez was a relaxed sort of place, more good tapas and not too many tourist sights that seemed compelling. But we also wanted to check out the surrounding area. We had been impressed with our navigation getting out of Seville and into Jerez, and pleased with the Renault Captur car that Avis produced - a size bigger than we had booked. However, trips to Cadiz, Sanlucar and the famous white villages of the area soon taught us the frustrations that easily abound when driving here:
- one way streets - almost every street that's not the motorway is one way, and you can't trust the map you are using to have placed the arrow in a direction consistent with reality
- narrow, one way streets with alarmingly tight turns and sharp descents, where you pull in your wing mirrors, implore the navigator to direct you to a wider street, and wish you had the tiny rental car you had booked
- roundabouts with haphazard lanes where you find yourself forced off your intended route into yet more narrow, one way streets, unable to find a route back.
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| Just proving we did make it to Cadiz - in the end |
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| In case you wondered what a beach in southern Spain looks like when not obliterated by a mass of cheap and ugly hotels. |
The Huffington Post has an article on Discovering Spain's Charming Ancient White Villages which notes: "A driving tour to Andalusia's pueblos blancos, or white villages, is a highlight of any trip to Spain — as long as you don't try to drive through them." huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/spains-white-villages
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| Arcos de la Frontera - one of the white villages we visited |
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