A Pueblo Blanco (White Town), Medina Sidonia, Andalusia, Spain

Medina Sidonia is an impossibly beautiful white hill town a short trip from Jerez de la Frontera. Their main plaza is ringed with orange trees and bar/restaurants and it was a great place to sit a while, eat, and watch the world go by.



Few tourists were evident but, there were many local men of a certain age hanging out enjoying the warm sunshine and each other's company.



I love these towns and walking up and down the steep streets - my calf muscles straining and stretching from the unusual angles. (I like going up better than down - going down my toes slide into the front of my shoes).



It's the kind of place where if you are a kid and your ball gets away from you  and mommy isn't there to catch it, it will roll downhill for a long....long....long....long....time.

If you keep walking upward though, legs stretching and straining, you are rewarded with a view that reaches westward to the distant sea shore area of Cádiz on the one side or.........



....... eastward to the rolling pastoral countryside. Pastoral except for the hundreds of modern windmills for electricity generation.



Walking these steep streets is a life-long conditioning sport for locals.



You can live on a street named "Consolation." I'd like that.



Your kids can walk to school or play through an arch that dates from around the tenth century and is supported on columns which belonged to the temple of Hercules.



Or, a kid can walk home with his/her thoughts through the quiet midday streets.



It is the kind of town where, standing in the street to make a panorama of the impossible brightness of the buildings, I was beckoned inside a local hole-in-the-wall bar by the man in the doorway at right.



A doorway where a handful of gathered locals insisted I have a beer with them. At least I think they did. They didn't speak any English and I didn't speak adequate Spanish. I said no beer so they tried wine. I said no wine and they looked worried. I think I had offended them. I launched into a butchered Spanish explanation that because of my corazon, my doctor said no cervesa, no vino. I think I was successful in communicating because they agreed to pose for a photo. Either that, or, I said. "beer, heart, dog, wine, town, doctor, no, apple, hot, table, spring, beautiful," and they decided I was nuts and wanted me gone quickly.

I like Medina Sidonia - cervesa or not!