First day in Vejer de la Frontera

Vejer de la Frontera falls into the category of the famous "pueblos blancos" ("white towns") of Southern Spain. There are fifteen or so pueblos blancos, all built on hilltops - usually with a castle at the very top - all built in the Moorish/north African style with plain facades on the street and beautiful inner courtyards. The houses are all white-washed and have been for a thousand years so they just glow in the bright sunlight.


We were here eight years ago and marveled at the non-existence of tourists; not so much yesterday. The tiny main square was jammed with day-trippers. But as my friend Ken Disbrow notes, the well-beaten path is not very wide; walking 200 yards away brought us to a tapas bar on a quiet street, overlooking a fabulous view. We sat and had a wonderful bunch of tapas and a couple nice cold beers. We felt truly back in the Spain that we love. And by early evening, the tourists were gone back to wherever they go and Vejer reverted back to an almost medieval town.

Our hotel here is wonderful. Built in a dozen old houses combined, each room is unique and quite large. There are many terraces from which one can see panoramic views of the city and countryside; one of the terraces is the bar, so we sat and had a glass of wine (large glasses of a nice Spanish red: $3 each!).



View from the bar terrace at the hotel

After a nice nap (we'd had five hours of sleep in the last 32 hours) we walked the city. We had dinner in a restaurant recommended by the hotel staff. Dinner was two unbelievably good entrantes: a mixture of morcilla sausage, pine nuts and eggs, followed by bacalao (cod) in a salsa. Both were great, but when the bill came we discovered that the bacalao was over $20! Main course: a shrimp and calamari paella - as good paella as we've ever had.

Then we walked to a place nearby that has flamenco every Saturday night, but last night they were showing only a film of flamenco. Now, live flamenco is fantastic, but a movie? No thanks...so it was back to the hotel for one more glass of wine and then to sleep.

A perfect first day back in Spain.