semana santa

Semana Santa is a magical time in Andalucia and Vejer celebrates in spectacular fashion. Good Friday sees a dramatic and moving procession as the whole town turns out to witness the local virgins being paraded by religious brotherhoods in full costume deep into the night. Then the local marching bands play in the streets before a major party takes over, culminating in the running of two wild bulls through the cobbled streets, as thousand watch, and a few join in.

Afterwards Vejer returns to its usual sleepy ways, so you can combine amazing folkloric events with a touch of hedonism and a lazy break, all against the backdrop of one of the oldest and most traditional houses in this beautiful ancient town.

www.andalucia-house-vejer.com

hotels in vejer and the surrounding area

Casa La Siesta is a  fairly new hotel in the countryside of Vejer, in a tiny hamlet Los parrallelos , is totally serene and grown up.  Completely newly built, but using beautiful old doors and all the local materials, it’s reminiscent of an old finca, and is so well executed its hard to believe that its not an old original place.  There are lovely terraces to sit and eat, a grassed pool area and the bedrooms are spacious and very comfortable.   The main reception is a lovely high ceilinged hall.   The only downside is that they don’t take children under 15 years of age.  Perfectly peaceful, and only 10 mins from both the sea and the town of Vejer with all its amenieties, its ideal for a getaway that requires total quietness.

havent been to this hotel, but it was highly recommended to me – looks stunning – one of those special places for a special time.  have a look at al aguilon- looks like my dream house.   situated near the wonderful dunes of tarifa – the natural beaches are unspoilt and perfect for surfing.

there is the fairly new hotel, siete balcones – a small boutique hotel, with only 4 rooms in a beautifully restored casa in the heart of the old town of Vejer de la Fronterra.

Hotel Hurricane – just outside of Tarifa is fantastically situated, beautiful outlook and right on the seafront.  rooms are quite standard, but who is going to spend their time in a hotel room.

friends also recommend 100% fun - sounds a bit of a naff name, but apparently its very good and again a short walk from the sea front and just outside of Tarifa – i think its the nearest you get to being in ibiza!

took a look at the rooms of sajorami, in zahora – again perfectly situated on the seafront, you get little cabins – quite like a chalet in switzerland – but very good value.

typical old floors

trafalgar

the beautiful unspoilt beach of trafalgar in andalucia has the famous Cape Trafalgar, which protects the town’s beaches – it also protects shipping. This is probably one of the worlds most famous yet unknown places because it was off this point that The Battle of Trafalgar was fought in 1805. when Admiral Nelson, although greatly outnumbered, attacked and destroyed the Spanish fleet.  Windswept and building free, this beach is famous for its kite surfers;  very busy in the summer months, but perfectly peaceful any other time of the year.  when it is quiet, you will find it home to the local birds!

vejer de la fronterra

 

 

beaches of andalucia

have come out to vejer with some girlfriends to open up the house for the season – nobody been there since october, so lots of airing and washing of cushion covers to be done.  i am sure that we will find lots of time to visit the local beaches though and eat fresh fish.

my favourite beaches in andalucia are El Palmar – popular for surfing in the winter and our local beach to our village of Vejer de la Fronterra;   Zahora, hidden away, this natural beach is within a bay, so a bit more sheltered than the wider open beaches;  cabo de Trafalgar, is the famous beach from the battle of Trafalgar, totally unspoilt with nothing built on it – lots of kite surfers feequent this beach when the conditions are right for surfing;   Zahara de los Atunes is a  fishing village by the sea with a long windswept rugged beach, popular in the summer with tourists;  Canos de la Meca is  a smaller hippy beach, again a bit sheltered, but very busy in the summer;  Conil is more built up than the other beaches, but has a fantastic long wide beach and the sea is perfect for wave jumping;   Bologna is a great beach with the added attraction of some Roman ruins;  Tarifa is hip, young and a magnet for windsurfing and kite surfers, but also has the wonderful dunes nearby;  La Barossa has more hotels around, more built up, but again a fabulous long beach; San Lucar de la Barrameda is an old fishing village by the sea, famed for its seafood – its one of our favourite towns in spain – not at all trendy, just full of locals from jerez and seville.

of course, you are best to see them out of season, as July and August can be very busy with the local spanish escaping from the hot inner cities, but they are never as crowded as the beaches of Ibiza or Italy – and you certainly never have to pay to go on them.  the loveliest time is June and Sept, just warm enough to enjoy, but quiet enough to enjoy the untamed sandy beaches.  all the beaches mentioned are within an hours drive from our house in Vejer de la Fronterra

tarifa

cabo de trafalgar

el palmar

canos de la meca

cookery classes

well our little village is becoming a great place for food – who would have guessed this.  when we bought our house over 12 years ago, there was only a couple of restaurants, plus a few local bars who did tapas;  now there are a variety of high quality restaurants, not only in the village but in the countryside close by.  there are even cookery classes on the local cuisine – how amazing!  Vejer was  listed in the sunday times top 100 trips last week!

listed as one of spain’s tastiest town. it lists restaurant el patria and el castilleria as places to go, as well as staying in Annie B’s boutique hotel, where you can buy local ingredients in the market and learn how to cook the local dishes.

bolonia

definitely worth a day trip, approx 35 mins drive from vejer, and about 15 mins from tarifa,  bolonia  not only has a lovely stretch of beach, but dunes, roman ruins dating from 2BC and a good restaurant to visit.  at the far eastern side of the beach, away from the ruins, you will drive down a single track road, basically through the length of the local village el lentiscal.  towards the end, you will reach a series of chiringuitos, small restaurants directly facing the sea – los caracoles is run by sophia and her native husband antonio, who not only catches, but cooks the local fish and whatever is in season.  the food is very tasty, simple, not too expensive and with an amazing view of the sea from the terrace.   apparently apartamentos isobel,  right on the beach are a simple and inexpensive place to stay.   la posada de lola looks lovely too, but this is not right by the sea, but still very close to the beach.   casa thai looks very interesting, but is more inland.

canos de meca

arrived in spain to torrential rain, but unlike england, the weather can soon change and within a couple of hours its bright and sunny again.   we took easyjet to seville – a recent additional flight, which was much more pleasant than ryanair – though the flight time was absolutely ridiculous – 6am from gatwick, which of course meant getting up at 3am.  lunch at la fontanilla in conil is always our lunch choice, but an evening stroll along canos de meca is always lovely at this time of year.  i would never recommend canos in the summer, far too busy and hectic – but out of season, its stunning beaches a short walk down the cliff tops is beautiful at sunset.   drive up to the hotel mar de frente, at the far end which borders the beautiful pine forest – looks a perfect spot to stay and at reasonable prices.  note that the far end beach is nudist though!!!

the unspoilt beaches of trafalgar are also high on the list – i noticed that they now have put a car park near the road, which i strongly recommend – you used to be able to drive right up to the lighthouse, but no longer.

fishermen

what a wonderful sight – fishermen in the sunset at canos de meca tonight.

raw food

if you would like to learn more about food and especially raw food – which i can believe is very good for you – then why not take a course with colette bardell.  colette used to run the lovely boutique hotel, casa cinco in vejer de la fronterra, but now is concentrating on her wonderful food and sharing her experience and also teaching yoga.  she is running a 2 day course this weekend oct 22 and 23 at annie b’s spanish kitchen in vejer.   she is now based in london, so you dont have to go all the way to spain to visit her.  drat, i am just missing this event due to some football schedule that weekend!   vejer holds so many events and festivals through the year – in july 6 horsemen paraded around the local square at 11pm!

madrid

october is a perfect time to visit cities like madrid or seville – its far too hot in the summer months to enjoy walking around.  madrid is a big sprawling city, so you really need to pace yourself.  a definite must is the museo de prado with its wonderful Goya collection and also thyssen bornmisza gallery- it has one of the most incredible collections of 20th century art – there is probably not one artist that you can name who is not featured in there.  start with the rooms with the early 14C works and marvel at the painting.  there is a lovely cafe on a terrace at the front of the gallery to take tea too.   from there you can walk to the beautiful botanical gardens, stop off for lunch at el botanico, a traditional spanish restaurant with tables overlooking the park or take a walk through the retiro park – cities are not just shops and big avenues.

the lovely local area of chueca is perfect for exploring – lots of independent shops, lovely cafes – it feels much more local and takes you away from the big chain stores.  like barcelona, madrid is now very design conscious and there seems to be lots of upmarket sandwich shops and chocolate shops.  mercado san anton is a recently revamped market shopping centre, with butchers, fish, fruit and delis on the ground floor, all very beautifully presented and then eating places on the top 2 floors.  you can easily get a great snack of tapas and even sushi, or freshly pressed juice or sit in the rooftop restaurant and eat well and not too expensively.   just outside of the market there is still one of the lovely old fashioned traditional cafes, simply named tienda de comida y vinos.

if you are up for seeing more exhibitions, then go to the ivory press gallery and bookshop- owned by the spanish wife of the architect norman foster, it has a beautiful collection of limited edition art and photography books and a changing exhbition, focusing on architecture, design and photography.  at the moment there is an interesting exhibition of the works of Jean Prouve – the french industrialist architect who liked to design easy kit housing that you slot together for quick housing.