I’m back! I’ve had a fun filled, chilled but busy few weeks so not had much time to blog. But here goes, I’ll try to do better!
I eventually got to see my big boy for his birthday (almost 2 weeks after the event!)……………………….we did try to get a photo together without him pulling a face but as per usual we did not quite manage it, so I’ll have to keep my very old one on my desk at work from when he used to smile for me on demand!
There have been trips to the theatre, wine drinking on a school night with colleague friends and weekend brunches with my best friends from school.
I’ve been on an amazing short adventure in the UK in a Campervan……………….more on that to follow as it was very fun filled and deserves its own post!😆 I’ve been on Part 2 of my linocut printmaking course learning how to do a two colour jigsaw linocut which I had huge amounts of fun on. And have been on a short half term trip to Andalucía.
This last weekend has involved a nice lazy Sunday making ‘Fat Yorkshire Rascals’ ………………..this is not a term of self reference, although whilst not fat, I am from Yorkshire and some may say a bit of a rascal.😆 A ‘Fat Yorkshire Rascal’ is a cake. They are a cake served by Betty’s tea shop in York, but I have a recipe. They are plump fruity scones with cherry eyes and almond teeth. They are perfect with a cup of Yorkshire tea.
It was an early start on Sunday because being back ‘on it’, training for an event next May, the plan said it was a ‘time on feet’ 10 mile steady run. So I was up with the larks and ran from home, all the way to the reservoir and nature reserve, all the way back………………. and that equates to just over 10 miles from my doorstep. But afterwards I was very hungry and needed a treat, so I thought, “I know what I’ll do……………………I’ll bake ‘Yorkshire Rascals’, have a lazy afternoon with a rascal, a cuppa, a book and write a bit of blog.” So here they are…………………’Yorkshire Rascals’ and a blog post……………….and the recipe in this link in case you want to make any at home.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/fat-rascals
I’m going to share the trip to Anadalucia with you today because it was lovely! I did say that I might not survive the half term without booking a flight, because you only live once and I needed a rest………………….so it should come as no surprise to anyone that the minute school closed for half term I was off on a little mini break. I wanted to practice my Spanish and wanted a little bit of warm so I headed off back to South West Spain……………Andalucia………….to see if I could find a tiny bit of sunshine!
I’d been to Ronda last Christmas and really enjoyed it in the winter so I thought I’d make a return visit to the area. I like to explore new places though, so having already been to the large cities of Granada, Seville and Cordoba I thought I’d head right into the western most corner to Cadiz and the Costa de la Luz.
I wanted to visit Cadiz but wanted a little bit of peace and quiet as I needed to chill out and relax so I stayed in the Pueblo Blanco (white village) of Vejer de la Frontera, perched on top of a hill in Cadiz province. It is a small town whose income depends on tourism, agriculture (particularly fruit and citrus farming) and is also the place where a large number of the fighting bulls are bred.
I stayed in the lovely Casa Shelly in the old town of Vejer de la Frontera, situated on Calle Eduardo Shelly. Apparently Eduardo was a very wealthy man, a liberal politician who had a reputation as a ‘friend to the poor’ because he was a very generous man to the people of Vejer. He was so well liked that they named a street after him and the guesthouse name is a nod to him too.
The guest house is an old, traditional, whitewashed Andalucian house tucked away on a quiet cobbled street. It offers board on a room only basis and has just 7 rooms. Although it does not offer meals, it has a fully functioning kitchen to use, in addition to complementary coffee, tea, cookies and cakes available 24 hours a day. The house is in traditional style with the rooms being located on two floors, around a plant filled central courtyard, which now has a glass roof on it to protect you from the elements. The comfy sofa’s and reading areas can be utilised at all times.
There is also another sitting room and an outside communal courtyard which you are free to use. The guesthouse is run by the lovely Chris and his partner Javier who take great care of you and are available with excellent recommendations.
The decor is beautiful……………..all traditional muted colours with pops of brighter colour in the soft furnishings and artworks. There are plants in beautiful pots scattered around the property………………..and I love a plant.
I fell in love with my room as soon as I walked in it. 😍😍
Of the seven rooms they have two on the upper floor which have private outside sitting areas which overlook the rooftops of Vejer. I’d chosen the smallest of these two rooms as my plan was to relax and read a lot so I thought it would be nice to have my own small sitting out area in case the sun came out. It was lovely! A sheltered little haven, full of plants, which caught the sun all day. There were comfy chairs, shade if you wanted it, and it was positioned looking out towards the church whose bells chimed all day, another sound I love! However, worry not, they don’t chime between 12 midnight and 8am. Between these hours the place is absolutely silent and the beds so comfy. I had the most amazing nights sleep, catching up on my lack of sleep, with a good 10 hours each night.
Vejer de la Frontera itself is a gorgeous little town, voted as one of Spain’s most beautiful villages numerous times. It is a walled town, one of the best preserved in Andalucía with a large part of the wall, four gates, and the castle, still intact. It has both an old town, where I was situated, and a new town which is also quite pretty. Both the old town and the new town are white towns and are low rise. Both are situated at the top of the same hill, with one just merging into the other at the perimeter of the old town wall.
The streets in the old town are cobbled and are all quite steep, it is a very hilly place and would not be ideal for the less mobile. There is colour absolutely everywhere……………from the bright pink bougainvillea, to the art and craft shop displays, the lovely boutiques and clothes stores…….all spilling out onto the streets.
In the morning and evening it buzzes with activity as it has become quite well known on the gastronomic map and it has some excellent eateries and cafes of all food types and price ranges.
I arrived quite late so after settling into my room I just needed to eat and then rest my weary legs. I ate at a restaurant called ‘4 Estaciones’ in the old town. It is considered one of the best restaurants in Vejer but it is very unpretentious and the prices are very reasonable. It is decorated like the front room of an Andalucian house, it’s very relaxed. Its menu, whilst adventurous and including worldwide dishes, focusses on using local ingredients such as Almadraba tuna, Retinta beef and fish from the nearby salt marshes. I had a Pad Thai noodle dish with local vegetables and Almadraba tuna tataki. Almadraba tuna is local to the area. Almadraba is an elaborate and ancient technique used off the Straights of Gibraltar in Andalucía for trapping and catching Atlantic bluefin tuna. They are caught using a complex maze of nets. This bluefin tuna is highly prized and and it is a multi million pound business in the area. It was served lightly seared on the outside and raw in the middle, sliced into bite sized red squares of the most tasty tuna. It was delicious. I had it with a nice glass of white wine. I just had room for a little dessert of baked apple on a butter biscuit base, topped with salted caramel ice cream! YUUUMMMM………….it was good!
My first full day was spent wandering and getting lost in the maze of winding streets in the old town. Chris had recommended a small café called Caminito for breakfast. I would recommend it too. Fresh orange juice, delicious coffee and a bowl of yoghurt, fruit and granola (just to prove that I can do healthy breakfast! 😆).
Until 1248 Vejer was under Moorish rule, the period when the Muslim North Africans and Arabs ruled parts of the Iberian peninsula. This is apparent in it’s architecture, particularly in the shape of the archways around town, in the walls, and around the Castle area. Vejer was on the frontier of this battle between the Moors and Christians, hence it’s name ending in ‘de la Frontera’, like a number of other towns in this area. Being on the frontier it has a mighty fine castle built to defend the town.
I was lucky as the castle is not often open, but on this particular day the local Scout Group were offering tours on a donativo basis to raise funds for their group and to practice their English. I was only too happy to have a tour which was really interesting and well delivered………………and I made a point of telling our particular Scout how much I had enjoyed it, as it must be quite nerve wrecking at 15 years of age delivering a tour to a group of strangers in your non native language. It’s definitely worth a visit if it’s open, especially for the views over the rooftops.
Wandering around you will eventually come to the main square, the Plaza de España. It is so colourful and shiny! The highly polished stone gleams in the sunshine and the square is surrounded by tall palm trees. There is stone seating all around the square and in the middle is the most elaborate and colourful fountain complete with frogs, lanterns, and Andalusian tiles of every colour. It is so pretty.
The square is surrounded by cafes and retaurants and is the central hub of town. It’s a good place to just sit and people watch.
There are other smaller squares too, one in front of the church on top of the hill. As is usual in Spain, there was a festival that weekend and Jesus was being paraded around the church square accompanied by lots of fanfare and celebration.
There are lots of lovely view points around town too. The views across to the new town from walls of the the Jewish Quarter are lovely.
It’s the sort of place where surprise views keep appearing through the archways of the small alleyways so you need to have a really good explore.
I was getting a little hungry so I paid a visit to ‘Singular Coffee’, another one of Chris’s recommendations for another lovely coffee and avocado on toast ……………. see, I’ve been healthy twice in one day! 😂
Time now to wander through the bougainvillea lined streets and visit some statues. The first one, just below the castle is an homage to the women of Vejer and is entitled ‘La Cobijada’. The ‘Cobijada’ is actually the name for the traditional black robe worn by the ladies of the town, and other towns in the Cadiz province, many years ago. The cloak was black with only one eye showing. It looks very similar to the Muslim burqa but is actually Castilian in origin. Either way I bet it was stifling hot under there in the heat of summer.
On the same side of town under the city walls you will find the statue of Juan Relinque who is a bit of a local hero. He was a local farmer who campaigned against the Duke of Medina Sidonia who started to tax the local farmers. Juan was locked up and died in jail but eventually the court in Granada ruled in favour of the people of Vejer and Juan Relinque became an overnight hero.
The other notable statue in town is on the roundabout into the old town and is a celebration of the town’s agricultural heritage.
Then it was back to the guest house for an hour of reading on my little patio before my little appointment I had made. The reading did not go awfully well. I forgot to mention I had had a little Aperol Spritz too. I sat down, opened my book, listened to the birds tweeting, the water feature tinkling and just thought I’d shut my eyes for a second, and that was that, until I woke one hour later with my phone alarm buzzing on the table to tell me it was time to go for my appointment. I had set my alarm half suspecting that might happen. This however, does bring me onto the subject of books………………………I have an amazing book recommendation.
‘When the Cranes Fly South’ by Lisa Ridzen was my book of the holiday and it is without a doubt the most moving book I have read in a long time. It has won many awards and has won this year’s Swedish book of the year. I would encourage everyone of midlife crisis age, or with elderly parents, to read it. It is a beautiful book, wonderfully written, but I challenge anyone to read it without crying! I don’t want to put anyone off reading it by telling you it addresses dementia, aging and coming to the end of one’s life. But it’s not sad! It’s a beautiful read, quite uplifting, even funny in places. The story is written through the eye’s of Bo, an old man, living alone at the end of his life. It looks at his memories of his life, love, relationships with family and addresses his desire to maintain his independence right to the very end. It was so very very moving and I can see elements of Bo in my own parents and I would even go as far as saying it has altered how I may respond to them in certain instances. I can get quite exasperated when Dad pulls out his computer or his mobile phone and I have to sort out another technical minefield that he’s got himself into after pressing the button that, “I never touched a thing, it’s done it all by itself 😂”. Yesterday I did not lose my patience, I thought of Bo and realised that this is my parents trying to keep their independence, to move with the times, to make their own online doctors appointment, book their own online holiday……………………..they are not ready to give in, let go and have me sort it for them. So rather than get exasperated, we went through the instructions AGAIN (😆), sorted out the little mess he’d got into and he’s all happy now!
Anyway, back to the holiday and my appointment. Remember…………….. this is a rest and chill holiday and next to Casa Shelly is the Hammam de Vejer. I had booked an hour in the thermal pools and spa, and a 45 minute full body destress massage focussing on my back, neck and shoulders. It was gorgeous! It’s only a small place, there were only six of us in the spa. It has a tepid pool, very warm pool, freezing cold plunge pool, salt bath, sauna, and a lovely relaxation area with complementary herbal and Moroccan tea. The massage was really good too and I felt like a was floating when I re-emerged two hours later.
Another little snooze and then out for dinner, this time to ‘El Jardin del Califa’. This is a Moroccan restaurant right in the centre of Vejer on the Plaza de Espana. It is part of the Califa Group. The Califa group own a number of hotels in Vejer, along with this restaurant, a cocktail bar and the hammam. The gentleman at the head of this group is a Scottish man who came to Vejer a number of years ago and never left. He’s built up a pretty impressive portfolio which has at its heart its people, and a big focus on the environment and sustainability. The hotels look beautiful and even though I only sampled the restaurant, hammam and cocktail bar, the focus on quality, sustainability and people were evident………………..they were all lovely spaces, with happy people, to which I would return.
The food was delicious, some stuffed vine leaves followed by a Morocan lamb tagine.
Rather than dessert I was in the mood for star gazing and a little nightcap so I wandered through the lit streets to the Califa owned cocktail bar next door. They have a rooftop terrace which looks over the rooftops of Vejer.
A lovely place to sit on a warm evening and they serve a very nice Negroni!
This was followed by a walk up what seemed like endless sets of white steps (well it is a hill top town), with a small rest half way as I’d eaten and drunk too much to do it without a stop. Back to my comfy bed for the next day’s adventure………………………a day trip to Cadiz!
Oh Cadiz………………………..I liked it here lots! 🥰 It was only a 45 minute drive from Vejer and oh what a beautiful city.
Cadiz is a big port city. A lot of cruise ships stop here. It’s joined onto the mainland but sits on sort of a peninsular joined onto the mainland by a narrow strip of land. I parked right on the far end of the peninsular next to La Caleta beach, as I knew that’s where I wanted to be at the end of the day.
The first thing I noticed on the beach was the ‘Balneario de nostra Signora de la Palma y del Real’. This is an Art Deco style bathing house sat on the beach, opened in 1926. It now houses the Centre for Underwater Archaeology, but it’s a really interesting building architecturally.
First things first………………………breakfast! A pastry while I devise my plan of attack for the day!
I started with a walk along the lovely Puente Hierro bridge to the Castillo de San Sebastian.
This is a must do. It’s a lovely walk on what was a blustery but sunny day. It offers great views back to the city and La Caleta beach and is just really nice. Even better is the fact that it is completely free of charge. It’s an old defence fortress and although the castle is closed, as it is structurally unsafe and has been for a number of years with no plans to reopen, it’s a lovely walk.
Then it was a wander through the beautiful streets of Cadiz to find the Torre Tavira.
I did get distracted part way there by by ‘Los Huesos de Santo’ shop. These are little marzipan sweets, traditional to Cadiz, eaten on Saints days and coming in various flavours. Given that it seems to me that in Spain there is a Saints day nearly every week it’s fair to say these are available all year round.
I thought it would be rude not to try one of each flavour!😆 After all I had to fuel my steps up the tower. They are a little too sweet for me but managed to eat them!
I arrived at the tower, which in the 18th century was the official watchtower of the Port of Cadiz. It is on the highest point in the old town and contains a very impressive Camera Obscura allowing a 360 degree, live, look at the city of Cadiz.
It’s definitely worth having the guided tour of the Camera Obscura………….it was really informative.
The tower is named after the fist watchman, Lieutenant Mr. Antonio Tavira who warned of the maritime movements through a system of signs with flags.
You can then wander around without your guide onto the roof where you can overcome any fear of heights and get some amazing views over the city!
Next stop…………………lunch. I wanted a quick lunch as I only had a day to see what I wanted to see and I needed to be done for sunset, which is quite early in October. Cadiz has a lovely market, like a lot of Spanish towns and cities, where you can buy food, drink and sit, eat and socialise.
I wandered around the colourful food stores and settled on some Retinta beef tacos and a beer.
Next stop was the Cathedral, via the port and the main square, where there is a pretty impressive statue to remind you you have arrived in Cadiz.
There are also lots of pretty parakeets flying around the trees here in Cadiz.
The cathedral is nice but I felt it looked better from the outside than the inside. If you have visited other Cathedrals in Spain like Burgos, Segovia, Leon, Santiago, to name but a few, you might be left feeling a little disappointed. It has some nice pieces but it’s a bit short on the gold bling.
It’s quite plain, white and austere inside compared to those I’ve mentioned above. The ticket does include an entrance to climb up the tower but you won’t get as good a view as from the top of the Torre Tavira. But the bells are pretty impressive if they ding when you are up there!
My day was coming to an end when I suddenly realised I’d been in Spain for three days and not had an ice-cream. “Time to put that right”, I thought, with a visit to Narigoni, who I can confirm make the most delicious gelato. Note that I say gelato. When I say ice-cream I always mean gelato. However they are officially not the same and I will confess I am an ice cream snob…………..I prefer to eat only gelato! How can you tell the difference you say? It’s easy. If it is piled high in mounds and swirled around it’s ice cream. Ice cream has a much higher fat content and more air and is kept really cold, hence it will stand in a pile above the rim of the container. Gelato has a much lower fat content as it is made with more milk and just a little cream. It is denser and contains less air and is not stored as cold. For these reasons it will not stand in a pile. So I spend my time peering in ice-cream shops looking for naturally coloured and flavoured gelato that does not rise above the level of the tray it is stored in. If the pistachio ice-cream is bright green it’s a “no” from me, it should be a beige colour with a very slight green tinge.
I can confirm that Narigoni serve the finest gelato in some lovely flavours. This is pistacchio (one of my favourites) with a scoop of cheese (a local Anadalisian cheese), fig, honey and walnut gelato. The latter may not sound that great but I’m a bit adventurous when it come to food and believe me when I say cheese,fig, honey and walnut gelato is the way to go!
And where should you sit and eat your gelato? Why, watching the sun set of course! And you’ll not get a better autumnal sunset than that facing west from Cadiz, across the boats of La Caleta beach with the castle in the background. It was quite spectacular. This is a ‘do not miss’ activity and must be accompanied by either gelato or a beer.
The following day was my fourth and final full day in Vejer de la Frontera. I wanted to visit the local beach, the tuna fishing town of Barbate and fit a little run in around the local salt marshes and bird reserve if at all possible. I start to get a little agitated after a few days without focused excercise, I have energy which I need to expend. Exercise is like my drug so I’m quite thankful, as there are far worse things to be addicted to!
So, onto the subject of beaches………………………..oh WOW! For some reason I wasn’t expecting much, I don’t know why.
Vejer’s beach is 10km away from the town and is called El Palmar de Vejer and if you like long stretches of fine golden sand, completely unspoilt by urbanisation then you’ll love it. It is beautiful, and stretches for miles and miles. It was quiet in October and lovely for a walk, but in summer it will get a lot busier, because on the road set back from the beach there are lots of surf schools as it is an Atlantic beach, and is well known for its wave quality.
There were lots of surfers on this day but the beach is so huge I can’t imagine it ever feels too busy.
There are little fortresses and towers along the beach, some lovely boardwalk walks, and lots of places to choose from to have a coffee and watch the huge skies and fluffy clouds floating past.
A short journey down the coast brings you to Barbate. There’s not much here other than a port where they land the tuna but it’s nice to have a little look around the port and learn a little bit about tuna fishing.
Barbate is around 8 miles from Vejer and is separated by the ‘Parc Natural La Brena y Marismas del Barbate’. This is a natural park of salt marshes and a bird haven and it stetches for miles, all the way from Barbate to Vejer. I’d taken my running things so I decided I was going to run back to Vejer. It was lovely trotting through the marshes on my own, on the well maintained paths, spotting the wildlife, the wind blowing through my hair and was generally a really lovely run until the last mile and a half.
Yes! I’d seemingly overlooked the fact that Vejer is a hilltop town. I’d also underestimated how steep that hill was. It’s all in the elevation profile in the stats! Seeing a lone woman attempt to run up it in the late afternoon must be something of a novelty and rare phenomenon in these parts. I would like to thank every local that drove past me and wound down their window to shout either “Vamos!” or “Fuerza!” – there were many of them.😆 It helped enormously and I did eventually get to the top. I was very red in the face and needed a full bottle of water, a lie down on the cool marble of a bench in the square and a Vermut, in that order!
So my lovely little break had come to an end. Just time for one last meal at ‘4 Estaciones’ for some wok seared local Retinta beef sirloin strips in sesame oil with noodles and vegetables. This was delicious.
Would I recommend this little corner of Andalucia and Cadiz……………………………………..a resounding YES! I liked it lots. The food, the culture, the people, the climate, the history. There was nothing not to like……………………….except perhaps the run up the hill!
I have some little words of wisdom for you as always . Today’s words of wisdom are often wrongly attributed to Virginia Woolf. They are not hers and I’ve no idea whose they are but they are one of my little mantras (I have many as you can probably imagine):
“Whatever happens, stay alive. Don’t die before you are dead. Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose hope, don’t lose direction. Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fibre of your skin.
Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.
Stay alive, stay alive inside of you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colours of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope. Stay alive with joy.
There is only one thing you should not waste in life, and that’s life itself.”
This says it all to me! I’m always doing something……………of course I do find time to relax, I relax a lot…………..but the above is the reason I’m always learning, studying, reading, thinking (too much😆), creating, writing, planning, dreaming (always 😂) and loving. I’m just trying to make sense of my life and making sure I make the most of every single second because all of these things are what makes the world go round. Be brave, explore every path, because one of them will lead to where you are meant to be.
