Our Fleet and Family Support Center offers tons of great information and help as well as FREE or low cost trips. Sometimes I just don’t feel like driving or navigating a strange city and will hop along for a ride.
We did this for a quick day trip to Vejer de la Frontera, one of Spain’s famous pueblos blancos, or white villages. Vejer is located about an hour from Rota (by bus – a bit faster by car).
Thankfully both kids remembered to pack a DS…
Vejer is situated on top of a hill and has beautiful views of the Spanish countryside.
M took this picture and was very proud of it!
Look at them so happy and full of energy. Just wait.
Because Vejer is on the top of a hill there is a lot of walking up and down hills. A LOT of walking up and down hills. It was a great workout, my calves were feeling it the next day.
Most of the streets looked very similar to this one...
Vejer has a much smaller version of Pamplona’s running of the bulls. The town installs gates at all of these anchor points along the main streets and creates a running path for the bulls. As military we are forbidden from participating in any running of the bull activity. Darn it, now I guess I have to skip it!
And now for a little Spanish history: The Moors conquered most of Spain a thousand or so years ago… they held it for 400 years and then the Christians pushed them out. This area of Spain was one of the last holdouts for the Moors and you will see MANY Moorish style castles (and the prettiest one of all, The Alhambra) in the region. It also explains the second half of many of the towns names – the ‘de la frontera’ which means ‘the border’. These towns were all along the border between the two groups. Vejer de la Frontera actually had a very peaceful couple of hundred years where the Muslims, Jews and Christians all lived together in peace. See! It can be done!
One of the outer castle walls...
- The ‘new’ part of the town.
- Manuel Aleman (Manuel the German) our WONDERFUL tour guide!
- Original stone floor inside of the castle, one of the few things that remain.
- Garden inside the upper area of the castle.
- Someone is getting tired and hungry!
- A famous Vejer view.
- Inside the ‘old’ cathedral. It still isn’t completed and has a Moorish tile bell tower (from when it was a mosque!) and a Star of David over the entrance!
- Pretty stained glass light
- M had to photobomb because O REFUSED to share a shot!
- Vejer’s Plaza de Espana
Vejer has a Plaza de Espana that is reminiscent of Sevilla’s. They used some of the same tiles that are present in the larger Plaza de Espana in Sevilla. This plaza is also where they finish their running of the bulls (MUCH smaller than Pamplona!)
And after a full day of walking I promised the kiddos some treats so we backtracked really quickly to a bakery before we caught the bus back home. It was pretty hard to choose but they picked out some yummy stuff, perfect with a cup of coffee!
Sink Or Swim 
Breathtaking! And what incredible history!
It was beautiful and I am glad I finally got the opportunity to visit one of the white villages before we left!
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