It is exciting news that the 3km long bridge, La Pepa, which connects Cadiz with Puerto Real to the north, has now been opened. See
Cádiz has long been faced with the problem of finding a quicker, less congested way to get to the other side of the bay. However, the crossing of a highly used port has to meet the extra challenge of allowing large ships to pass through. To solve this problem, there is a removable section. See the link above. Transport links have been improved and the local economy boosted by La Pepa.
This is the view we enjoy from the bus to Vejer. Yes, I am feeling up to venturing out. The journey is rather tedious as it stops at the hospital in Puerto Real, Chiclana and Conil. It is difficult to work out how to get the express Malaga- Cadiz bus. Or indeed if this is even possible. And this is despite my extensive internet and bus station research! Anyway, the first bus is at 1200 and takes 90 minutes.
Vejer de la Fronters is a white, Moorish-looking hill town set high above the road from Tarifa to Cádiz. Until relatively recent times the women of Vejer wore long, dark cloaks that veiled their faces. Almost certainly a prehistoric hilltop Iberian citadel, Vejer was utilized as a fortress during the Phoenician and Carthaginian epochs of the first millennium BC to protect coastal factories and fishing grounds from the warlike Iberians of the interior. In Moorish times Vejer rose to prominence as an important agricultural centre on the western frontier of the kingdom of Granada. Taken by Fernando III in 1250, it was immediately handed over to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, founder of the ducal house of Medina Sidonia and later hero of Tarifa.
The castillo, in the heart of the old quarter, is Moorish in origin but underwent substantial rebuilding in the fifteenth century when it was used by the dukes of Medina Sidonia as a summer retreat. Sadly it is shut, with no indication as to why or for how long. The bloke next door denies all knowledge.
To the northwest of the castle, the church of Divino Salvador is a sixteenth-century rebuild of an earlier mosque whose minaret now serves as the tower. The interior is a curious mix of mainly Gothic and Mudéjar styles. This is also shut. It matters not as the best thing to do in Vejer is wander the streets and alleys and admire the views of the Sierra and Morocco!
We are also happy to discover locally brewed beer.
And we wander into the Mayorazgo. I think these are like almshouses. They pass from generation to generation and have a charitable basis. I think.
