Vejer | Cadiz | Seville 🇪🇸 Don’t miss the Ancient Kingdom of the Spanish Moors in Andalusia

VEJER CADIZ and SEVILLE Spain all echo the ancient kingdom of the Moors in their own way. Choose between the white village of Vejer de la Frontera, the Atlantic coastal town of Cadiz, or the graceful Seville. Or see all three Andalucia gems.

In this episode we’re going to dig deeper into the ancient kingdom of Moorish Spain, in Vejer de la Frontera. The Atlantic Beaches. Cadiz. And the Casa de Alba in Seville.

Vejer de la Frontera kicked off our search for Spain’s Moorish past. From the 1200-1500s the white pueblo of Vejer stood sentinel against the wind over the desolate frontier of Arab Spain.

Vejer is both a village and a fortressed Alcazaba castle, acting as a lookout over the Atlantic Ocean, the Strait of Gibraltar, and all the way to North Africa.

We felt the moorish roots of Vejer everywhere. The calligraphy of street names and numbers had a serpentine flair. And the Spanish spoken here seemed slightly different. The village’s hardware and antique radio store owner gave us a lesson.

Vejer is a great place to find Middle eastern and North African cuisine. It felt mysterious to follow the the maze of secret passageways to find the inner courtyard at El Jardin del Califa.

The butcher had the best chorizo we’d tasted in Spain, complex flavors, perfect texture, and a smooth taste. We should have bought more!

Always in the view from Vejer was the Atlantic Ocean tempting us, so one day we went to check out the coast, with a stop at the beach and then on to Cadiz.

It’s popular to summer here if you live in Madrid and we can totally see why.

Cadiz is an impressive city, a huge fishing port, on the turquoise water. Having come from the white villages of Malaga and the Frontier, the pastel colored walls really popped for us and the place was alive with a local hustle and bustle.

We loved how apartments had beautiful hallways leading to secret inner courtyards. After a few steps down the hall, the busy noise outside silenced.

Even the chorizo man seemed to have found a way to seal himself off from the chaos of the the busy covered market that heavily featured the day’s haul of fish.

Though there’s a small Arab quarter, the Moorish past is less pronounced in Cadiz. Never the less, its wide, graceful plazas captivated us.

From Cadiz it’s about an hour and a half drive to Seville and its distinctive architectural and artistic heritage.

We stayed in the San Lorenzo neighborhood, which felt authentic with family life and neighborhood stores.

Our stay in Seville came loaded with festive oranges.

They looked so tempting, but the bitter Seville oranges end up in marmalade or on the ground. Valencia oranges make the amazing fresh squeezed orange juice that addicted us.

Seville echos more of its moorish past, than Cadiz, with the Royal Alcazar near the Cathedral being the go-to place.

Always curious, we headed for a lesser known gem full of Moorish influence. The Palacio de Las Dueñas, Casa de Alba. Owned by the Albas, a noble Spanish family.

The eccentric Duchess of Alba filled Hola Magazine in her day. With things like, at 85, marrying a man 24 years her junior, sealed with a spontaneous barefoot Flamenco dance. She married and lived in the Palace. After she died, her home opened to the public for the first time.

So here’s the summary. For a glimpse into the ancient kingdom of the moors, Vejer de la Frontera wins hands down. We wish we had spent more time in Seville. It was the most fun to simply seep ourselves in plaza life, courtyards, and colorful streets. Cadiz and the Atlantic Ocean brought excitement over Spain’s beaches after a disappointing Costa del Sol.

That’s the story from Andalucia! We hope you’ll stay with us for more videos from Spain, France and Italy.

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About Us
We’re Emre and Maia. Our videos feature local, authentic, and immersive experiences in Europe. We love to engage with people in their own language, while we spend a gap year being curious about everything! We’re passionate about travel and food and have been to 44 countries with five passports between us! Now we’re in Southern Europe — Italy, France, and Spain — where we dedicate a month to each stay. Longing for simplicity and freedom, we put our remaining possessions in storage, and set out with one suitcase and one carry-on each. Our slow travel mindset works whether you have a few days or a whole year.

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