A VISIT TO A LITTLE ROCK CALLED GIBRALTER

WEATHER: Sunny and 28C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Driving to the top of ‘the rock’

BUMMER OF THE DAY:  Thinking I have left my Swarovski pen in Barcelona

BUYS OF THE DAY: 

WORD OF THE DAY:  Kebab again……

Well what a start to the morning.  After getting home at 5am, I was smart enough to set my alarm for 7am, what I failed to do was wake up when the damn thing went off.  First thing I know is that Marc is banging on my door telling me the bus leaves in 15 minutes, open the flippin door.  SHIT!!!!!!  Luckily I had half packed the night before, but I still had a mass of stuff lying around.  Marc is in a frenzy shoving everything into my bags and I was getting my make-up out of the bathroom.  It was like a frenzy!  I made it to the bus with 1 minute to spare and needless to say I was still drunk when I got on the coach.  Not a good way to start a day, but I am feeling okay, just a little tired, but I am alive.

We drove for 2 hours for a service stop and then a further 2 hours to get us to the boarder of Gibraltar to Spain.  The Rock is Crown property of the United Kingdom, and borders Spain. The sovereignty of Gibraltar was transferred from Spain to the Kingdom of Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 after the War of the Spanish Succession.^[3] In 2002, the United Kingdom and Spain were working on "ending the centuries old [sovereignty] dispute over the rock.  The rock is It is 426 m (1,398 ft) high. The Rock of Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules and was known to the Romans as Mons Calpe, the other pillar being Mons Abyla or Jebel Musa on the African side of the Strait. In ancient times the two points marked the limit to the known world, a myth originally fostered by the Phoenicians. 

Once Jose dropped us off, we had to walk through immigration; it literally was just a pedestrian path from Spain into the UK with a guy checking our passports visually, and walah, welcome to the UK territory called Gibraltar!  The rock just stands out against the sea and the blue sky and looks awesome.  We paid 24EUR for a taxi tour to take us to the top of the rock and I think it definitely the best money spent and well worth it. 

Our first stop was a panoramic view of the small city of Gibraltar and looking back to the coast line of Spain and in the other direction you can see the northern coast of Africa, Morocco – but our day was a little hazy, so it was too clear to see Africa.  Our next stop was St Michaels Caves, at a height of over 300 metres above sea level.  It is the most visited site of the island with more than 150 caves found inside the Rock of Gibraltar, receiving almost 1,000,000 visitors a year. 
Our last stop was to meet the wildlife of the rock, the 320 apes that live up the very top.  They were cute, and we were warned not to touch them, yeah right like I needed to be told that, but they are super friendly and they can come up to us.  Great.  Apparently they don’t carry disease these species, yeah whatever, you still aint getting a monkey on me.  They were cheeky buggers and were jumping from one person back to another.  The guides know the apes quite well and they could set you up with a photo – yep the answer is still a resounding no from me.  In their defence they did look cute, but that is as far as I will go.  The females have just had babies and we saw an ape that was 4 days old – she was super cute and I got a really good photo, it kind of looks a little fake it looks that good.  They are called apes as they don’t have tails, but they still look like monkeys. 

The view from here was AMAZING, it was hard to comprehend that I was at the top of The Rock of Gibraltar – insane.  I also got my Bernstar jump up there and it is a goodie.  Back into the car to take us back to the main square.  As it is a UK territory, the currency is the British Pound, but they accepted euros.  As we were officially in the UK, what better thing to have lunch than good ol British fish and chips.  We ordered the medium and I kid you not the piece of the fish was as big as my forearm!  It was MASSIVE, I would hate to think how big BIG is!

We got some free time to wander the streets, and the place felt, like fake?  Not sure if that is the word for it, but it felt like a Caribbean cruise ship stop.  It is hard to pin point it, but it was a little weird.  Not sure if I lost my passport if I would want to get stuck there.

To get back to passport control, we had to walk across the runway of the Gibraltar Airport.  I am not sure if there are too many airports in the world that firstly will permit you to do it, and to take a wad of photos as you do do it.  It was a pretty crazy notion we could do it.  Basically the traffic and pedestrians walk across until a plane needs to land, and then they close the road and pedestrian walkway, the plane lands and then you are good to cross again.  There must be some form of correspondence, as what happens if you are half way across and then the lights go on to not cross.  Ahhhhhhhhhh – funny, but I am sure that doesn’t happen – could it?

Back through dody passport check again and out through dodgy customs – meaning their care factor was zippo, a little bit of a farce really, but at the end of the day you are leaving one country and entering another.  I was lucky to be able to get a stamp in my Globetrotters book at the caves, so it is a pretty cool souvenir to get.  How many people do you know who have been to Gibraltar?

Back on the coach for the 2 hour drive to Seville ( Seviya ) in Spanish.  We were lucky Contiki upgraded our hotel, so we are now closer to town – thanks Contiki!  A few hours to chill, so I have finally got my photos up to date and now my blog is now also up to date – so the office is all running smoothly again.  I do need to update my jumps, drink costs and some tid bits on the blog, but I can start looking at that again now that the important stuff is done.  I do have to say I love this free Wi-Fi business!

We took a walk around the city to find something to eat, but Marc and I were beat, so we ended up going back to the hotel and eating across the road at the kebab shop for 5EUR.  2 more days of tour and I am going to miss this group.  Contiki Spanish Spree you guys are awesome xx