Gibraltar - October 26

Gibraltar is weird. I had never had much of a desire to go, but it fit into the trip so we made a day trip out of it from Tarifa.

Walking across the border to what seems like a totally different world is a strange experience. Especially when your walk is delayed 15 minutes because a plane has to take off from the runway that cuts directly across the road into town.



We walked briefly around the city. There was a quirky cuteness to it, but mostly just a very odd place. A mix of Spanish and English. Lots of shopping which apparently lures tourists and Spaniards. Fast food. We opted for fish and chips and shepherd's pie at a pub. How very authentic.

But of course we really just came to Gibraltar to see the rock. I used the last of my euros at a poor exchange rate to buy our tickets for the tram that goes up to the top of the rock.



It's kind of small and kind of scary, but apparently safe enough.

In case you weren't aware, there are monkeys on the rock. Lots and lots of monkeys. The guys in the cable car talk about the monkeys. The books talk about the monkeys. But it's still kind of weird when you take a step out of the cable car, and there is a monkey sitting there. Enjoy our many pictures of the monkeys.







Of course the monkeys aren't universally loved. They are all kleptomaniacs and love human food. You are told many times not to feed the monkeys, but of lots of people apparently don't listen. So the monkeys have learned that bags have food so thus they should steal bags. Unfortunately we didn't really think about that before buying some biscuits at Marks & Spencer. I spent the time paranoid that the monkeys were going to sneak up behind me and after one particular me aggressively I spent the rest of the trip walking around with the bag protected like this:



There are more than monkeys. The views are obviously incredible. You can see why this was such an important strategic position for over a millennium.



That's Africa.



When you get to the top they hand you an audioguide filled with information. It was interesting to hear some of the history and see some of the methods the Gibraltans used to survive in somewhat adverse circumstances until making peace with Spain. Due to a knee injury and lack of interest, we didn't walk down to see the siege tunnels or other sights figuring that the view from the top was sufficient.