Gibraltar

One of our goals while living in Spain is to travel around Europe since there are so many countries relatively close. So we decided to use all of the kids’ school holidays to travel. Our first opportunity to travel outside Spain was a four day weekend (one day to celebrate Spain’s constitution and the other day to celebrate the Immaculate Conception). Since it wasn’t a long break, we decided to go somewhere relatively close… Morocco.

As we looked at the map, we noticed that we would be passing by Gibraltar on the way to the ferry, so we decided to spend the day.

Although Gibraltar is on the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula , it is actually British Overseas Territory. So to enter, we left Spain and entered Britain!

The rock of Gibraltar is a large nature reserve, inhabited by Macaque monkeys. We’ve heard the the joke that the English will leave Gibraltar when the monkeys do. I don’t think that will happen any time soon; they are everywhere.

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We took the cable car up to top of the rock and had our first encounter with one of the monkeys, when he jumped through the open window into the cable car and grabbed my backpack. We were on guard from that moment.

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There is so much to see on Gibraltar.

First are the views. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, otherwise we would have been able to see to Africa.

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The Gibraltar airport’s airstrip separates the British Territory from Spain.

Gibraltar, with its critical location at the mouth of the Mediterranean as it joins the Atlantic Ocean, has been fought over for hundreds of years. There were many military remnants and exhibits explaining the military history. One of the most interesting were the tunnels that the British dug deep into the rock.

The kids found the mannequins especially creepy.

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Then there was St. Michael’s Cave.

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And a suspension bridge with an amazing view.

And finally a Moorish castle just before we left the reserve.

The rock of Gibraltar is huge. We walked over 9 kilometers to explore it all. As we descended into the town of Gibraltar we found ourselves in need of a snack.

Since we were in a British territory we chose fish and chips and scones.

As the sun set, we stepped back into Spain and headed off to the next stop on our adventure… Tarifa!