How bizarre it is to experience walking from one country to another. Particularly in only a ten minute walk! We moseyed our way from Spain to Gibraltar this morning, joining the queues of cars and people crossing the border. About 4 million people do this every year. We jumped on a bus with lots of Spanish workers, drove across the airport tarmac and into the main square ‘Casemates’. We had a cuppa (yay, British tea) and then jumped on a free bus to where the cable car began. Its 450m (1,475ft) to the top of the rock and we had no plans of walking up. There were some dodgy tour guides outside the cable car place, claiming better tours and talking up what was wrong with the cable cars, and where they didn’t take you. We compared prices, and where it took you, and decided the 1km walk to the caves, and then 1.5km to the tunnels and then the 1.5km walk back to the cable car wasn’t as good value as the dodgy tour guide guys. Turns out they were taxi drivers, born on the island, and very well versed in both history and comedy.
Our first stop was The Pillars of Hercules. According to the ancient world, the rock was something Hercules threw down to mark a gateway to the world. From here, on a good clear day (which unfortunately today wasn’t), you can see the coast of Africa, which is 14km away.
Next stop on the dodgy tour was St Michael’s Caves which served as a hospital in WWII and is now used for all sorts of concerts. We saw a poster advertising Tom Jones, he may have been playing in the caves, it didn’t click when we saw the poster. They were ‘normal’ limestone caves, with stalactites and stalagmites. It was lovely and cool in there too, and the walls of the cave were very cold to touch. We wandered through a little and I was wondering how they ended up with a hospital in there, and then we came around a corner and it opened up onto a huge cavern. It was indeed now an auditorium, with seating for about 150 people. It would be magnificent seeing a performance there, eerie, cool, and echo-ey.
Back into our mini-bus/taxi and yay, we had the front seat which made for fun viewing on the narrow windy road. Next stop was the top of the rock. The view was phenomenal to say the least. The town of Gibraltar directly below us, the airstrip, the border control, and then Spain on the other side with all of its highrise apartments and hotels. The bay was a lovely deep blue colour, with strips of pale bright blue, and there were lots of tankers and cranes as well. There were also a lot of monkeys. Barbary apes actually, tailless monkeys who know that visitors have food. I got out of the mini-bus, took about four steps and one jumped on my head. They are neither light, nor delicate. He jumped from me to Mark and we managed to squeeze in a photo. Our dodgy tour guide handed out a nut and the monkey jumped back onto me, and so I gave Mark the camera, but then the monkey pooed on me. Nice! He jumped down, I got rid of the poo, and then he jumped back onto my arm and promptly bit me! NICE! I was being nice to the bloody thing and he poos and bites me! And it hurt too – didn’t break the skin thank goodness, but I now have a large swollen and bruised part on my arm. All part of the adventure right? I have decided I no longer like Monkeys though.
Next stop was the siege tunnels. These were built by the British to keep the Spanish at bay in the 17th century. They are dug into, or chiseled into I should say, the north side of the rock. We could see the little holes from our hotel window when we were looking across at the rock, so it was interesting to go and have a look at them from the inside.
That was about all there was to see in Gibraltar and we are off to Seville for a few days tonight, so we headed back across the border. We’re on the road again now, and playing ‘building ruin, el toro, church’. I believe I am in the lead as we drove past a truck that had three really big bulls in it. I swear, one had a head almost as big as this car. It looked at me as we drove past, and I think it was telepathically saying to me, ‘here is your winning entry in ruin, el toro, church’. I win!
LATER:
Well, we’ve had our first early evening in Seville. This looks like a very exciting place, different again to Madrid and Granada. It’s bloody hot though, like really hot! It was 42 degrees (celcius) at 7:00pm. Needless to say, we took refuge in many air conditioned bars and tapas joints. You could walk about three blocks and then you would need to duck in somewhere just so you didn’t faint from the heat. So we’ve had numerous Fanta Limón, and sangria, and garlic prawns….
SIDENOTES:
- You know how sat navs like to say “turn left at the next intersection” and the next intersection is the ocean? Well, it’s even worse when you are in a foreign country. Worse again is when it doesn’t recognize one-way streets and the streets are only as wide as two bicycles.
- There are lots of wind farms and solar panel farms in Spain.
- Monkeys are heavy when they jump on your head and Gibraltar is a little on the smelly side of things.
- I wish we had ‘Fanta Limón’ in Australia – it’s totally yummy!
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