I've always wanted to see Gibraltar, and this was the day I finally got my chance. But instead of driving out there ourselves, we took a bus tour.
The bus picked us up in front of the reception desk, and we met our guide, Ulrike, who was from Germany. Among our fellow passengers were a woman and her daughter from San Diego, Sue and Natalie, as well as a couple from England, who we'll hear more about later.
The drive from Fuengirola to Gibraltar doesn't take very long, only about an hour. On the drive, Ulrike regaled us with information about Gibraltar and its history. As we got closer, and The Rock began to come into view, I took some pictures as we approached:
We crossed the border, and a border guard came on the bus and glanced at our passports - and again, no one said a word about Trooper. We then drove into town, and Ulrike told us that we'd have a couple of hours of free time for lunch, shopping, or whatever, and then we'd meet back at the parking lot, where another bus would take us up onto The Rock itself.
Gibraltar is interesting. It's not Spain, and yet it's not quite England, either. Of course all the signs are in English, and there are British pubs:
...but the cars drive on the right side of the road, and the streets are winding and narrow, and well... there's just a sort of European feel to the place. That's vague, I know, but it's the best I can do.
Here's another picture of The Rock, taken from the bus parking lot:
Gibraltar is a duty-free zone, so many, if not most, visitors come with one thing on their minds: shopping! And the primary shopping street is Main Street:
...which Terry said reminded her of Tijuana. You enter Main Street at the north end, passing through entry arches in the old city wall - Gibraltar used to be a fortress, after all:
After passing through the gates, you find yourself in Casemates Square. At first, I pronounced it kah-se-MAH-tes, as if it were Spanish. Oops. This is Gibraltar, not Spain. It's pronounced like it's spelled - it rhymes with faceplates.
On the north side of the square are what used to be Army barracks, but are now shops:
...including a glassblower's shop, where we saw an interesting demonstration of how glass goblets are made. There are also restaurants, including (of course) fish and chip shops, like this one - I was greatly amused by the sign:
There was also this cannon on display in the square - pointed downward, of course, because it was originally up on The Rock, pointing down at the water:
As we wandered down Main Street, we noticed that there were audible crossing signals at every corner - strange for a place that has only 30,000 inhabitants. On this side street:
...we stopped in for lunch at The Star Bar, which claims to be The Oldest Pub In Gibraltar:
And then a little later, we stopped for a cup of tea (well, I had cocoa) at the Figaro Tea Room.
Further on down the street was the Governor's Residence:
You've heard about the Buckingham Palace guards - how they're required to stand absolutely motionless, and they can't talk to you or ackowledge your existence in any way, no matter what you say or do. Well, the guard out in front of this place wasn't wearing the big bearskin hat, but he was just as motionless - except that I noticed that his eyes tracked me as I walked past.
Remember the line from "The Ballad Of John And Yoko?"
Peter Brown called to say
"You can make it okay,
You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain."
Well, here's where it happened - in the garden of the courthouse:
And then I was quite surprised to see this sign:
I thought we had left Calpe behind last week! I learned later that Calpe was an ancient name for Gibraltar, and that the town of Calpe where we stayed got its name because the large rock there (the Peņon Ifach - remember?) sort of resembles a mini Gibraltar.
Just before we headed back to the bus park, I took this picture of The Rock from Casemates Square - just to make sure it was still there:
Back at the bus park, we met Johnny, our driver and guide. He began by driving through town, pointing out various historical sites, eventually ending up at Europa Point (w), which is the southernmost point of Gibraltar, although not quite the southernmost point of Spain, or of Europe - that's a little farther west, at Tarifa. But it's close enough to see Africa:
...just barely. And if you turn a little to the right, you can look out to sea... that's the Atlantic Ocean out there:
...and down at your feet, the waves of the Mediterranean are crashing on the rocks below:
There's a lightouse at Europa Point:
...and a mosque:
...and a Catholic church, although for some reason, I didn't get a picture of it.
We then got back in the bus and headed up The Rock. On the way up, we spotted this waterfall:
...which Johnny explained was not a natural phenomenon. There's a desalination plant up there, and this "waterfall" is the waste water from the plant, heavily loaded with salt.
On the way up, I took these pictures of the Bay of Gibraltar, which lies to the west. The city across the bay is Algeciras, which as you can imagine from its location, is a major shipping port.
About halfway up The Rock, we stopped at St. Michael's Cave (w):
...where we saw the usual stalactites and stalagmites:
There's not much light inside the cave, and the pictures I took were too dark to see very much. When I tried to lighten them on the computer, the colors got weird.
Did you know (I didn't) that you can figure the age of a stalactite by counting its rings, like a tree? Except that a tree adds new rings from the inside out, while a stalactite adds rings on the outside, as water dripping down the sides deposits minerals. Anyway, they found this stalactite broken off, and polished it to show the rings, and put it on display in the cave:
They also found a Neanderthal skull in the cave. The original is in a museum in France, but they have a replica in the cave, in a lighted niche:
One large room in the cave has been fitted out with seats and a stage, and is used as an auditorium. I wandered out on the stage and remarked "I should have brought my guitar!" I tried to take pictures, but they didn't come out.
I was also amused by a sign telling the story of two soldiers who went exploring the caves and were never seen again... although some think they just used the opportunity to desert.
Outside the cave, we met up with a pack of the famous Gibraltar apes, or more correctly, monkeys, or more specifically, macaques (w). Johnny told us that there are five packs of monkeys on The Rock, and this one hangs around the cave entrance, where tourists play with them, take pictures of them, and unfortunately, feed them.
The monkeys are actually fed by the government - they are, after all, one of Gibraltar's main tourist attractions - and feeding them is prohibited by law, but people do it anyway. I understand that some of the monkeys are developing diabetes, due to being fed by tourists. I even caught Johnny slipping them peanuts. He had names for several of them, including one particularly friendly one named Lucy. He'd hold out his hand and say to her "Gimme five!" and she'd slap his hand.
Terry and Trooper stayed in the bus - I don't think the monkeys would have liked having Trooper on their turf - while I took several pictures:
The woman in pink with the monkey on her shoulder is Sue, the woman from San Diego that I mentioned earlier. And I think the monkey on her shoulder is Lucy, but I might be wrong about that.
When we were done playing the with the monkeys, we got back in the bus, and to my dismay, started heading back down! I thought we would go all the way to the top, but no - the caves are as far up as you can drive. There's a cable car that does go to the top, and if I'd realized that the bus wouldn't go there, I could have taken the cable car in the morning. I was upset, but there was nothing I could do. So I have another reason to go back.
When we got back to the resort, we didn't feel like going out for dinner, so I went to a local restaurant that I had noticed, and brought back dinner to our room. The restaurant was called The Ponderosa Roadhouse - it was a Tex-Mex place, the closest thing to Mexican food that we found the whole time we were there!