Gibraltar Part III

Quick quiz:  What side of the road do they drive on in Gibraltar?

Answer, surprisingly, is the right side.  The reason is that as they share a close border with Spain, they decided the traffic direction should be the same to prevent daily accidents.

We drove to some more scenic locations including an overlook of Gibraltar's airport, at first glance looks like every other airport around.

It looks like every other airport around.  except that...

Gibraltar's main road runs through the runway!

Lights and barriers come down to stop traffic when planes come in to land or takeoff.

There was also a nice cannon at the overlook with the cruise ship in the background:

We drove by the Moorish castle.

We then went for a walk over the cliff.

Literally on the Skywalk over the cliff that overlooks Catalan Bay, onto a thick glass platform.

Above the glass walls, there's quite a wind, but a great view:

Near the Skywalk there's a plaque where an attack by 500 Spanish soldiers was defeated.

After the Skywalk, we headed back into town and looked back up at the top of the Rock:

The radar station there is used these days to attempt to intercept drug smugglers from Africa, which is apparently an ongoing problem.

We then browsed around the shops a bit more and then headed back to the ship. Even though Gibraltar is a small island, there's still far too much to see in just one day.

 

Gibraltar Part II - The Heights Of The Rock And Monkey Business

We headed up some rather steep and narrow roads to the Pillars of Hercules monument.

Looking out we could see Africa in the distance.

Quite a scenic outlook.

Then we headed into the Nature Preserve and visited St. Michael's Cave.

The cave is indeed a natural wonder, and to say it is huge is an understatement.

It descends hundreds of feet into the earth and the ancients thought it was an endless portal into the netherworld.

One story has it that two British Army explorers entered the cave and never returned.  Extensive exploration of the cave system since has found no sign of them.

During WWII it was further expanded with a room carved out to make an underground hospital.  Today the room  is used for concerts. 

The cave complex was nice and cool, if a bit damp  if not wet in spots.

After the cave we headed out and met some of Gibraltar's most famous inhabitants - the Barbary Apes.

The Barbary Apes are native to Gibraltar, with some imported during World War 2, and are the only wild monkey population on the European continent.

 

There were  more apes imported during World War 2 as the legend has it that the Rock will remain British sol long as thew Barbary Apes live there, so Churchill smartly imported some additional packs of them to make sure the population was maintained.

The babies and younger apes are rather cute.

We had been warned to leave bags in the van, as the Apes tend to swipe them thinking there's food in them.  T

hey will grab it, take off into the bush, and you'll never see your stuff again.  They are wild animals, will bite if threatened,  and they may approach youto play or climb on you but they are renowned for swiping food or objects right out of people's hands. or bags off your person.

Such as this fellow who swiped some watermelon from a fruit vendor and then proudly sat down on a rock to eat it:

 They can also be rather insistent:

Hello Human, I see you like food. I, too, like food. Do you have some food for me?  I suggest you do.  Just sayin'.

He did get a reward for his efforts, but after not getting more food, he then stuck out his tongue and jumped up and hitched a ride on the roof for a bit before jumping off.

We then drove on to see more of the island.

Gibraltar Part I

The Cruise reached our first port after two days at sea - The Rock of Gibraltar.

We had decided to explore Gibraltar on our own rather than taking a shore excursion so I had studied the maps and found things worth doing.

The port entrance hallway has a nice large seal of Gibraltar on its wall.  The seal dates back to the Spanish occupation prior to the Rock being taken over by the British.

Going through the port was a non-event.  A sign said non-UK/EU persons had to check in but a friendly security guard waved us past the sign with a quick "That's not needed, on you go", and so we went.

 

We decided to walk into town, which was a relatively short walk of about 20 minutes down a nice, straight road with no real opportunity to get lost so long as you went straight through the roundabouts.

The first roundabout has a memorial to the evacuation of the Gibraltareans during the WWII.

Father down the street there's a memorial to the Gibraltar Defense Force; Gibraltar Volunteer Corp and the Gibraltar Regiment for their service in WWII:

We then reached the entrance to the town:

It's called the water gate as everything on this side of it is reclaimed land.  The water used to come right up to this casemate.

Inside the old town were charming streets and shops a-plenty. 

The Brits on board had left the ship excitedly with their shopping bags as Gibraltar is a tax/duty free shopping haven for them.  It did indeed have several lovely shops with great prices on everything from leather goods, alcohol, high quality quilting scissors (which Tash scooped up for herself and her mom), and many other fine things.

We browsed our way through the streets and as it was hot, we had plenty of liquids.  We then decided to take a local tour via a mini van with a tour guide and two other couples along with us as walking around the rock would have been rather taxing and the gondola up the rock had a very long line.

So we then got in the van with the guide, and started to explore the Rock.