So while Ruth and I went back to Gibraltar, friends Glen and Steve went into La Linea to find out the best way to catch the train to Ronda, which we will be doing tomorrow morning.
Gibraltar sells a pass for £10 ($16.50 CAD, $11.00 USD) that allows you access to the tunnels, the 13th century castle, and the St. Michael's Cave. That seemed pretty good value to us considering it would take us the better part of the day to see those attractions.
It was just after 11:00am when we crossed the border into Gibraltar. This time the gates came down before we got to the runway and we had to wait for a small jet to land before we could cross.
A small jet touches down.
The jet lands, continues to the end of the runway,
then turns around and crosses back over the road to get to the terminal.
Then the gates open, and traffic and pedestrians flow across the runway again.
Our first stop was the Moorish castle that overlooks the city of Gibraltar. Dating back to 1333, this castle has withstood ten sieges over the years. That's why you build thick walls if you want something to last!
It's also the first view we got of the macaque monkeys.
The castle is still in pretty good shape.
There's been some renovations done over the years!
The stairs in the main tower.
The Moorish Caste in Gibraltar.
But the Moorish Castle is still fairly low on the side of the hill. There was some serious climbing to be done if we wanted to walk to the other attractions.
The Rock itself has a long history of being a fortress of some kind. They have built many tunnels over the years, starting in 1782, and ending as recently as 1968. Some of these tunnels are open to the public. The original ones are included in the pass we bought, and if you want to see the WWII tunnels you have to pay extra. We had a full day ahead of us so we passed on the WWII tunnels.
The original tunnel built in the late 1700's.
The cannons had a great aim at the incoming vessels.
The view from one of the opening in the rock. This is looking back at Spain, and you can easily see the roadway that crosses the International Airport runway.
Fire the cannons!
Lots of fun. I think we spent well over an hour in the tunnels. From there, we hiked up to the cable car station at the highest accessible point. It was another 2.5 kms (1.5 miles) uphill all the way!
Gorgeous views, and hardly anybody around.
Looking towards Morocco.
They have such funny expressions, even when they're not doing anything!
Looking back towards Spain from the cable car station.
One of the monkeys watching the world go by.
Mom and little one.
It was a little bit windy so the cable car wasn't running. That meant the only people who were up there were the people who had walked up, and there certainly weren't many of us.
Ruth, and her monkey friend.
They seem friendly enough, but you have to be careful with the macaques monkeys in Gibraltar. They have been known to attack people who annoy them. This one approached Ruth, not the other way around. I snapped this pic, and we quickly moved on.
Certainly interesting creatures to watch!
They have signs all over the place saying not to feed, touch, or other wise annoy the monkeys and yet a couple of times every year somebody does something stupid and gets attacked by them. Even yesterday, we saw a young woman trying to touch one of them and it ended up scuffling with her friend. Then, we saw a guy from a tour group go right up to one of them and sit down beside it for a photo. I guess he can't read the signs.
From there, it was on to St. Michael's Cave. We've been to visit a lot of caves over the years and we didn't have high expectations for this one. But considering it's one of the most "developed" caves that we've ever visited, we were suitably impressed.
Scenery along the way!
Ruth, inside the cave.
Fantastic.
At one part, they have a cross section of a stalagmite that they've cut open and polished. Really amazing, considering it's thousands of years old. You can easily see the two lines they're talking about that they think are from the last two glacial periods. Amazing stuff.
The inside of a stalagmite.
From there, it was time to start heading back down.
The Queen was here!
Ruth, standing where the Queen did.
On the way down, there is a suspension bridge to cross...
Kevin on the suspension bridge.
What a great day we had. We ended up doing 15 kms (9.3 miles) over six hours. I think that's 36 kms (22 miles) over the past three days. Today, we're taking the train instead of walking, although I'm sure we'll still be using our feet to get to where we want to go!
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K y R,thanks for the tour of Gibraltar.With 3 dogs we're confined to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome. We remember the feeling of being "confined" but if you have to be, Mexico is a great place to be.
DeleteAnother great read..love travelling with you and learning about these places.Especially closing the road for planes to land.
ReplyDeleteThank you! We are learning as we go as well, so much history and interesting information.
DeleteAwesome. Glad I tuned in this morning.
ReplyDeleteGlad that you enjoyed it Bob! :-)
DeleteAnd I always thought it was just a rock!!!! Wow, now that was a great day of touring. You're gonna wear out your walking shoes but that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty much what we thought of Gibraltar as well, until we got here! It really is a very interesting place to visit. It think by the end of our winter, we just may have them worn out.
DeleteSome really amazing scenery today, looks like fun.
ReplyDeleteWe had a great day! Looking forward to more. :-)
DeleteSounds like a neat place. Definitely putting the km on.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting place indeed!
DeleteWe have definitely been getting our daily portion of exercise plus more, we love it!
Okay, guess this is now on our bucket list when we travel to Barcelona in June 2018! Thanks for sharing...great adventures!
ReplyDeleteIt's quite a distance from Barcelona! I am not sure how much time you will have but if you don't a lot of time, I wouldn't recommend you taking the time out to visit because there are so many other great places in and around the Barcelona area. On the other hand, if you have lots of time and can stop and visit places along the way then go for it. We have enjoyed our time here.
DeleteKevin, I don't think you want to be standing behind that cannon when it goes off!
ReplyDeleteKnow, he certainly doesn't want to be! ;-)
DeleteThank you for the tour...amazing.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Rita! :-)
DeleteWhat a great day you had and we all got to enjoy it also.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic day and we are glad that we could share it with everyone.
DeleteLooks like perfect weather too! What a day, and really nice pictures.
ReplyDeleteYep, it was a perfect day weatherwise but that is going to change for today and tommorrow. :-(
DeleteI agree, what a great day! Thanks for sharing with us all. I absolutely love your blog and following your adventures! Great & amazing photos as usual.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Lori for being such a faithful and longtime reader of ours. It makes us just want to keep on doing things to show everyone out there what the world has to offer. We really enjoy bringing into your house each day.
DeleteGreat tour-thanks:)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Chuck and Anneke!
DeleteThat's a beautiful scene in the header picture. Is there no other way down except for that SCARY suspension bridge? Ugh!
ReplyDeleteThank you Barbara!
DeleteYes, there are many other ways to come down from "the rock" rather than going across the suspension bridge. In fact where the picture was taken from is a pathway so that those who don't want to cross can use it or as we did, use it for a place to take a photo of someone crossing it.
Yes, thanks for the tour of Gibraltar. Looks friendly!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! Yes, it is friendly but then so are most places that we have traveled.
DeleteWiFi is terrible in Quartzsite so I haven't kept up with your blog for a few days. I stayed up late tonight to read it and wow!!! You guys are having so much fun. And I think Ruth is a queen in her own right. Thanks for sharing more of your travels and travel safe.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Lorne, we are having similar issues with the internet but ours is because we can't find free WiFi so we have to use our cellular and we haven't been reading most blogs because we try to keep our usage to a bare minimum.
DeleteWe are having a great time and are really enjoying our RV tavels here in Europe.
Good Luck and have fun with your Blogger Fest on the 28th! We hope you get a good turn out for it.