Day 11 – Gibraltar, UK

The Rock. No, not the brilliant (*cough*) Sean Connery/Nicholas Cage vehicle… this time we’re talking about the Rock of Gibraltar. Gibraltar was the site of day 12 of a Race Around The World… wait, I might be getting ahead of myself. That’s the Amazing Race. This was simply Day 12 of Sherri and Brian’s Euro+AfricaFest 2007.

The sea was angry that day my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli. Undaunted, I made my way to the top deck to admire the view. Since Sherri was nestled into bed reading a book, a kind Asian man wielded the family camera and squeezed off this shot:

(BTW, if that’s not a forced smile, I don’t know what is.)

This one’s better, b/c I’m not in it:

I’ve given it some thought, and Gibraltar is my overall favorite port of the trip. This day had the right mix of walking, riding, scenery, beer, and monkeys. I wouldn’t want more or less of any of those.

We were booked into a shore excursion here, which ended up working out for the best. We were supposed to take a cable car to the top of the rock, walk down some, and then a tour bus would pick us up and take us the rest of the way down. Only, it was too windy for the cable car. So if we HADN’T booked a tour, we would’ve been on the hook for hiring a cab to make it up to the top, which could get expensive. Instead, our cab took us up the rock. The views along

(Look, you can see our ship.)

First stop was St. Michaels Cave, where they have an indoor theater!

(Click into that photo and view the Original size. It’s amazing in there!)

Outside the caves is where we had our first taste (so to speak) of the Barbary apes. This guy’s telling me a story:

One of us is thinking about throwing our own shit. Can you guess which one?

I really dig this picture, with the ape and Celebrity ship in the same frame:

We walked down hill for awhile, dodging taxis on the narrow road. Then the bus picked us up and took us over to:

The Siege Tunnels are neat; if you’re super-interested in learning about them, clickie here. There are stellar views from the cutouts in the tunnels. You can even see the frontier and Gibraltar’s unique airport from there:

See the road across the runway? That’s the one and only way from Gibraltar into Spain, and is known as the Frontier… which, instead of reminding me of the Old West, always reminds me of The Last Starfighter instead. Along the same lines (but a tangent from the original post), Joe Rogan from Fear Factor also reminds me of The Last Starfighter, because the main character’s name is Alex Rogan. Hmmm. Anyway, they have to stop car and pedestrian traffic every time they want to land a plane.

Another interesting tidbit: many people come over from Spain to buy gas in Gibraltar because it’s cheaper.

After the tour, we stopped into the main square for a beer and a snack at Latino’s. Is 30 minutes too long to wait for garlic cheese bread? Me thinks so. Here I am wearing the cheapo shades I haggled from a Paris vendor for $6. It seems they’re too high on my face?

There was a fancy Burger King on the square:

Obviously the weather cleared up in a hurry and the skies were beautiful. Back on the ship, I snapped a few photos while we left Gibraltar. From our room:

Somebody’s NICE boat:

Bye, bye rock:

As you can tell, it was a memorable day. Gibraltar is definitely a place I’d like to visit again. Next time, hopefully I can remember to book a tour of the World War II tunnels, which are part of a separate tour.

Tomorrow is Tangier, Morocco, the strangest city on our voyage. Watch me as I pet the camel! That’s not a euphamism.