|
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
Today we headed south again to Gibraltar. It was about 1.5 hour drive from Club la Costa. You can see the actual rock while you are still at least 45 minutes away. We arrived in the Spanish town La Linea and parked our car there and planned to walk across into Gibraltar. It was cool because we physically walked across the border into the British controlled Gibraltar and had our passports stamped. To get into Gibraltar you have to look both ways and cross the airplane runway! We walked through the Landport Tunnel, which at one time was the only way into Gibraltar via land. The tunnel cuts right through the rock and leads to the city center – very cool!
We headed down the cobblestoned Main Street, which was a pedestrian road. It is such a cute area. Gibraltar is still controlled by the British, although the Spanish want it back, so everything is in English and the Pound Sterling is the currency used there. After lunch at an outdoor café, we headed down to Cathedral Square to grab a cab. We had hoped to take the cable car to the top of the mountain, but it was closed for maintenance. The cabbie was great, taking us first halfway up the mountain to get our first fabulous view. We continued to the top of the mountain and outside of St. Michael’s Cave, we saw tons of Barbary macaques (monkeys). They were so cute! We learned from the cabbie that there are about 240 of them living on the rock of Gibraltar. The littlest ones were the cutest and we enjoyed watching them swing playfully form branch to branch and tumble each other to the ground. One swatted at Grayson when he reached out to pet him…
We ventured into St. Michael’s Cave. It is a huge, natural grotto formed over the years. The inside was too stunning to describe! It was once the home of Neolithic inhabitants of the rock. Now concerts and shows are held inside. It is damp inside the cave and still constantly changing. We enjoyed looking at the beautiful stalagmites and stalactites as the water dripped on us from above. After the cave, the taxi took us right up to the top to take pictures. We could see northern Africa, the Bay of Gibraltar and Algeria on the east side… what a view…
Lastly, the cab took us to see the Great Siege Tunnels. This is where the British carved out tunnels and caves in the rock to protect Gibraltar. We could see out the tiny windows that were designed for the cannons. We hike pretty far down into the tunnels before heading down to conclude our tour of the rock.
Dad wanted to check email so we stopped at an internet café and mom and the kids had a snack before heading back across the border into Spain and the drive back to Club La Costa.
That evening, after cleaning up, we headed into Fuengerola to walk around and grab some sinner. We had dinner at a great pizza place called Casa de la Esquina. The owner’s name was Juan and the kids loved him. He spoke five languages and they were so impressed! It was 9:45 by the time we ate and we cleaned our plates before heading back and dropping into bed at 12:30 am. Per true Blount fashion, there was NO relaxing on our adventure today!
|
