We woke up early to make the drive to Gibraltar. The funny thing about Gibraltar is that it is located physically on the Iberian Peninsula (aka Spain) but it is owned by the UK. We had to drive across a check point and show our passports and then once inside the city limits all the signs were in English, restaurants had English fare on the menu and British names, and prices were in pounds. It was strange to be submerged into an English speaking culture once again.
It was raining and a little windy when we got there, so the cable car that takes you up to the top of Gibraltar Rock was closed. So, we spent about 2 hours walking around Gibraltar in the rain trying to decide if we should pay 30 Euros for a bus tour and or try to take a taxi. We decided against the bus tour, but we couldn't get a taxi anywhere although we tried to flag them down. Just as we were about to drive up ourselves (which is a tough ride and wouldn't give us an opportunity to walk around up top because there is no parking lot) we saw that the cable cars were working again!
The cable car ride up and down has an amazing view, and takes only about 10 minutes: very worth it for those of you that go there someday. Not only is the view over Gibraltar spectacular, but there are wild monkeys up top. So, Gibraltar became a little more random: English speaking providence on the coast of Spain that has monkeys. These monkeys were used to tourists though, and we were warned that they would steal things (namely food) from your bags if you weren't careful where you put your things.
We walked around up top and observed the monkeys around us. It was very overcast and it felt like you were walking in a cloud, which made for some really cool pictures (see below). Although some of the visibility of the city and the ocean were limited due to the clouds, I liked it a lot, it made the whole experience seem a little more fantastic.
At around 12:30ish we descended from our "castle on a cloud" and set off to drive to Tarifa, Spain in order to catch a ferry to Tanger, Morocco.
HIGHLIGHT OF GIBRALTAR: Cable car ride up to see monkeys and feel like I was walking on a cloud.
1.Gibraltar Rock
2. Cable car to the top
3. View of Gibraltar from above
4. Gibraltar Monkey
5. View of the top of the Rock (some sort of historic military fortress?)
6. My Flatmates and I in a cloud :)
7. Memorial Site
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