The Rock of Gibraltar

Rock of Gibraltar

North facing point of the Rock of Gibraltar

So another day and another destination, this was quite close, about 85 kms.... the Rock of Gibraltar.

Gibraltar also has a unique airport configuration where highway crosses the airport runway and British Customs is right there as well. 

A combo location, Airport,
highway, and Customs

It was eerie driving west on the Costa del Sol and then all at once instead of the Mediterranean  sea you see this huge mountain sticking out of the water. It was awe inspiring. With us arriving about 1:15 pm we decided to have lunch at the base before taking the cable car/gondola to the top. 

There is a little restaurant in the parking area that is really good and takes reservations. A local family had reserved their Sunday meal there and arrived just as we were finishing. I had  the spaghetti vongole, a favorite and it was very good. A less is more version. Lots of garlic, tons of butter clams in a tomato sauce with a basil pesto, but more olive oil  with very little tomato sauce. It was excellent. Sandra had a chicken Caesar salad she said was very good as well.

Then we were hit upon by the taxi drivers there who want to drive you to the top and do a tour for you. Our waiter warned us about them and instead we took the ^ up ^ portion of the cable car, and would enjoy the walk down. 7.5 pounds each.

The monkeys on Gibraltar are a bit of an oddity. They were likely imports during Moorish times, and were sustained during British Colonial days. During WWII Churchill vowed that as long as there were apes on Gibraltar, Britain would be there. During WWII they dwindled in number and Churchill actually snuck more in to keep his troops motivated.


The view is fantastic from up there as you look over the Bay of Algeciras. If you think this sounds Arabic it is, as this is one of the ferry terminus for the ferry to Morocco. Tomorrow we step into a totally different culture, so we'll see how it goes. 

2 wheels together for 39 years

We've talked quite a bit lately about how we operate in paradigms, and how this trip continues to challenge those paradigms. From something as simple as this is Sunday therefore the border will likely be busy, to eating at different times, to living in confined spaces as most of the population of Europe does, to conservation, foods, the wearing of clothing (nudity and near nudity is far more  common on beaches) and types of clothes, sexual orientation of people and how they are treated by different cultures, etc. It certainly allows you to grow in understanding of others.

We will head back out of Gibraltar to the town of Algeciras on the Spain coast where we'll stay overnite and catch a ferry tomorrow to the Tangiers med port recommended to us by Marc Antoine as a safer alternative to Tangiers itself.

So this will be our last post possibly for 10 days or so. We don't expect to find easy internet access while in Morocco ( another paradigm), and we will be doing quite of a bit of travel each day, but I gotta get to the Sahara desert, so we'll next check in around June 15 or so.

And we will learn more about some new paradigms.