Thursday, September 3rd, 2015 - Malaga to Gibraltar to Seville

We were up early again with bags out and down for breakfast at 7 a.m. but everything downstairs was closed and dark.  Apparently nothing opens until 7:30 a.ma.  Argh!!!  I went back to my room to write the start of this blog since I had to stay awake and busy because I was both sleepy and hungry.

Eventually we had breakfast and at 8:30 we left for our drive to Gibraltar about 1.5 hours away.  We followed the Mediterranean most of the way.  The landscape was very dry with only small trees and shrubs.  However, along the coast the area often looks very lush and green.  That's where the big mansions, resorts and golf courses are and of course they are irrigated.  Against the blue sea and the green (or brown) landscape there are villages and towns with bright white buildings and walls.  The countryside is flat to rolling and very picturesque on the non-sea side.  

The highways are great in Spain.  They are wide and smooth divided multi=lane roads even through the mountains so it is a very smooth ride.  On the sections through the mountains there are a lot of tunnels and we seem to stop at toll booths every half hour or so.  With all the winding and swaying in the mountains I'm not really liking some of the roads but so far I haven't suffered too much motion sickness.  The worst times are when I do continuous computer work, then I feel a bit queasy and have to stop working for a while.  At least I haven't had to take any gravol yet or I'd be sleeping through the whole trip.  

La Linea is the town on the Spanish side of the border with Gibraltar.  I thought "the line" was a pretty good name for it.  And the Rock just towers over the town and its beaches.  The border and ownership of the area has been in dispute for centuries.  It was the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht that gave ownership to Britain.  Spain got to keep its South American colonies and others but lost Gibraltar to the British who wanted it for protection and control purposes.  The treaty only gave them control of the land mass though and not control of the water so it didn't work quite as well as they had anticipated.  Despite the battles over the border, Gibraltar and La Linea fought together against Napoleon's troops in 1810 to protect the whole area.  

Most of the people in La Linea work in Gibraltar and have since the 18th century when Gibraltar was a large naval base.  Trade with Gibraltar through La Linea is also big as Spain provides Gibraltar with fruits and vegetables and other staples.  The people easily cross the border now but from 1969 to 1985, that was not the case when the border was closed due to a border dispute between Spain and England.  In a referendum around this same time, the people in Gibraltar voted to stay with England.  As you approach the border the homes and resorts disappear and the area becomes more deserted as it is an army security zone on the Spanish side.

When we arrived at the border between Spain and Gibraltar we got out of the bus and walked across.  Apparently if we cross with the bus we have to take out all our luggage and the bus has to be thoroughly checked so Trafalgar just skips that part.  It was a bit of a walk but the actual process was very fast with the officials only giving a quick look at our passports as we walked past.  We then walked to the airport, which was right next door, to use their facilities.   By the time we had all finished with that process there were two shuttle buses waiting for us and they took us to downtown Gibraltar.  And to get there you had to drive across the airport runway because that's just the way they have it set up.  People were also walking or riding their bikes across as well.  Obviously they have signals like at railway crossings to stop traffic when needed.  We sat for quite a while but then eventually a plane land and crossed in front of us going very fast.

Those shuttle buses took us to a downtown spot and from there we got on to different mini buses for the trip up the actual Rock of Gibraltar.  And I have to say that the Rock of Gibraltar is indeed a really big rock.  I can't say that I really thought about it but I definitely didn't expect to see anything as high and as sheer as the rock really is.   It is huge and just seems to rise out of nowhere.   Legend has it that Gibraltar is one of the two pillars of Hercules with the other one being across the Strait of Gibraltar on another promontory in Africa.

The territory of Gibraltar is only 6.5 km long and has a population of about 30,000 including 2,000 navy personnel.  Everyone lives on the east part of the territory as the west part is a sheer cliff and uninhabitable.  It is a multi-cultural territory with Jews, Muslims and Christians being the largest religious groups.  The area actually has a really long history and Neanderthal skulls over 50,000 years old were discovered in some of the caves of Gibraltar.  Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, etc. all were once in control.   Even the Egyptians and Greeks knew of and revered it as a sacred place.  The Muslims had control in 711 and the Christians took it in 1492.  With that kind of background it is no wonder it has a multi-cultural feel.  Most of the people living in Gibraltar still speak Spanish not English, which is the official language.  Gibraltar uses British pounds but the Spanish won't recognize them.  We used euros while in Gibraltar and had no problem getting euros back as change.

The drive up the Rock in the mini bus was interesting.  The roads are narrow with twists and turns around the rock face.  At times you are looking at a sheer wall on one side and down a steep drop on the other side.  The next minute the views were teh same but just out the opposite windows.  However, the drivers all seemed to know what they were doing - probably had been driving the same route several times a day for many years - and seemed comfortable doing it.  

Our first stop was at Europa Point.  It has a big viewing area that looks in several directions around the point.  There were views of the Rock itself, views of the harbour with all the naval ships, views to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and you could even see across the strait to Africa.  There is a big lighthouse on the point whose light can be seen almost 40 km away.  From 1841 and standing 49 metres above sea level, it actually looks like a lighthouse from olden days.  There are memorials and statues to various battles and people.  There are couple of small chapels or shrines and even a small white mosque that looks beautiful set against the side of the rock.  This is quite a large area and obviously one of the main view points.  The parking lot was virtually empty when we were there but it could hold a lot of vehicles and obviously gets busy at times.

We continued our winding journey up and around the rock until we came to the location of St. Michael's Cave.  The cave itself is interesting but we all got sidetracked by the Barbary macaques (tail-less monkeys) or Apes of Gibraltar as they are called.  They are everywhere and they are very tame.  They jumped on the bus as soon as we stopped.  They were on the road and the railings and in the trees and pathways.  They were definitely hard to avoid and most people didn't want to anyway.  They were also quite cheeky and would try to grab things from people.  Of course we'd been warned about that but no one listened.  The older males were quite large.  The females were smaller and the babies were tiny.  It was so much fun to watch them.  They would try to climb up something and fall back down rolling end over end, right themselves and do it all over again.  Some of the little ones kept their distance but others came right up to the people.  Both parents rear the young and it was obvious that the males were climbed on and hugged as much as the females.  The drivers obviously knew them all by name and would talk to them and the monkeys would come and put their arms around them.  Then of course they would start checking their pockets for treats.  They were very cute and a lot of fun to watch.  There are just over 200 of them in Gibraltar and they are the only wild monkeys in Europe.  They are named after the Barbary Coast in Africa, which is where they originally came from.  

 The Cave of St. Michael was really nice with lots of different rooms of different sizes.  The stalactites and stalagmites were of various sizes and the formations were fantastic on their own.  Of course when you added some coloured lights for dramatic effect they were even more impressive.  Reds, blues, yellows, purples, greens, etc. all made for a charming walk in a totally different wonderland.  The one big cave area had chairs set up and obviously they hold concerts in here at times.  The acoustics would be incredible.  There were stairs up and down to get to the different caves and everything was very wide open so no tiny passageways or hidden tunnels - at least not that I saw. It didn't take long to walk through and take pictures but it was very impressive.  Apparently the cave was used as a hospital during WWII and it also has a lower level where the caves are much smaller and tours for this area must be arranged separately.

I think we had one other brief stop up on the rock and that was for a view of the naval base.  It is huge, which I guess is appropriate for such a strategic location.  After that we went down the windy roads and through the tunnels to get to the bottom of the hill again.  They dropped us at the entrance to a town square and we had some free time to do as we pleased.

Everyone went in a different direction as some did want to shop and didn't care about eating.  Others went to eat and didn't care about shopping.  Yes, I went to eat.  I simply went to a local spot to get a couple of simosas and an ice tea.  It took quite a while because the guy was busy but apparently also because the main guy wasn't there and this person was just helping out.  However, the simosas were great and the park bench was just fine.  And he took euros and gave change in euros and it was really inexpensive as well.

After eating I went for a quick walk down the shopping street.  It was a pedestrian street only and very busy with stores, cafes and pubs on both sides.  I kept walking until I got to the cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned.  I'm not sure it was the cathedral I was supposed to be going to see but it was the one I found.  It is a plain beige/pink exterior with white decorations and a tall tower with bells and a clock at the top.  The interior is very white with stained glass windows, statues and other ornaments as decoration.  The whole building, both inside and out, was very plain and simple looking but also very elegant.  It's hard to give a date for the building because it started as a mosque, then was stripped of everything Islamic and changed to Christianity, then it was remodelled, then it was damaged in a war and then it was rebuilt.  I really have no idea what period this final design is from.

There were many other old buildings in Gibraltar and up on the hill and it would have been nice to have had more time to explore.  The museum sounded very interesting and would have been very informative.  An old Jewish synagogue, an Irish town (or at least a street), the King's Bastion, a moorish castle and other sights would have been interesting to see.  But instead, we crossed back over the airport runway, went through the border crossing and got back on our bus to continue our journey.

The drive between Gibraltar and Seville through the Andalusian countryside was a couple of hours through low rolling hills, some flatter valleys and some mountains.  There was more water lying around in ponds and rivers in this area than we had previously seen and there were cows and sheep in the pastures even though the land itself still looked quite dry. 

We arrived at our hotel in Seville and didn't have too long until it was time for dinner, which was included at the hotel.  I don't remember what it was but I'm sure it was not memorable for a reason.  After dinner, some of the group went off to a Flamenco show but we did not join them.  Instead we went for a short walk.  Well, the short walk turned into a longer and longer walk as we got a bit lost on the streets that didn't seem to go in any uniform direction.  However, we kept walking and eventually made it back to the hotel.  It was not without a moment or two of panic by some of the group though and we weren't helped by people who said there was no bank on the street when we knew we had used one on the street earlier.  I'm still not sure what that was about.  Of course we all just walked out after dinner and didn't necessarily have the official hotel name or address with us so that wasn't too smart on our part.  We are definitely not staying in the touristy part of town though so our walk was just through the local neighbourhood with a lot of churches and small squares and restaurants along the way.  We did make it back just fine.  We just walked a bit further to get there than originally anticipated by some of us.