This morning we crossed into Gibraltar, the 16th and last new country we’d visit on our trip. Gibraltar has been a British colony since 1713 and recent votes show they have no intention of ever releasing the territory back to Spain. The entire country measures 3 miles by 1 mile, and is almost entirely dominated by the steep-faced mountain known as “The Rock”. With its red phone booths, pounds (not euros), and fish-n-chips everywhere, this is definitely not Spain.Our first stop was a visit to the fort that housed the only other 100-ton gun in existence. If you’ll recall, we saw the first one in Malta, so Cole enjoyed showing this one to Blake. Our next stop was to ascend “the rock” itself. For this you have two options; you can either take a cable car to the actual summit, or you can drive a cliff-hugging road that takes you past all the sights the rock has to offer. Since the summit was fogged in, our choice was easy. Options along the drive included St. Michael’s cave (full of stalagmites and stalactites), a Moorish Castle, numerous manmade military tunnels, and our personal favorite, the Barbary Macaques. These tailless monkeys supposedly first arrived to Gibraltar with the Moors as pets. Today they’re the only primates still living freely in Europe, other than humans of course. We had so much fun with them that we laughed until we cried, and cried, and cried.
Notice Angie is still shopping while Ella keeps an eye on the monkey.
This monkey was a trouble-maker. At one point Joel went to open his trunk, and faster than you can blink, this guy darted in and grabbed a bag of chips from the trunk. He sat on the hood of my car and proudly finished every last chip.
If you got too close to his new prize, this is the reaction you'd get.
