Gibraltar.

Gibraltar looks just like all the pictures you’ve seen. A giant limestone rock rising out of the ocean. It’s magnificent. We walked out of the train station in La Linea, the Spanish border town. We had heard you could just walk across the border. We weren’t sure which way to go until we saw the giant Union Jack flag in the distance. Follow that flag! Sure enough, five minutes later, we were on British soil.

Gibraltar is a small town that is situated mainly on the west side of the base of the rock. The citizens speak English and Spanish, and you’ll regularly hear them switching back and forth between the two languages in one conversation. Little old ladies with their British English accents will turn around to a shopkeeper and say, “Café cortado, por favor.” A little jarring, but charming nonetheless. Gibraltar is basically just a little English village in the Mediterranean. Pubs abound with typical pub fare like steak and kidney pie, and bangers and mash. We enjoyed our first pints there since we’d left the states.

We spent the day wandering around the town, seeking out some historical sights. We saw the Trafalgar cemetery, home to the gravestones of many sailors killed in the famous battle. We saw the 100-ton gun, a “mega gun” that has a 7-mile range and was supposed to keep Gibraltar free of invaders. It never fired a shot, but I guess you can’t say it didn’t work. Who wants to go up against a mega gun?

We also hiked up the side of the rock to see the Apes of Gibraltar, the only wild apes in all of Europe. Most people drive up the rock, but not us. We made the hike, and enjoyed the views along the way. When we got to the parking lot half-way up the rock, the staff there had a hard time understanding that we did not have a car. We made our way to the apes viewing area. We came upon a path that was specifically for people on foot, and claimed to lead to the apes. It was constructed by the Anglican Regiment of something-or-other in the ‘60s, and was still maintained by that regiment. Great! No more threat of getting run off the road by a car! We headed down the path, and started noticing immediately the great number of seagulls that were flying all around us. Then we started noticing how loud they were. Then we started noticing that they were loud because of us. They had sent up the alarm. I looked down and could see little baby gulls in their nests, and realized that we were about to become casualties of a real-life instance of The Birds. Hundreds of sea gulls were swooping around us and screaming. We decided it might be a good idea to head back to the main road. We turned back and started walking at a fast clip, until one of the birds dive-bombed me and came within five feet of me. We started running then. Warren was ahead of me and refused to wait, despite the fact that I thought we’d be a more foreboding force if we were together. Amazingly, we made it back to the main road without getting shat on and with our eyeballs still comfortably in their sockets.

Warren's notes: Hey! I came back (my number one rule of "trouble" is to run away)!

We finally found the apes (they’re macaques), and were surprised to see how bored they were with people. You can walk right up to the apes and take a million pictures of them, all while they ignore the fact that you’re a foot away from them. One of the apes walked by me and got close enough to brush his fur on my arm.

As we made our way down the rock, we found another footpath that thankfully did not run through a sea gull rookery, and were led straight down into the center of the city. As we looked back, we realized that the locals had done their best to direct brave hikers to the apes.

Large versions of the photos are available here.

The Rock.

Warren's notes:  This first view of The Rock had a lot of meaning for me -- when I was kid I always loved reading 'bout Gib's role in the Napoleonic war.

The mega gun!!!!!!!

Warren's notes: too sexy!!

Trafalgar cemetery.

Apes, apes and more apes.

If you look closely, you can see the word “apes” painted at the top of the Union Jack. If only we had seen this staircase before entering the sea gulls’ lair.

Warren's notes: this is actually a 'secret' entrance just off the main road, into the nature reserve (it wasn't in the LP we had for Spain).  Once you hike up these stairs you walk in the woods a bit and you're at the ape's den.  This saves you the trouble of walking all 'round the Rock and paying 50p at the main gate.