And I finally uploaded all of the Gibraltar pictures that I wanted on here. Remember, I have at least twice the amount of pictures that I load on here, I just don't have the space on blogger for them all plus some of them suck. And here we go.
Gibraltar (known by the locals as "Gib" or "The Rock" is actually owned by the United Kingdom, so when you go to visit it you actually have to go through passport control (which is a joke, by the way.) And all the locals in Gib speak English with a British accent. It's like entering a whole different world from Spain. Gibraltar is held by the British for military reasons, because it's at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. If you look at a map, the Med Sea starts where Spain and Morocco almost touch, and, in fact, when you are here at Gibraltar you can see Morocco (which is in Africa) even on a cloudy day like this. The Strait of Gibraltar can be traveled by boat in less than a half hour. It's supposedly one of the ancient pillars of Hercules, the other in Africa across the strait. I suggest checking out
wikipedia's entry on Gibraltar for more--I could go on and on. The picture above is the entrance to Gibraltar. The three times we went we parked in a parking garage in Spain and walked across the border. The line of cars to get in was usually huge, and Gibraltar is pretty tiny (other than the rock) so it seemed easier to walk across.
This is "the rock" as we were driving toward it. The sea is behind that wall.
The rock kind of pops out of the horizon wherever you are, it's actually kind of nice in case you're lost--just look for the massive rock.
This is after we parked and were walking across to the border. Those cars are at a standstill trying to get into the country.
A sign (in Spain) at the border. Look closely at the black one.
Another sign near the "sex shop" sign. What this says is no left turn, except for tourists. How the hell can they tell the difference?
Once we walked across the border, we hopped a double decker bus (just like in England) to take us into town. We could have walked, but that's not as fun as taking a double decker bus. Along the way we drove past this little construction project. "New Kingdom Hall." Yeah, Grandma, your cult IS everywhere.
A cool monument at passport control. It says "Gibraltar- Cradle of History."
Walking into Gib was like walking into England, complete with the telephone booths.
And this street, Main Street, could have been pretty much anywhere in London.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
If there are people, there are McDonalds. This one is in Gib and in English. Right across the border (about 1/10 of a mile) was another one in Spain, in Spanish.
And complete with English mailboxes.
A side street.
Apparently one of the draws to Gib besides the rock is the fact that you can buy booze, smokes, and gas dirt cheap without duty and VAT (value-added tax, around 17%) so Spaniards come by the droves to buy this shit then hop back across the border. There were lots of shops on the main drag just like this one.
Typical English road sign. Looks cool, but totally non-functional unless you are on foot.
Another shot down the main drag.
So, what do you sell again?
A look up the rock--we were headed that way.
This is where we ate lunch, a typical British joint.
And although it was fairly cold out, spitting rain, and around noon I had to have a beer. I have things I must do in every country and this is one. Shit, eat McDonald's, buy a Harley shirt, eat at Hard rock, and have a beer--if at all possible. Unfortunately, I was only able to have a beer here. Damn it.
They have a cable car that goes up the rock, from there you are left to your devices to find the touristy shit which is scattered all over the top. We thought that was the only way to do it until some guy with a van approached us and offered to be our tour guide. And if I've learned one thing in my travels, personal tour guides ARE ALWAYS BETTER. TRUST ME. So we hopped in this rather eccentric native Gibraltarans van (who took great offense to being called "English"--he was "British") and headed up the hill. And thank Jebus we did, because by the end of the tour (we stopped off at about 4-5 places) had we walked we would have walked a few miles, uphill both ways. And I guarantee we wouldn't have found everything he showed us. Plus the price he charged us covered the admission at both of the paid attractions, so it wasn't a bad deal at all. Take my advise on this--if you ever go to a foreign country and can find a personal guide--USE HIM. Anyway, this was the first stop of our trip. It's the Pillars of Hercules monument.
Another view.
This is looking where the monument is facing. All those boats sitting there are waiting to go into the harbor at Algeciras. That's where we sat for fucking ever on the ferry coming across. More on that later. Remember, I'm posting this trip backwards.
We're still at the monument when I took this picture. Notice anything strange? Yeah, that's a ship sinking.
A close up of the sinking ship. The tour guide said it went under during a bad storm about a month prior, but was stuck on a coral reef and they still didn't know what to do with the ship.
The plaque on the Pillars of Hercules monument.
So we got back in the van and headed up the rock a bit more. You can see how narrow these roads are. The tour guide said they were all old military roads that were closed to the public until a few years ago. The very top part of the rock still is off limits/military only.
See that ring in the rock on the side of the road? Apparently those were used back in the day by the military. They used those in conjunction with donkeys to get heavy things like cannons up the steep road.
Back of the tour van we were in. It has plates just like the UK, a yellow in back and white in front. The only difference is "GBZ" under the EU symbol instead of "GB."
And my favorite part of Gibraltar--the monkeys. Towards the top of the rock, monkeys started appearing out of nowhere. Apparently they live on the rock year-round and have been there for a long time, just roaming about. This was taken as we parked the van.
And as we were getting out, one of them jumped on the van. Later we saw them riding around on the roof of cars and vans.
This guy's just chillin.
The next stop on the tour were some natural caves. They were larger than I expected, but nowhere near the size of Jesse James' caves in Missouri (right, dad?) Although these have a lot more history, being mentioned in ancient text.
Laurie and Whiz inside of the caves.
They had cool lighting inside, as well as a little stage with about 200 seats for small plays, weddings, or whatever.
Laurie, Whiz and I are on the stage with the seating behind us.
One of the stalagmites fell and this is a cutaway of it. The rings have to do with the amount of rain, just like rings on a tree.
Outside of the caves, with another monkey on the van.
Driving again--looking down toward the bay.
This was a nice view point we stopped at, that also had lots of people and monkeys. There were signs everywhere telling you there was a 500 pound fine (1000 bucks) for feeding the monkeys, but people were doing it everywhere anyway, like here.
Case in point, that lady right there. You can see all the food scraps as well.
Gib has a more sheer cliff on the Eastern side then the Western, which is evident here.
We were told by our guide that this monkey was the oldest on the island, although I forget how old he was and what his name is. I do remember the guide telling us that there are more than 300 of these guys roaming around freely on the upper part of the rock.
And as we were walking back to the van, I heard Laurie screaming but was preoccupied taking a picture somewhere else. When I turned to her, she had a monkey on her shoulder. She looks really happy here, but this was a lucky shot. She was screaming "get this off of me!" The monkey decided he liked her hair and stroked it for about 30 seconds before he jumped off. The rest of us just kinda stared at her:)
This monkey had a bag of chocolates. I watched him for a while, peeling the wrapper off and eating the candy.
This is the highest point on the rock, and is off-limits except for military.
This is looking down the eastern edge of the rock. All those white specks are birds, there were thousands and thousands of them. It was quite a site.
Stop number 3 on the trip were the Great Siege Tunnels. These were man-made tunnels made by the British military a long, long time ago. There was another set of man-made tunnels that they made during WWII, but we didn't go to those.
This is looking out by the entrance to the tunnels. The city of Gibraltar are those buildings, most of which are built on reclaimed land. Just to the right of the city is the end of the airport runway, more on that in a second.
The road leading to the Great Siege Tunnels.
This was for the cable car to get up and down the rock. That used to be the only way to get up.
Inside the GST. This is a really old cannon.
The British love wax figures in museums and historical sites, and this place was no exception. These guys are showing how they made the tunnels--by hand. What a pain in the ass that would have been.
Entrance to the tunnels.
Why this picture is right here is beyond me, but anyway, this is the double decker bus we rode in Gibraltar. They didn't call Spain Spain in Gib, they called it "The Frontier" or "Frontera" in Spanish. There is a long-standing pissing match between Spain and the UK over who should own Gibraltar.
This is interesting. This was taken by the GST. What you are looking at is the entrance to Gibraltar. To get into Gib you have to walk (or drive) across the airport runway. That road is the only way into Gibraltar, and when a plane is coming they close it down like railroad tracks. Bizarre. To give you an idea, if you follow that road towards the top of the photo, before you get to what looks like a main road is the edge of Gib, where passport control is.
More Great Siege Tunnels, this one with Whiz.
That is a mark from the tool they used to hand make these tunnels. They were all over the place, obviously.
Me being a tard--maybe the air in the tunnel was getting to me:)
Looking down the tunnel...
Airport is to the top of the photo, cemetery to the bottom part.
The observation deck by the GST.
The runway, then Spain.
The eastern edge of the runway. Don't miss that, or you're fucked.
Going back downhill. You can see the western edge of the runway in this photo as well.
But that's a better shot of it. Obviously the runway is mostly on reclaimed land, I'm fairly sure mother nature didn't do that.
Looking up the hill from the GST.
A closer view of the road crossing the runway. I was fascinated with that.
On our way back down when we got into the old part of town we went down some pretty narrow streets.
And here was fundamental problem number one with cars on streets that are 300 years old. It was a showdown between our tour guide and this asshole. We won. This guy had to back down this narrow, winding road about 1/4 mile before we could pass him. Nice.
Another pic of the old town.
This is the oldest building on the rock. It was built by the Moors in like the 1500's or something. Old.
I don't know if you all know about Madeline, that British girl that disappeared in Portugal (I think) a while back. People suspect the lawyer parents, but no one really knows. This was a memorial for her on the fence of a church.
A nice sign for Dad.
A phone booth in an odd place.
Cool looking placement for a church.
The front plate of a Gib vehicle.
On the way out we noticed this fountain--how the hell do you make the water that color? A shitload of food coloring, I imagine. But the better question is why?
The Gib logo on a post. Rachel likes these types of pictures.
A monument about immigration. I think that dude's telling those Moroccans to get the hell back to their own shitty country and leave the Brits alone.
A few of the rock and old (not reclaimed land) town.
As we were leaving, I spotted these two hoodlums.
The bus stop, as we were leaving.
The road crossing the runway on our way out. See those people walking? The TSA would flip the fuck out in the state with security that lax. But really, they have no choice here other than to build a tunnel under it, I suppose.
That's the gate that closes when a plane is landing.
The sign warning about the "airfield ahead."
The price of fuel. Remember, this is in Pound Sterling and in liters.
Scooters were a common sight wherever we went no matter the country. I imagine this is a scooter rental place.
Gracias Por Su Visita.
Walkin' across the runway.
The Mickey D's I was talking about in Spain.
Passport control. What a joke that was. They didn't even look at the picture. All you had to do was flash that it was an American passport and they waved you on. They didn't check us on bit. In fact, we only walked through a metal detector on our way out, but even then no one was taking it seriously. I think it actually was off.
Another view walking toward passport control. I would highly suggest visiting Gib if you are ever in Spain. It was definitely worth it.
Labels: Gibraltar, Spain, vacation
