Travel Journal: Gibraltar

October 21, 2008

Gibraltar, United Kingdom

Our guidebook for Spain says that the Spanish are still bitter about losing Gibraltar to the UK back in 1713 and it was evident. There are no directional signs for Gibraltar in Spain. It’s as if it doesn’t really exist until you are right on top of it. Also, if you get the Gibraltar Pound, which is different from the British Pound, Spain won’t change your money. Luckily, Gibraltar takes Euros and we were able to use exact change.

We parked the car in La Linea, Spain, and walked across the border into Gibraltar. There is a tiny airport on the Gibraltar side and from there we took a bus into the town. The town is a busy, modern European city. There is a downtown area, new condos and office buildings going up everywhere, and several walking streets of shops and cafes. We ate lunch at one of the cafes and took a cable car ride up the giant rock-face Gibraltar is famous for to see the monkeys.

There are about 230 “wild” monkeys, called Barbary Macaques, in Gibraltar. There are two theories on how the monkeys got there. One, the monkeys are a left over from when monkeys used to inhabit all of Europe over 5.5 million years ago. Two, Moors imported them from North Africa between 711 and 1492 to use as pets.

However they got there, today they are quite an attraction for Gibraltar. They are the national animal, and receive healthcare and food from the government. They aren’t afraid of people and allow you to get very close. There were several babies which were fun to watch play, similar to human toddlers in their antics. We took the cable car to the top of the rock, which is about 1,396 ft high. Then we walked down zigzagging roads through families of monkeys playing in the trees, on the roads, and on monkey play sets.

It was a beautiful day; clear enough to see the Atlas Mountains in Northern Africa. There were several dozen large barges in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea. It is obviously a major hub to Northern Africa and Southern Europe. Once we had our fill of monkeys, we took the bus back to the boarder and walked back to our car. We had no plans and two days to kill, so we decided to head for the ritzy beach town of Marbella, Spain.