We decided to go buy a tour in a minivan with another group of four young people from Australia. We each paid 50€ for the driver who was tour guide and this kid for admission to all of the sights. In fact we would have paid 46€ for the cable car and access to all the sites so we were really pleased with our choice!
We learned the two couples we were with - the men were brothers and they each had their partners with them. The trip had started out with the brother’s parents but the Mom had been evacuated for a medical emergency in Barcelona. In fact, we had seen a woman being loaded into an ambulance when we disembarked in Barcelona. We learned she is doing okay but she and her husband will be flying back to Australia in a day or two. Sadly, this is not the trip the family had been expecting.
We all hopped in the van with our guide Lionel who had 40 years of military experience and was a proud Gibraltarian. We went to see the Pillars of Hercules to begin. It is said to be a religious shrine and as an entrance to the world of Hades.
We then drove up to St Michael’s Cave. My geologist son JG would have loved it!! It is said one can see the image of St Michael in the stalactite and stalagmite.
After this Cave, we then went to the sky view area near the top of the rock. What an amazing view!
JP took this amazing photo!
We didn’t go into the nature preserve here - but we did see the tailless macaques!
DG deserves the photo credit for this photo!
We then travelled to the siege tunnels. We could have taken the ride to the bottom of the hill but we wanted to explore some more and we were so glad we did. This is the view from outside the siege tunnels:
We are looking north to Spain. The Mediterranean Sea is to the right and the Atlantic Ocean is to the left. And yes that is an airport runway between the two that stops traffic from crossing when planes land and take off!!
The Siege tunnels were chiselled out in the 1700’s when the Spanish War was taking place. Great Britain realized that the rock was offering natural protection to the Spaniards to the north and the Brits needed to burrow through the rock to give themselves a military advantage. It worked!!
An information board nicely summarized as The Great Siege.
ME, DG and JP looking out at the Mediterranean Sea at the far end of the siege tunnel open to the public.
We then walked further down the road to the World War II tunnels. Obviously in the 1940’s machinery was used to help dig out the tunnels - far different than in the 1700’s. The Canadians contributed significantly to the cause.
We then stopped at the Moorish Castle.
And then as we continued to walk down the road ME saw a public bus that would take us back into the city. For 2.4 € we were able to climb into a little air conditioned bus and get very close to the centre of town.
We were now on a mission. We knew that Canada was playing in the Women’s World Cup of soccer. We had missed the first half but hoped to watch the last half at a sports bar. Success! O’Reilly’s had a big screen outside and was playing another game. After some sweet talking JP managed to get them to change to the Canadian game. We could drink beer or order ice cream! One beer, two ice creams and one iced coffee later we were enjoying watching the game. It wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we were pleased to watch the game!
Pretty sweet viewing opportunity to see the soccer game!
We then made our way back to the ship by 3:15. After a refreshing swim we wondered where Laurie and Amy were, the two sisters we met earlier in the cruise.
We found them and learned they had been travelling on an independent excursion much like ours. Their excursion ran late. Laurie, not being a runner, used all of her energy to run to the ship by 4:30 pm - the all aboard time to advise the ship that her parents in their 80’s were on their way but they couldn’t run. The ship obliged and waited for them. I don’t know how much later the parents were, but they got on board!
Dinner was the usual lovely affair with Hector and Michael serving us at table 616.
The other three went for a walk in deck 17. I returned to our room to write this blog. We will be happy to have a quiet low key night!!
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