The Rock!

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This morning's plan was to get up early, check out, store my luggage and take the cable car up to the Rock. The cable car runs so close to my balcony, that I was able to take some pictures as it went past. I made my way down to the station, but it seemed closed, so I grabbed some coffee and wrote postcards. When I went back, I found out that it was closed for maintenance. They didn't have any information, didn't care and said it could be 5 minutes, 5 hours, or all day. Thank you so very much. It boggles my mind how so many bumps and glitches there can be in a trip. The reason I came here was to go up on the Rock and see the apes and the view. Time to put on my traveling thinking cap (it is smaller than my at home thinking cap.)

While thinking, I had a sandwich with sausage, ham, tomato, mushrooms, cheese and fried egg on a hard roll. It was so darn good, and I was thinking so darn hard that I had another one. Glad I did because I came to the conclusion that the only thing to do was to take a taxi tour up top. I made their day when I told them that the cable car was closed. They live for days like this it seems. Only had to wait about 15 minutes for 2 other people to show up and off we went. I had to chuckle when the server at the Angry Friar restaurant where I ate asked where I was from. She told me that I had such a distinctive accent, but she couldn't place it. I don´t think I have any accent, but she was so right, I do compared to the way people talk here.

We stopped to see the view of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Africa in the distance. Today was such a beautiful blue day that we could see fairly clearly over to Africa. After that we went to the St. Michael Cave. It is so large that they have a stage and auditorium in the cave. It was nice, but we then stopped at the highest level that cars can go. The Apes live there and are absolutely incredible. We were told that they can touch us, but we shouldn't touch them. They can be aggressive so it is best to stay clear. The taxi driver fed them peanuts and put them on our shoulders for pictures. I was just standing there when one jumped from a rock onto my neck and grabbed my head. It surprised me, but was actually pretty darn neat. The whole tour was a lot of fun. We were standing on the North side and got to watch a plane take off from the airport. Traffic had to stop and wait while the plane taxied down the runway, turned around and then took off. Again, it was something that I had really wanted to see. Out of what I thought was going to be a ruined crappy day was this amazing day. I know I would not have seen or experience all that I did had I taken the cable car to the top by myself. Sometimes Life does know what it best; I just have to remember to listen for it and not my own whining.

Heading out to my rental car and off to Granada now. Hopefully I will be able to log on tonight. Until then, Ciao.

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