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Published: June 28th 2023
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The view to Facinas from Manuel's patioWe left Chipiona around 6pm, heading to my nephew Manuel's house in Facinas, which is fairly close to Gibraltar. We'd be spending two nights in his house, and going to Gibraltar tomorrow. We had a bit of trouble finding his house, since it was basically part of the farming outskirts, but we finally made it. His house may not look like much from the outside, but it was quite nice, with 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and a nice patio. We met his girlfriend, who was quite nice, and worked for a company that was determining the damage done by the wind turbines on birds. Manuel worked as an engineer for Airbus, so he could work anywhere, including from home.
The next day we loaded up Consuelo's car, with people, and headed to Gibraltar. My brother-in-law Antonio couldn't come because he had to work, but Consuelo, Salome my niece, Manuel my nephew, and my wife and I, all jammed into the car and headed to Gibraltar. We arrived at La Linea, the last town on the border with Gibraltar, finally after looking for free parking, decided to pay for parking, and headed to the border. The border was fairly complex,
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The African coastline with buildings on both side belonging to Spain and England, with an airport in the middle. The airport took the whole width of land between them and maybe added some false land. Sometimes to cross, you had to wait on one side or the other, for a plane to land or takeoff. It was a rather strange situation, but probably fairly unique in the world. We passed through customs on both sides, us showing our passports and getting a stamp, and the rest scanning their Spanish ID.
Gibraltar, is known as the Rock of Gibraltar, since the whole place is almost nothing but a giant rock, with buildings most of the way around near the ocean. It is part of England, and a strategic point for entry to the mediterranean. During several wars, it was a choke point and contains a number of batteries (places where cannons were mounted to fire upon ships attempting to enter the mediterranean. You can visit most of these batteries, but we didn't want to take the time. The oceanfront is virtually covered with buildings, mostly businesses and hotels, since it is a very touristy place, especially for the Spaniards. For us, the main
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Our group crossing the border/landing strip into Gibraltar point to see was the top of the rock, and the wild monkeys. You can drive up to the top, or almost to the top, but you can also take a cable car. The cable car was almost on the opposite side from the customs entry point, so we walked along a main street or two, stopping frequently at stores.
When we reached the cable car, we paid the $24 each and waited in line. It was a bit of a wait going up, but the return was quite quick. They jammed folks into the car until there was no room to move, shut gate, and started up. It only takes six minutes to make the trip, and the views were excellent. When we reached to top, we were greeted by monkeys, hanging out (not literally) beneath and beside the cable car. We got out, and started wandering around the main building, which, beside the cable car dock, was also a restaurant, cafeteria, restrooms, and a tiny souvenir shop. As we wound our way up and down stairs, we encountered more and more monkeys. They had signs down below to not feed the monkeys or carry plastic bottles or
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A welcoming sign for Gibraltar bags. Apparently the monkeys are smart enough to trick you into letting them steal your bags or bottles. On one crossover platform, we watched a monkey who had stolen a bag of picos (a Spanish breadstick) and was sitting there stuffing them into his mouth, while a lot of people took photos, including me. Oh, and contrary to the sign down below that said No Smoking, there was an area next to the cafeteria where smoking was allowed. We went up to the cafeteria for drinks, and to appreciate the scenery. After our break, we went out a side door to the part next to the Nature Preserve, to look for monkeys. Sure enough, there were lots of monkeys hanging around, cleaning each other and trying to tempt the tourists to give them food, or even steal it.
After wandering around the area for a bit, we decided to take the cable car back down, taking some more awesome photos along the way. There was almost no wait for the next cable car, and in 6 minutes we were back to the bottom. By this time, it was time for lunch, so walked down the main street to the
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The main square in Gibraltar main plaza and chose a place to eat lunch, called Little Rock, because it had a lot of shade, and the menu wasn't bad either. We got three orders of Fish'n'Chips, a juicy hamburger, and a seafood plate for Consuelo. Everything was quite tasty. After lunch, we headed to the border, having to wait, along with others, for a plane to land.
Our day of fun wasn't over yet. Manuel stopped at the town of Tarifa, and gave us a walking tour. Tarifa is a major port, especially from north Africa, and cars. They had a rather large complex for loading and unloading cars, with customs and all. There were also ruins of a fort inland, and the ruins of a large fort on an island you can walk to. After our walk around, it was after 7:30pm, so we headed back to Manuel's house. Tomorrow we head back to Chipiona, but not before a nice stop.
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