France, Spain, and Portugal 2017

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Friday November 17 and Saturday November 18th Algeciras and Gibraltar
With our all-too-brief stay in Seville over, we once again loaded up the car and drove south to visit Gibraltar. We were staying at the Marriott across the Bay of Gibraltar in the Spanish port city of Algeciras. Barry found the busy loading dock, viewed out our 7th floor windows, fascinating. (We could also see Gibraltar and "The Rock" seemed to have a permanent cloud hovering over it.) We walked to nearby Plaza Alto along a pleasant pedestrian street and had delicious club sandwiches, beers and decadent desserts at an outdoor cafe called "Okay". Happy hour continued when we returned to the hotel and we hit the sack early. The days when we change locations are always tiring...Saturday we would tackle Gibraltar.
After checking out of the hotel, we drove to La Línea de la Concepción, the Spanish border town. Research recommended parking here in a secure lot and walking across the border as many locals do in order to buy cheaper clothes and cigarettes. Driving a car across can sometimes take hours by the time you clear customs whether coming or going. As soon as we arrived in the UK territory, we hopped a Gibraltar city bus which took us to the base of the cable car. (Lynda worriedly questioned if we were going up...which of course we were.) Upon reaching the top we were immediately greeted by the Barbary macaques, aka Apes of Gibraltar. The views were amazing and the young and old macaques alike were wonderfully entertaining although visitors are warned about their aggressiveness, proven true when Barry almost lost his ball cap to a frisky teenager. We walked along the road for 800 meters down the hill to Saint Michael's cave for a look-see and a Speckled Hen beer at a rustic cafe. Saying goodbye to the apes, we boarded the cable car for the 6 minute ride back down. We walked the length of Main Street and had fish and chips and more Speckled Hen beer at the Gibraltar Arms. Then it was back to Spain and on to Malaga.

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