The Rock of Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British territory/island off of the coast of Spain and about a 45 minute drive from our hotel.  The weather was bad to start our day but thankfully it cleared up shortly after we arrived.  We had to bring our passports and officially cross the border.  We were told that if the border patrol lines were long, then to park on the Spain side and walk over.  THANK GOODNESS we DIDN'T do that (we mainly decided against it because of the weather), but we have no clue how we would have gone about seeing everything.  Yes, it's an island, but the points of interest are really spread out and there is so much to see UP the rock that it would have been a nightmare (especially with 10 of us!)  The road were super narrow which gave way to some white knuckle driving with a stick shift up and down hills (at least we were on the right side of the road though!)  We toured Gibraltar on Thanksgiving day and we definitely felt the blessing of being stationed overseas and having such awesome opportunities...we were Americans living in Germany, vacationing in Spain, and sightseeing in Gibraltar!  

 

The Rock seen driving in from Spain...no clue how Gibraltar has been able to maintain control of this island for over 300 years!!!!  Germany tried hard to get it during WWII, but Spain held strong and Spain has always battled with wanting it and went as far as closing the border for 13 years in the 70-80's!!!  The history of Gibraltar is definitely worth researching!  This timeline is an easy quick read...



Our first stop was at the Balcony of Europe/Europa Point look out which had a cute little restaurant perfect for a bathroom break, but the wind and rain was so bad we didn't get to venture out.  

It had stopped raining by our second stop which was to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve (we unexpectedly had to pay 50 pounds...close to $80-$90) to see this part.  The Barbary Macaques roam freely here, so of course that was the highlight for the kids!

 iPhone panoramic

 

 The Great Siege Tunnels

 

Inside the WWII tunnels (she's so crazy!!!)

The Moorish Castle

And some video snippets...

It was a perfect day trip...we had debated about taking the ferry over to Morocco since we were right there, but it would have made for an even longer day with the kids, plus add quite a cost.  AND thankfully, we didn't because we chatted with an American family on our plane ride home to Germany that had gone to Morocco on the same day we had thought about it and GOT STUCK OVERNIGHT!!!  The weather was too bad for the ferries to run, SO THEY DIDN'T!!!