The Rock

Ever since I mentioned to the kids that we would be visiting a huge rock at the bottom of Spain, from which they would be able see Africa, but which is British and has wild monkeys that they would be able hold, they were intrigued.

Gibraltar turned out to be one of our favorite days. We arrived on the strategic piece of land and immediately were happy to see the signs in English and the boarder guards address us in a language that we could understand. We crossed the Gibraltar airport landing strip, which is what you must do to reach the rock, and found a guide to take us on a tour of the area.

He gave us a little back ground of the area, including that the locals often speak Spanglish to one another which is a combination of Spanish and English. Our first stop was the Pillars of Hercules, a huge monument marking the southern most tip of Europe, where the East meets the West. To the ancient Greeks, the Strait of Gibraltar was created by Hercules. The kids were so excited to be able to see Africa in the distance. I thought it was interesting to see the line of impressive ships crossing the strait between Spain and Morocco.

Our tour guide dropped us off at a cave in which we wandered through. There is an auditorium in the cave where operas and symphonies are preformed.

When we climbed out into the sunlight, we found monkeys climbing on the van in which we were touring. The kids were thrilled. Our tour guide took us to the top of the rock, which was not only perfect for photos, but also was the spot to meet all of the monkeys! As soon as we arrived, they climbed on top of us and posed for pictures with us. Our guide knew the trick of rattling wrappers in his pockets and then pulling out a cracker, which brought more monkeys into our arms. This, of course was the best part of the day for my children!

We were pulled away from the monkeys by the guide to take a tour of the innards of Gibraltar. Gibraltar has been a strategic, much fought over piece of land, going back at least as far as the Roman and Carthaginian battles. Inside of the rock are 30 miles of tunnels which were dug out during various wars. During World War II a hospital and a shelter for 27,000 people were added to the underground world inside the rock. We toured the tunnels, which we all found to be fascinating. There were costumed mannequins, including one that was sensored and shouted "Halt! Who goes there!" Ezra walked past the sensor over and over and even responded back to the soldier. It is possible that this could be what Ezra remembers most about our Spring in Europe!

Our tour ended with an interesting conversation with our guide about his feelings about his British Territory being turned over to Spain, which is what Spain has strongly proposed. He is clearly a Brit with no interest of becoming a Spaniard. We then wandered around the town in search of anything English. We were not disappointed!

As we drove back up north to our spot on the coast of Spain, we were happy to be full of information about The Rock