Woke today at an unbelievable 8.40am!! We have been putting our clocks back and forth an hour for the different time zones and its getting a bit confusing!
Mucked around in the morning as we weren’t arriving in Gibraltor till 1.30pm. Had a great lunch (for breakfast) and then sat outside as the sun came out of the clouds. It warmed to 25C!
We were on an organized tour today for the first time as we wanted to get the cable car to the top of the rock and there were monkeys included! Also meant that we got to speak to other English speakers as they break it up into language tour groups. Was really good to talk to some Australians. We are I think, the only kiwis on board but Aussies are fine this far away from home!
Our tour guide “fast Eddie” was a really funny guy and had been doing these tours for 25 years. He took us along the narrow one way streets in the small bus to the cable car stop. Up to the top in 5 mins and what a view at the top.
For me though, the focus was the fantastic monkeys. They were cared for by the British Army until they pulled out in 2003, but they are running free – you cant touch them as they don’t like it but we were warned that they would try and pinch your bags if they thought there was food in them. Got some great shots of them sitting on the edge of these walls so high up.
Then up the rock with Eddie, where he told us that it is full of tunnels that were dug out in the 1700’s through to the WWII. There were iron rings all the way up every 25 yards that were used to pull the guns up to the top in pieces. The barrels alone weighed 27 tonne each and once assembled, the shells could fire 27 miles across to Africa, so no german ships entered the med. We were also able to go into some of those tunnels at the top- hard to believe they were hand dug.
Then we stopped at the monkeys den where they live free and Eddie said if we wanted any monkeys to sit on our shoulders we could as they all trusted him and let him handle them. So Eddie pulled out some nuts and one was up on my head, then put his paw down my top – It was a dream that Danni would have loved and pretty exciting for me too ( seeing the monkey not its paw down my top!)!
They are very gentle and never scratched me. There was a young girl I heard about 10 or 11 there with her family, who desperately wanted one to sit on her too but she wasn’t with the tour group, so I asked Eddie if he could do the same for her which he did. Probably something she will never forget and just lucky she was there when a guide who the monkeys loved, was there!
Note in the pic of the airport runway that there is a road going across it at one end- with traffic lights!!
All in all a great day and something new again! We could also see Morocco across the sea as we went down back to town and onto the ship.
Had a great tea (our lovely waiter Andy always gives us the 2nd dessert of ice cream with whatever else we order!) then met George and Lorris a couple from Melbourne we met today for a drink- was a most enjoyable day!
Mucked around in the morning as we weren’t arriving in Gibraltor till 1.30pm. Had a great lunch (for breakfast) and then sat outside as the sun came out of the clouds. It warmed to 25C!
We were on an organized tour today for the first time as we wanted to get the cable car to the top of the rock and there were monkeys included! Also meant that we got to speak to other English speakers as they break it up into language tour groups. Was really good to talk to some Australians. We are I think, the only kiwis on board but Aussies are fine this far away from home!
Our tour guide “fast Eddie” was a really funny guy and had been doing these tours for 25 years. He took us along the narrow one way streets in the small bus to the cable car stop. Up to the top in 5 mins and what a view at the top.
For me though, the focus was the fantastic monkeys. They were cared for by the British Army until they pulled out in 2003, but they are running free – you cant touch them as they don’t like it but we were warned that they would try and pinch your bags if they thought there was food in them. Got some great shots of them sitting on the edge of these walls so high up.
Then up the rock with Eddie, where he told us that it is full of tunnels that were dug out in the 1700’s through to the WWII. There were iron rings all the way up every 25 yards that were used to pull the guns up to the top in pieces. The barrels alone weighed 27 tonne each and once assembled, the shells could fire 27 miles across to Africa, so no german ships entered the med. We were also able to go into some of those tunnels at the top- hard to believe they were hand dug.
Then we stopped at the monkeys den where they live free and Eddie said if we wanted any monkeys to sit on our shoulders we could as they all trusted him and let him handle them. So Eddie pulled out some nuts and one was up on my head, then put his paw down my top – It was a dream that Danni would have loved and pretty exciting for me too ( seeing the monkey not its paw down my top!)!
They are very gentle and never scratched me. There was a young girl I heard about 10 or 11 there with her family, who desperately wanted one to sit on her too but she wasn’t with the tour group, so I asked Eddie if he could do the same for her which he did. Probably something she will never forget and just lucky she was there when a guide who the monkeys loved, was there!
Note in the pic of the airport runway that there is a road going across it at one end- with traffic lights!!
All in all a great day and something new again! We could also see Morocco across the sea as we went down back to town and onto the ship.
Had a great tea (our lovely waiter Andy always gives us the 2nd dessert of ice cream with whatever else we order!) then met George and Lorris a couple from Melbourne we met today for a drink- was a most enjoyable day!
6 comments:
Just had a quick scroll through - top effort recording it all and must say very jealous! Brings back great memories and wish we were all touring together again! Maybe one day!!
All is great here, love thy neighbour ahahahahahhahaa big hugs, keep enjoying, stay safe and have a drink for me!!! love yas Clare xoxox
Where is the picture of the monkey delving into your cleavage??
Its was slipping its paw into my cleavage dad!!
Hi Clare Bear!!
I wish that i was there i do really like monkeys it would have been so cool to have a monkey on your shoulder lol
xoxoxoxoxox
lol warned you about those cheeky monkeys but geasus theve gotten worse there after turning out to be molesters now lol
Claire- yeah travelling with you two would be a laugh a minute- and lots of stops for beers etc!! Hope you are going ok there on your own- but you have your two girls to behave like naughty twins!!
M & D- Sorry Ihadloaded one of those pics but it must have dropped off somewhere!! Have now added it as you can see. Very gentle it was too!
Danni- you would have LOVED it- thats why I helped the young girl who happened to be there and wanted one on her shoulder, but wasnt part of the our tour. We were lucky cos our tour guid lovesd them and they love him, so they would come up to us for him. But he told us not to touch them at all cos they dont like touching at all!!
Karl- you were exactly right ! I was careful and didnt take anything with me that the monkeys could steal and the guide got them up on my shoulder- my first ever experience with live ones other than the zoo- was great!
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