Saturday, 10 December 2011
My adventures In Gibraltar
Why travel across the Atlantic for seven hours? forget Floria for sunshine as just within two hours you can be in Gibraltar, a British outpost to the sun where there is no need to change your money into another currency since pounds sterling is the currency there. There is a sense of freedom in Gibraltar, from its shores you can see the North of Africa on one side and Cadiz on the other and a ferry ride can take you anywhere in the Mediterranean you heart desires like you can go to the Canarie Islands, Corcega, Malaga, Tunisia, Melilla, Tetuan etc. these are all within reach by sea as North Africa is only 40 nautical miles away, or you can simply cross the border and head into Spain and visit Jerez de la Frontera where they make excellent port and wines. The first day, we went up to the rock to see the Barberian monkeys by cable car when we got to the top, as the tourists arrived in their mini-buses we heard a woman scream: A monkey had gotten hold of her bag! the cheeky monkey took out a sandwich and she tossed away the ham being interested only in the fruity contents of the bag. She tenderly gave the cheese of the sandwich to her baby monkey and she had a green apple. When we returned to our suit in the hotel, I headed towards our room whilst Peter went to the living room and I could hear him talking to someone I went to investigate and found Peter with a menacing monkey. The monkey was standing up, arms held up in a threatening stance, showing him all his teeth. Peter stamped his foot on the floor and the monkey sat down looking at him like saying with his gaze: What do we do now? Peter reached for an apple in the fruit-bowl and threw it outside the open window, the monkey ran after the apple and Peter and I rushed to the window to close it behind the monkey who was contented outside chomping at his apple.
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13 comments:
Hi Maria
My goodness these creatures are tame! I suppose they are used to people feeding them, so they now see humans as a food resource. You will have to lock your hotel windows from now on and keep an apple or two for emergencies.
Yes, the windows weren't shut properly because the monkeys broke in three more times, drinking all the milk and the biscuits from the tea fountain, leaving all the wrappers scattered all over the floor when we came in. They are very clever, they had sussed the times we were out and when the cleaner was not in the room to brake in.
Its part of the charm. Winston Churchill was told (when he visited Gibraltar) that if the monkeys died out, the U.K. would lose Gibraltar so he ordered to build a special hospital to look after them when the monkeys are injured and had some more brought in from North Africa just in case...
Gibraltar is very patriotic, they have statues of Nelson and another statue in the park of a British admiral who defended Gibraltar plus an interesting museum where it tells you the important part the British army had during the Napoleonic wars, the museum also has a section of its pre-historic history, it has the skull of a woman that dates back to the Cromagnon man era. The museum also has authentic Roman baths when they settled there too.
We stayed at a 1920's hotel where Winston Churchill stayed at and many other important people of his time. Even the odious Tony Blair was there not long ago wanting to hand back Gibraltar to the Spanish but his wish was defeated in a referendum and this is how Gibraltar is still British. There is so much going on at the moment since they have reclaimed land from the sea and build stylish modern apartments overlooking the sea with an array of restaurants, shops, cafeterias, some of them built in a quay surrounded by yachts. Its a beautiful place called: Ocean Village where it could easily be mistaken for a place in Australia.
Hi Maria
I hope the Gibraltarians remain British for as long as they want. It sounds like a lovely place to visit. Did you speak to the people in British or Spanish?
If I found Tony Blair in my hotel room, I would stamp my foot on the ground and throw an apple out the window.
Ha,ha,ha if it was only that easy to get rid of tonto Blair. There are a lot of ex-pats living over there, who are very happy to talk to anyone from mainland Britain. People are extremely friendly and English is spoken everywhere, some people also speak Spanish as they come from the nearby town of La Linea to work every day in Gibraltar. There is a very nice pleasant atmosphere.
It's nice to see everybody getting on with one another over there. I think Franco closed the border but that was reversed.
I hope the Gibraltarians get access to the Spanish cigarettes. I had one of those once and it was really good.
the Gibraltarians have access to anything they want, because its a port whether its in Spain or any other country nearby like Portugal, plus they can go inside Spain not far, to cities like Cadiz, Jerez & Malaga which are only an hour away by car to further inland, all the way to Santander since its very easy to cross the border and once there, you can take a bus which come every 15 minutes.
Yes, I also liked that everybody got on very well with each other since people from North Africa like Morocco and Tunisia regularly come to Gibraltar to do some shopping as a weekend trip. Also, there are Jewish and Muslims communities living here in harmony. So sometimes you see a synagogue and further along the way, you come across a Mosque and on the main street a Cathedral. It is very nice to see this.
I loved the photos, particularly the monkeys! Is the sea calm out there, or does it sort of churn up as it's funnelled through the Straits?
It sort of churns up, a bit choppy but it might be seasonal as if you go further you can see there are good beaches along the coast with a light brown sugar colour sand.
Maria I was thinking maybe they should hold a Grand Prix in Gibraltar. But if you're driving at 180 mph and a monkey leaps on your bonnet, it's no joke.
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