Gibraltar

So on Saturday we went on a trip to Gibraltar, which is about a three hour bus journey out of Granada. This did mean we had to get up a little early, don't think I've been up for 7am in several months, which is odd in Spain because you see more people on their way home rather than starting their day. Going into Gibraltar is a weird experience because you have to go through passport control and then suddenly on the other side everything is very English. Its literally as if they picked up parts of England and planted them in southern Spain. Everything from the red telephone boxes, road signs and pedestrian crossings right down to the bins were exact replicas of those we have in London. You can even find Waitrose, Topshop and M&S on the main street, along with pubs advertising the best British fish and chips and shops selling Beatles memorabilia. It was a very surreal experience, more like being in a fake town or a movie set; a replica of a British town with much better weather, even hotter than Granada.

The main attraction there is the Rock of Gibraltar, so we headed there straight away. Originally there was a large group of us but we left most people behind watching planes land. You actually have to walk across the runway to get into the city, while a voiceover pleads the dawdling tourists to walk faster and stop taking photos with growing anxiety. We had to walk through the town in order to take the cable car up to the top of the rock, and it was on this walk that we first came across the monkeys. I'd heard that Gibraltar is the only place in Europe with wild monkeys, but I was not prepared for how close up they are. They were literally sitting in the middle of the street. One lady nearly had her camera stolen. Most of them were on the rock though, and they were everywhere! I think we were more nervous of them than they were of us, at one point we couldn't take the path down that we wanted because they were sprawled across the narrow space. As we approached they just stared at us and refused to move. Unfortunately this lead to us spending the rest of the afternoon trying to find our way down. Twice we were met with a dead end, once nearly ending up in a Military Defence base (we probably shouldn't have ignored those no entry signs...) After some despair that we would end up missing the bus and forever have to live on the rock amongst the monkeys, we did eventually make it down and headed straight to the Lord Nelson for a much deserved pub dinner before returning to the coach.

The return journey was pretty quiet, think everyone was exhausted! But despite exhaustion, sun burn (for some), getting lost on a giant rock and being harassed by monkeys, it was a great trip and a nice reminder of home. Just with less rain and more exotic wildlife...