Well, I must say this was the best day so far. We did a ship excursion called “Stroll on the Rock” and we had a great guide! He was very passionate about Gibraltar and he really knew his history. We didn’t realize that Gibraltar has been a military land-hold since 711. It was in about 1785 that they started to build tunnels in the rock which continued until WWII and there are 34 miles of tunnels in the rock!! Isn’t that just so unbelievable. Inside the tunnel was basically a small town where they lived, had a hospital and they were all well protected. It was amazing that they built these tunnels with a chisel, chipping away at the rock until later years when they had gun-powder to blast their way through the rock but then they had to deal with gun powder dust that would take 3 days to settle so one soldier (the name escapes me) came up with the idea of blasting a hole in the rock to the outside which then released the dust quicker as 3 days was too long for them to wait. Time was of the essence. Of course, another big attraction is the Barbary monkeys that roam free on the Rock. The city of Gibraltar do not want the monkeys to come down the rock and get into town so they ask humans not to feed them (500 pound fine if you do feed them). The monkeys are provided food by the government of Gibraltar which consists of fruits and vegetables. Monkeys do not eat meat apparently. I could go on and on about Gibraltar but needless to say it was heaped in history and just a great place to visit. Here are some pictures and later on I am going to do a video on just Gibraltar. Here are a few pictures:
On the cable car going up the side of the rock.
Rock of Gibraltar!!
The rock on the other side looking toward Africa
A view of our ship from the top of the rock and city of Gibraltar with population of about 30,000 people. Across the Bay is Spain.
These are pictures of St. Michael’s Cave which was huge! In WWII this cave was used as a hospital base and an area where troops would hide. They initially thought that Hitler was going to strike in Gibraltar and the allied troops waited here but then Hitler changed his mind as he couldn’t hide the fact that he might strike; so this is one place Hitler never attacked (I hope I have this story straight. There was so much history given, it is hard to remember it all!)
A picture of the monkeys. The one on the right they had a little baby which the guided estimated to be a couple of months old. There are apparently over 200 Barbary apes on the rock.
These are some pictures of the tunnels and how they were built – see the picture above with the men using chisels to chip away the rock. Also one of the generals said they needed a gun or cannon that pointed down so if they were attacked from the bottom of the rock, they needed a cannon that would shoot down and the picture of the cannon pointing down is one that was designed just for that purpose.
Gibraltar was a totally amazing place to see. It was another absolutely beautiful day, temperature around 25 degrees. So now I am sitting on the Lido pool deck updating my blog with a Pina Colada in hand, Brian with a beer and swimming in the pool. Life couldn’t get much better than this – we are very fortunate!
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