Yesterday I went to Gibraltar - also known as The Rock. I had such a neat day! Neat seems like such a silly word to use sometimes but honestly, it was neat-o! Years ago my Mom and I discovered that if you only have a day or two in a new place it's a really good idea to take a city tour. Pay the money get on the bus and hop on hop off as much as possible. The amazingness of a city tour has never failed me yet! I'm often in port for just a few hours or passing through a new city for a day - the majority of my travel experiences leave me wanting more!

I knew that if I was going to see Gibraltar I had to take a tour. I found three shipmates and we all pitched in on a taxi tour guide of The Rock. Gibraltar is geographically tiny however; it is so packed with history it's almost mind boggling. It was first settled by the Arabs - crossing The Strait of Gibraltar from Morroco in about the year 700! They fortified a lot of The Rock and built some castles, etc. The Spaniards were able to snag it from the Arabs but they weren't able to hold onto it for long before the British claimed it. Now, Gibraltar is self goverening British Territory and feels like Europes melting pot. Modern Gibraltarians have family roots in Gibraltar going back 200-300 years. The rock played a large role in the Battle of Trafalgar as well as World War II and still houses a small military presence. There are over 30km of tunnels dug throughout The Rock used for defense purposes! Gibraltar is also the last known location of Neanderthals!

While the history was fascinating I of course was far more interested in seeing the monkeys! In truth, they are probably Apes...but they are fairly small. They are funny, clever and definitely overfed.

I strolled through town taking pictures of buildings (of course), stopped for some English style fish and chips and bought some hand blown glass.

I'm going to be posting a photo series in the next few days - stay posted! (Sadly, I'm out of time and they'll have to start being posted tomorrow.)