We all met up at Gatwick airport. It didn't take long to drop off our bags and make it through security. Jon had a look at a few of the shops while the rest waited for our gate to be called. Our plane was delayed by 30 minutes but we didn't mind, we were soon on the plane making our way to Gibraltar. After we landed we collected our luggage and car then made the 10 minute journey to our hotel, across the boarder in to Spain
We met for breakfast at 9am. After breakfast, we unpacked our cases and sorted out our rooms before heading across the border into Gibraltar, we had to drive across the airport landing strip to get into Gibraltar! We decided to head to the very south to Europa Point. It was quite windy here, michael nearly lost his hat! We walked to the Gibraltar lighthouse which is the only one regulated by Trinity House outside the UK. We had a look round Harding Battery and saw the Mosque. We had lunch in a local cafe. We then drove up the other side of the island and round to the bottom of the cable car. We visited the botanic gardens. After stopping for a drink, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel, afterwards some of us chose to retire for the evening whilst Kirstine and Jon walked down to the front.
Today we went up in the cable car to the top of the rock and saw the apes. It was very high up! At the top we had a look round and saw lots of apes and some babies too, you could go close to them, one even tried to steal out of a ladies bag! After lunch at the top we had a walk to see the apes den. We saw the baby monkeys playing in a pond. We came down again in the cable car. That evening we drove into La Linea for dinner.
This morning we drove to the marina to have a look around at all the boats. We had an early lunch in one of the many cafes at the marina before we joined our boat to take us on a dolphin safari. We went out into the bay to look for dolphins. First, we saw striped dolphins, then we came across common dolphins who were very playful and swam along with the boat. They really enjoyed jumping and surfing in our wake. Jon said this was the best part of our holiday. That evening we went out to a lovely Italian restaurant.
Today we went on a driving tour up the rock. Our first top was Hercules Pillars where you can see views of Morocco, Spain’s Costa Del Sol and Gibraltar. We then went on to St Michaels Cave which was long believed to be bottomless. This gave birh to the story that Gibraltar and Africa were linked by a subterranean passage which is how the monkeys arrived on the rock! Then we went on to the Apes Den to visit the monkeys. Finally, we stopped and had a look around the Moorish Castle which was first built around 1160 by the moors.
Today everyone wanted to go on the dolphin cruise again as they had really enjoyed it the first time. So we made our way back to the Marina and had a lovely lunch before heading out in to the bay of Gibraltar again, we saw lots of dolphins swimming about. When we got back to dry land we had an ice cream before heading back to our hotel to relax by the pool and go swimming.
Another nice hot day! Today we wanted to go and look round the shops and buy some gifts and souvenirs. We stopped off at a café for a drink before looking round the shops, they were getting the main square all ready for the Queen Birthday celebrations. We had a look round the shops and a lovely lunch outside. We had a look round a glass blowing exhibition and brought a few gifts of made from the blown glass. We also tried some Moroccan mint tea and Moroccan cakes which were lovely. We then headed back to the hotel for a last swim before packing to go home tomorrow.
This morning was our last day in Gibraltar. We had to get up early to catch our flight. Peter said the cable car ride was the best part of the holiday and Jon said it was the dolphin safari.
