Quick note: I mentioned before that I planned to put the travelogue series on hold. I think at that time, that was the correct decision. As has happened often during this uncertain time, things change; people change their mind. I changed mine and have decided to resume travelogues keeping in mind the severity of the situation and the changes many undergo right now.
I ended my grand European adventures, save a couple days in Madrid to relax before journeying home, by traveling to the southern limit of Europe, squeezing in one final country to my adventures bringing the total to 12, my favorite number. What a way to end.
When I booked the tour, the company contacted me for my hotel address so they could establish a pick up point. Since my airbnb was located near the the center of the city, I, along with the guide and two other tour members, boarded the bus first. We made a handful of stops to pick up the rest of the tour group as we drove south, making the last stop just before leaving the outskirts of Seville, heading into the countryside from there.
As we settled into the drive through the southern Spanish countryside, our guide shared stories of Spanish history, history that not only told of Gibraltar but also the history of the area through which we drove. I already knew Spain held so many treasures that I had had to skip and areas that I learned about their treasures on another tour. This guide reawakened and intensified the longing to see all of Spain and then some.
Prior to arriving in Gibraltar we made one stop at a full service rest stop for a reason I have long since forgotten. I perused the shelves for a little while before purchasing a pastry of some sort for a snack and then reboarding the bus for the final part of the trip. We stopped in a parking lot barely outside the border between Spain and the United Kingdom. Yup. The Rock of Gibraltar and the surrounding town belong to the United Kingdom.
The bus did not have permission to cross the border so we disembarked, passports in hand, passing through the border with only a cursory check. Of course, at the time, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union hung on tenterhooks with the looming Brexit. Now that the United Kingdom finally left, I wonder what wrenches that threw in the fairly simple process.
We left the building and started walking across a large open expanse, an active runway, the only active runway in the world that the public can cross legally. Just prior to stepping out onto the runway our guide told us that this expanse provided the best angle for photographing the Rock. We could not stop – no one can – but I paused long enough as I walked to get off several shots of the wide open runway and the Rock towering high above with a baby blue clear sky painting the backdrop.
Once we made it to the other side we stopped at a handful of points for the guide to point out historic things like the remnants of a fortified wall snaking up the side of the rock and the new land behind us, reclaimed from the sea to provide land to build more homes, places for the burgeoning population to live. We also made an extended stop at the place where we would finish the tour so we could see the options for our free time.
The next part of our tour took place in a small 15 passenger van driven by the funniest guide of the whole trip. Our group combined with a few others from another tour company on this section run by a company based there in the territory.
Throughout the drive towards the rock, our second guide shared all sorts of fascinating information about the history of the area making us laugh the entire time. I also found myself fascinated by his accent, a unique yet appropriate to the location mashup of Spanish and British. I even loved his dad joke level cracks about the macaque monkeys being family, his ex-in-laws specifically.
This tour within a tour stopped at two spots, condensing the original three stops since the monkeys have moved to the third spot.
First, we spent 15 minutes at Europa Point, the southernmost point in Europe where through the fog I could see Africa! Wanderlust rose within me, longing to make the trek, to continue the exploration even after three weeks of constant movement traipsing all across Europe.
From there we headed up onto the mountain on a road limited to vehicles the size of our small van. Our guide and driver kept up a steady stream of commentary, entertaining but likely designed to keep us from focusing on the drop off beside our vehicle as we made our way through the switchbacks.
After arriving safely at our second and final stop on the tour within a tour, St. Michael’s cave, our guide gave us some words of warning before we disembarked. While outside the cave, we should not attempt to eat anything or pull anything edible or not from our pockets. The monkeys would have a hold of the item that now no longer belonged to you. I felt a little nervous before entering the cave since the guide’s description left mde under the impression that the monkeys lined the tunnel inside. Thankfully, the little thieves contented themselves with outside perches, ready to pounce on the next foolish, unsuspecting tourist to exit the little gift and food shop.
St. Michael’s Cave hosts over a million visitors per year, the most visited cave in the system that threads its way through the rock. The grand cavern did not equal my expectations; it both exceeded and underwhelmed. This cavern with its phenomenal acoustics has been altered slightly to enable concerts to be held there. The manmade alterations as well as the limited scope of the network available to view underwhelmed. However, the incredible up close views of the stalactites and stalagmites formations exceeded expectations.
After exploring every available nook and cranny, which took far less time than I thought, I exited the cave and took some time to photograph the other attraction at the site, the monkeys. I wondered if I would get to see them in action like the guide described. After hearing a commotion and turning to see what happened, I realized that I needed to wait no longer.
A young kid, high school age, staggered back, hands empty. I looked down and saw one of the monkeys smuggly munching down on the chocolate ice cream the high schooler had just purchased, hoping for a treat. Oops. After a few more minutes taking pictures of the monkeys while waiting for the rest of the group to tour the cave, I made my way back to the bus. Just as we started to pull away from the area we saw a sort of Pyrrhic victory for the monkey since he grabbed a fully wrapped KIND bar from a girl. He looked so perplexed as he tried to get at the food.
The drive back to the Casemates, a former execution square now home to commercialized shops galore, marked the final official portion of the tour. Our second guide continued to entertain and inform all the way up until the final moment. Once in the Casemates Square we had about an hour on our own to eat lunch and shop before returning to Seville.
I chose to eat at Costa Coffee, fittingly enough, and then spent the remaining time wandering around the relatively immediate area looking for souvenirs and getting in steps.
We arrived back in Seville by the late afternoon so I had a casual evening to wrap everything up before heading back to Madrid to spend a couple low key restful recovery days before heading back to the States and one last mini-adventure before jumping into the new school year.
The travelogues will pick up next with the saga to get home and then the two days of my Pennsylvania adventures with a “slight” detour for my Atlanta running adventures.