10/7/2010 - Gibraltar, UK (Great Siege Tunnels & Cable Car Tour)
Gibraltar is an interesting place, a big chunk of rock jutting out from Spain. The British captured it a few hundred years ago - before that it was owned by the Spanish, French, Turks and whomever else wanted to have some control over the entrance to the Mediterranean.
It was a nice change to visit a place where everyone spoke English! after many weeks of not being able to be understood by the locals it was very good.
First stop on our trip was the cable car running up to the top of the rock! You get a brilliant view from the top, you can see North Africa off in the distance and Spain in the other direction.
The rock is inhabited by lots of tailless monkeys! (The picture below shows two monkeys! one isn't native to the island though :)
But if you ever visit, be careful, they are a bit nasty on occasion. Our guide was standing talking to us and one of the monkeys jumped onto her shoulder for a few moments, then without warning bit her on the arm!
The tour took us to the Siege Tunnels that were originally built in the 1780s - by hand!! it was quite an amazing thing to think about the soldiers tunneling through the limestone for months and months, just to get a better firing position on the Spanish! The tunnels were completed a few years after the siege finished (just in case) and weren't used much until world war 1. During WW1 and WW2 they were used for storage/etc - Gibraltar wasn't attacked during the wars, it was too heavily defended. There are lots of examples of cannons/etc from that period (as the picture below shows).
We had a quick tour of the town and then headed back to the ship - it was only a half day stop. Gibraltar is a very nice place to visit, well worth the trip!
It was a nice change to visit a place where everyone spoke English! after many weeks of not being able to be understood by the locals it was very good.
First stop on our trip was the cable car running up to the top of the rock! You get a brilliant view from the top, you can see North Africa off in the distance and Spain in the other direction.The rock is inhabited by lots of tailless monkeys! (The picture below shows two monkeys! one isn't native to the island though :)But if you ever visit, be careful, they are a bit nasty on occasion. Our guide was standing talking to us and one of the monkeys jumped onto her shoulder for a few moments, then without warning bit her on the arm!
The tour took us to the Siege Tunnels that were originally built in the 1780s - by hand!! it was quite an amazing thing to think about the soldiers tunneling through the limestone for months and months, just to get a better firing position on the Spanish! The tunnels were completed a few years after the siege finished (just in case) and weren't used much until world war 1. During WW1 and WW2 they were used for storage/etc - Gibraltar wasn't attacked during the wars, it was too heavily defended. There are lots of examples of cannons/etc from that period (as the picture below shows).
We had a quick tour of the town and then headed back to the ship - it was only a half day stop. Gibraltar is a very nice place to visit, well worth the trip!
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