Justin be crazy, yo, and insisted on getting up for sunrise to grab the pictures he didn't get at sunset due to the cloud coverage. I, however, between not wanting to wake Chubz, and knowing I need as much sleep as I can possibly get to survive each day scoffed and rolled over.
Clouds were even worse this morning than they were the night before, though. Justin spent a long time setting everything up, a longer time waiting for the sun to break through the clouds, and just as he gave up on waiting and started to pack up all his gear, the sun broke through. He got what he could in that short time frame with most of his gear already packed and came back to the hotel just in time for Chubz and I to stir.
We had 3 choices after we packed up:
A. walk up the rock and do all the "attractions" which included a VERY long and steep climb up the Gibraltar rock which we were so beyond being able to do - not entirely sure what happened to our little family but we were all so ridiculously fatigued we barely dragged our feet (and yes, I hate to admit it, but I considered switching our flights and coming home early many a times.... I never even did that during the Mongol Rally).
B. Second option was to take the gondola up the rock, but then hike the 9km up and down through the winding mountain/rock roads to get between all the attractions (driving ourselves was not an option since you couldn't enter the "park" without a Gibraltar license plate).
C. Or the third option was to give in to one of the taxi tours which take you from attraction to attraction, give you the tidbits of each place, and essentially costs the same as the gondola plus the entrance tickets... not entirely sure how they make their money... but give in we did.
With our heads up high, we set off for another day and refused to let our fatigue bring us down.
First stop were the Pillars of Hercules. There are 2 matching statues: one on the Gibraltar Rock, and one in Morocco and it is said Hercules created the Straight of Gibraltar as one of his 12 labours.
Second stop were Saint Michael's Caves. This. Was. Friggin. Cool. It's a cave inside the rock, and is actually used for live concerts and holds up to 600 people. We so wished we could've watched something down there.
Third stop was the Macaques' Den.
We had already seen the monkeys around the rock, but this was their head quarters, if you will. One startled me and decided I was a good stop along its route before it got bored of me and used Justin as its next stepping stone to cross the road.
Fourth stop was the Gibraltar view outside the tunnels including the airport runway, and of course, complete with a macaque and a cannon.
The tour itself didn't go into the tunnels but we opted to go and just walk down the rock after. During one of the many sieges where Spain tried to take the rock, the British army ended up blasting 8ft squared tunnels and basically were able to host their entire population inside the rock. And they did exactly that during the second world war, hospitals, and all.
We only got so far into the tunnels before we realized it was basically the same thing continuing on and winding for 42km, I think? So we called it quits and started heading down the mountain back to the car in order to start our drive back. We came across a castle where a macaque greeted us and Justin had to get the obligatory selfie - I bet you can't even tell who's who.
Although we hit a big line up in customs on the way out, the line up almost seemed more for show than anything else as every car just got waved through and we never even had to hand over our passports on the way out of Gibraltar or in to Spain.
We had one last stop to make. Since we had to drive through Seville to get back anyhow, we really wanted to do the bullfighting ring tour which was sold out during the weekend when we were there. I was so sure it was outlawed at this point and wanted to understand the "art" of it as they continuously called it. So we broke up our drive by stopping by to do so (only to find out it's not illegal, and they continue on with this annually). I will keep my opinions to myself on this matter, just wish we hadn't given them our money though. Plus, the tour was actually pretty boring, just ask Chubz, but when in Seville (oldest bullring), amirite?
We continued on our drive and checked in pretty late to our hotel in Lepe, a tiny little town right by the border with Portugal. We went for a quick stroll to find some food, found an open Kebab place so grabbed some of that and headed back to the room to eat it. Questionable kebab at best, or maybe we're just spoiled with our Ottawa shawarmas, and our amazing kebabs in Turkey, but this was a hamburger bun with some chicken/steak, and basically lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and ketchup. I kid you not, that's it. It wasn't actually bad (I made the mistake of attempting to eat one - a few bites in, I had to abort plan and whatever step I thought I took forward, I went 3 back and now that we were out of Gibraltar, the hospital visit was back on our minds), either way, it just definitely was no "kebab". Interestingly enough and unrelated though, the owner of the kebab place asked us where we're from, and got excited when we said Ottawa since his daughter is currently studying at the university of Ottawa. Small world, much?
And with that, zzz.