The drive up to Ronda, at 2,370 feet, was very windy and a bit hairy, but worth it. Our first stop was for lunch at a restaurant with beautiful views of the canyon on which this white village sits atop. The New Bridge is the newest (finished in 1793) and largest (390 feet to the bottom) that spans the canyon. After lunch, we wondered through the historic city center.
One of the big draws of Gibraltar is the Barbary Macaques, the only wild primates in Europe. The apes have lived on the Rock for centuries, supposedly introduced by the Moors to be pets. Legend says that when the apes leave, Gibraltar will cease to be British. There are currently approximately 230 of the monkeys running around on the Upper Rock. They caught our attention as soon as we exited the cable car and we enjoyed spotting them along the paths back down into town.
This little monkey entertained us as he jumped around on a car, then surprised us as he first jumped onto Ashlynn, then onto Veronica. Is he searching for lice?
The kids wrote another script for a play this year, but after James bought a video camera, they decided to make a movie instead. They recruited the dads to be the bad guys, but wouldn’t tell Sally or me what the story was. They’d planned on filming entirely at the villa, but I encouraged them to film at different locations during our journeys. In addition to filming at Grand Casements Square, they also filmed in St. Michael’s Cave.
After lunch, we headed to the cable car to go to the top of the Rock, where we spent the next few hours walking back down. In addition to St. Michael’s limestone caves, we visited the ape den, a Moorish Castle and the Great Siege Tunnels from the 1780s. We had dinner at another British pub. I would have liked to have done some real tax-free shopping (as opposed to those silly stores at the airports), but all the stores had closed.
The views from the Upper Rock (which tops out at 1,398 feet) were very impressive. On the far side of the airport is Spain, who still smarts from losing possession to Britain in 1713. On a clear day, Morocco can be seen over the Straits of Gibraltar, but it was quite foggy. Approximately 40% of the country is a nature reserve where we spent several hours walking the hills and laughing at the folks stuck in traffic with the lines of tour vans.
After a few days of hanging out at the villa and walking to the local beach, it was time for an adventure. It was time to head to the UK. Strange that all we had to do was drive a little over an hour, park the car in Spain, and walk over the border and we were in the United Kingdom. Even stranger, to get to town, we had to walk across the runway of the Gibraltar Airport. As with all visits to Britain, we started with fish ‘n chips for lunch.
After spending four Easters at the Chateau with Sally, John, David and Andrew, we weren’t going to allow losing access to the Chateau to stop us from spending Easter together. We originally considered going to Ireland, then switched our sights towards Iceland. While I was in the US, Sally and John had an epiphany--Iceland’s still cold in April. Since being warm sounded better, they found a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom villa to rent on Guadalmina Golf Course in the Costa del Sol area of Southern Spain. Our view overlooked the 17th hole.
The kids loved the backyard with its heated pool, ping pong table and pool table. They enjoyed playing a strange version of a scavenger hunt where they had to complete different tasks. Here David is directing a blindfolded Veronica to retrieve a ball from the pool. It’s always entertaining to see their imaginations at work.
