It was our second full day in Spain and we wanted to visit Gibraltar as we thought Tom & Izzy would enjoy seeing the monkeys and I wanted to get a new geo-cache souvenir (you receive them for any new country/state etc you find a cache in). Gibraltar is a British overseas territory near the entrance to the Mediterranean and close to the southern most point of Spain. Its landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar which is 426m high and historically been used as a strategic military location due to its position on the Mediterranean. It is also home to Barbary macaques – the only wild monkeys in Europe. 

We set off quite early and drove the one hour to the border, We parked on the Spanish side and walked through passport control as we had researched that this was faster than attempting to drive across the border. We then hopped on a bus which drove us across the airport runway and then took us to the ‘Rock’. It was possible to climb to the top of the rock but we opted to take the cable cars instead!

^{Views from the top of the ‘Rock’}

We explored the old miliary buildings for a while and then headed down the path to see the monkeys. There were lots of them walking along the railings and playing on the cliffs. A private tour group who were being driven joined us and the monkeys were climbing all over their minibus!

^{Photos with the monkeys!}

Tom decided it would be a good idea to walk passed the monkeys eating a mars bar (even though he had been warned not to have food near them!) and he was chased down the path by them!

We then headed to the skywalk which was a glass footway where you can look down all the way to the beach below. I refused to stand on it but Stu, Tom & Izzy did.

Stu & I let the kids explore on their own for a bit whilst we walked along part of the ridge trail. There were quite big drops off to the side but the views were amazing.

Our tickets included entrance to St Michael’s cave – a network of limestone caves within the rock. We walked through the caves and enjoyed the lightshow but it was not our favourite bit of the day.

^{Inside St Michael’s Cave}

We then made our way back to the cable cars (although a lower station) crossing the Windsor Suspension Bridge and passing lots more monkeys and birds.

We then went for a short walk to find a geo-cache before catching the bus back to the border. We really enjoyed our day in Gibraltar although if I went again I would take the car as we wanted to visit the lighthouse and we didn’t really have time to do that using busses.