"I don't want it to bite my face off!"

Ok this will be the last post from my dad and Jeanne’s visit to Spain. On our last day, we decided to take yet another day trip. This time to Gibraltar! Gibraltar is a small city within Spain, but it is actually UK territory. It’s basically just a big rock known for the apes at the top of the rock. We drove to Gibraltar without any problems getting out of Malaga this time. It was weird driving to Gibraltar though because there literally weren’t any signs that said we were approaching Gibraltar since the Spanish has hated Gibraltar ever since the UK has owned it. We took “La Linea” exit because that is the town right next to the Gibraltar border. We parked at La Linea and walked across the border, only having to hold up our passports as we passed the guards. I was a little bummed that they didn't stamp our passports.

The cable car

We had decided earlier that all we wanted to do was take the cable car up the mountain, look around, and take the cable car back down. We also wanted to take a city bus into the center city since it was quite a walk from the border. We went into the first city bus we saw and asked him if it would take us to the cable car and he said it didn’t but the one in front of him did. He gave us tickets for that one and we ran up to catch it and as we approached the door, the driver was about to pull out. He turned his head and saw us, but shook his head “no” and didn’t let us on! We waited another 15 minutes, took THAT bus to the cable car stop, and headed up the big rock. When we approached the top of the rock, we saw our first ape! Everyone saw it and excitedly said, “Look! An ape!” except for… my dad. His face only showed pure terror. The ape then jumped from the railing ONTO the cable car (which had open windows) and Dad let out a little scream to say the least. 

I’ll give you some background on why my dad is so scared of apes that might make you understand better. Remember that story a couple of years ago about the lady whose face was bitten (more like completely eaten off) by an ape?  Well, ever since then, my Dad has been afraid that if he goes anywhere near an ape, it will do the same to him. Make sense? Maybe a little? Yeah, I don’t get it either. (Just kidding, Dad! I completely understand.)

My dad avoiding eye contact

So anyways, we had to walk up these spiral stairs to get to the café and other lookout areas at the top, and guess who was waiting on top of the post at the top of the spiral staircase? Yep, another ape! Watching my dad walk up those stairs was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever witnessed in my life. He hung on tightly to the railing on the opposite side of where the ape was sitting, avoided eye contact with the cute creature, and did a little jog the rest of the way to where Jeanne and I were laughing. The ape had his eye on my dad the whole time. It was hysterical!

We did a little more walking around on top of the rock, took some pictures, and saw some amazing views of Gibraltar, Spain, the Mediterranean, and even the tip of Africa. After we safely made it down the rock without getting our faces bitten off, we went to find some fish and chips since we were in the UK! After lunch, we walked back to the border since we had no idea which bus stop to go to (they didn’t have any maps or bus schedules at any of the stops) and headed back to Malaga.

A view from the top of the rock

We made it back to our hotel after another long day. We went to the center of the city for dinner where we had some pretty delicious food and white wine that had “Caceres” in its name! We walked around the old part of town (which was really neat to see at night), where we all shared a dessert at a local bakery. It was a great way to end Dad and Jeanne’s trip!

YUM!