Climbing the rock in *Gibraltar*... We decided to get up early. Claudia and me had been to the botanical gardens, and so we knew the way. With Joel following us, we aimed for the cable car, ignored the taxi driver offering a motorized tour and opted for the “walking tour”, as the taxi driver said.
Somehow I was expecting hundreds of monkeys. But no, we saw three monkeys and their babies at the top, a few on the road down towards the caves, and towards the end on a little sideroad.
After taking a good look around – the Spanish mainland, the rock itself, and the shadow of the African coast in the mist – we went to St. Michael’s caves. I’ve seen more impressive caves. Or was I just younger back then?
To get to the caves, we had to walk down quite a bit. After the cave we wanted to see the big cannon – the one that can shoot 30km, ie. all accross the straits. We had to walk up again. The area was off-limits, however, so all we got to see was a lousy ruin and a rusty gate.
Then we wanted to find the monkeys’ den, which was nearly all the way down, and later we wanted to see the famous tunnels. The tunnels allowed the English to shell the Spaniards or the French, who knows. The point is, those tunnels were quite a bit uphill again.
In other words, the heat, the constant up and down, the sun, the thirst, no toilets... ARGH!
