Our day-trip from Seville: the Straight of Gibralter

View of the Rock from La Linea

We were excited to go see the Straight of Gibralter. After having just traveled to Istanbul and been at the gateway from Europe to Asia, we thought it would be pretty cool to do the same in Spain and see the gateway from Europe to Africa.

We rented a car to go from Seville to the Straight of Gibralter, and timed our trip so that Baby K could take a morning nap in the car. On the way to Gibralter we trusted the Hertz Never Lost system (we should not have) and it took almost three hours to get there. Little did we know, the system was programmed to skip toll roads, so it took us the "back" way and off the major roads. This can be fun sometimes, but when you have a limited amount of time at your destination, it's not ideal. We went the iPhone route on the way back and made it back in a little under two hours.

Getting to Gibralter is a fairly simple drive southeast from Seville. The landscape is very hilly, sometimes very lush and green, and we went through some tiny Spanish towns. It is also extremely windy in this part of Spain. They put this to good use, and have thousands of wind turbines dotted throughout the landscape. I've never seen so many at one time, and all turning quite fast.

Wind turbines

When you get to the coast, the last Spanish town you pass through is La Linea. If it wasn't next to Gibralter, I don't know that anyone would ever have a reason to go. We decided to stop here, park and walk over to Gibralter. The line of cars to get onto the island was crazy, and we were not wasting time waiting in line. In case you don't know, Gibralter is a British colony, so when you go onto the island, you're technically leaving Europe and entering the UK, and you have to show your passport at the border. 

Line of cars to get onto Gibralter

As soon as you enter the island, it seems like people are hitting you up to buy stuff, including taking a tour of the island. We took a bus to the city center, found something to eat, then walked around a bit to decide how we wanted to see "the Rock."

The downtown area of Gibralter

You can walk up the rock to see the various sights, but I would say that most people don't opt for that. Unfortunately, there's only one tour company on the entire island that does Rock Tours. They take four to six people at a time in a van up to see the various sights. It takes around an hour and a half, with just a little bit of driving, and most of your time spent getting in and out of the van to see the sights.

We kind of had a bad taste in our mouths to start off with because when you tell the salespeople you want to do the tour, they sign you up right there, but then you have to wait for more people if your group is not big enough to go ahead and go up. So we waited almost 30 minutes for another group to show up and then finally got to start the tour. Additionally, the tour guide we had was just plain weird, and not good at telling about Gibralter, or making the tour fun in any way. His van was a little bit trashed out as well, which just made for a strange experience.

And what is on the Rock of Gibralter, you might wonder? Well, there are about four things to see: the Pillars of Hercules, St. Michael's Cave, the Apes Den, and the Great Siege Tunnel. So, in and out of the van we went to see the various sights. 

View from the Pillars of Hercules

The Pillars of Hercules is the first stop and has a good viewing area to see across the Straight to Africa. Unfortunately, the weather was not that great on the day we went and it was hazy, so you couldn't see much. St. Michael's Cave was a pretty magnificent cave, but the island has kind of cheapened it with tons of colorful lighting and pop music playing. 

St. Michael's Cave

The Ape Den provides another great lookout onto the other side of the island. And yes, there are apes there as well, although I think they are actually some kind of monkey. And let me just tell you, those things are crazy! It's obvious they are used to people being around all the time, and they can get quite aggressive as well. We were instructed to get out of the van quickly, so that none of them would hop in the van, but they do feel free to climb all over vehicles there, and sometimes the people as well! I instructed BK to keep his distance from the monkeys while holding Baby K. I didn't need those things jumping on our baby!

Crazy Apes...Baby K loved them!

Last, and probably least, was the Great Siege Tunnel. It is a tunnel used during times of war, originating back from the 1700s. We walked halfway in, then turned around and came back out. The tunnel does provide some good views of the island though. We then headed back down from the rock to finish our tour.

Plaza on Gibralter

Afterwards, we walked around the town a little bit more, then headed back across the border to get the car and go back to Seville. We took the toll roads back, and it took a little less than two hours.

Baby K slept on the way back as well, so we decided she could stay up late for her last night in Spain. For those of you who don't know us well, this is very out of the ordinary for us.

Back in Seville and excited to be up past bedtime

Overall, I honestly don't think I would recommend the trip to Gibralter, unless you have a lot of extra time in the area. They have kind of ruined the island with all of the touristy, flashy stuff going on. And the island is really not much to see either. I hear that Cordoba and Granada are really nice places to visit; so if we were to do it over, we would probably choose one of those instead. 

New favorite: picking up grass and leaves to carry around

On our last night in Seville, we enjoyed more typical Spanish food, looked around for some art to bring home, and enjoyed being outside on a nice evening. The next morning we had a relaxing morning, leaving Seville to start on the second part of our trip, and heading west to Portugal. More to come soon!