Spring Break in Spain–Day 4: Gibraltar
Ok, where to start… If you ask the kids what they remember most about Spain – it’s Gibraltar. The funny thing is, Gibraltar isn’t even part of Spain – just a huge rock jutting out of the southern coast of Spain but owned by the UK. Consequently it’s English speaking, uses pounds and serves fish and chips. “On summer days and weekends, the tiny colony is packed with vacationers, a lot of which are British -- who want a change in weather but not in culture. The locals – a fun loving and tolerant mix of British, Spanish and Moroccan – call their place ‘Gib’.”
We drove through the border crossing waving our passports on the way through and drove into town luckily finding lots of free parking by the cable car. The cool thing about the top of the ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ besides the views of Africa is the wild monkeys. The kids have been counting down the days till we see monkeys. On their Spain booklet I printed out a picture of a monkey and pasted it to the Gibraltar day. The kids were definitely looking forward to it. So much so, that after the first day of Spain fun Luke complained that he didn’t even see one monkey. “We’re going to see Monkey’s on Monday, Luke!” So yes, we were excited about the monkeys at the top.
We bought our tickets, hit the WC and made our way on to the cable car. We know we’re not supposed to have food at the top so when I find Megan and Josh sharing a Ziploc bag of pretzels and nuts on the cable car I immediately take it away. Just as we reach the top I find myself trying to stuff the Ziploc bag into my camera bag. The cable car guy sees me and says “ya, put those away”. I’m trying to stuff them in but with no luck. As I step outside the cable car with 25 other people I look around for Chris with the backpack. Exactly 4 seconds and four steps later a large monkey… JUMPS ONTO MY CHEST, grabs the bag of food which bursts open shooting pretzels and nuts in all directions, and pushes off my chest all instantaneously… amid the crowd of tourists trying to exit the cable car platform and make their way up the stairs to the lookout. Apparently I screamed – of course I’m not surprised, I just don’t remember it. I just remember feeling something hit my chest without the time to register what it was. ( I had been looking backwards to try to spot Chris and the monkey had jumped from somewhere higher on the stairs – so I didn’t even SEE it until it had already pushed off me. ) The cable car guy looked at my stunned ‘in shock’ face and joked, “I knew you’d be trouble” as he shooed the large monkey away like a naughty toddler and grabbed a broom to start cleaning. As people started to move away we noticed this sign… Of course this wasn’t shocking news. I knew I had to put the treats away, I just didn’t know I had so little time. Luckily I didn’t have to pay the 500 pound penalty.
Where I’m standing to take the picture is where it occurred. Here’s a closer look at the sign… “WARNING PLASTIC BAGS… apes associate plastic bags with food and will snatch. Keep plastic bags and food items out of sight.”
On top we had time to wander around, take pictures of the monkeys, stabilize my heart rate and reenact “monkeys jumping on Mom” (so funny) and check out the view of Africa.
Notice the monkey sitting at the top of the spiral staircase. He startles everyone walking up the stairs.
View of the harbor between Gibraltar and Spain… the Strait of Gibraltar.
View of Africa in the distance… just 14 miles away.
There’s Emily with her notebook full of notes on our monkey adventures.
We had a great time seeing the monkeys all around. From the top lookout area we could see baby monkeys wrestling with each other and big and small monkeys jumping off structures and grabbing a branch of a tree at the last minute. It was really entertaining.
After checking out the view in the first area we decided to walk over to the next. Katie, who had just taken her pink sweatshirt off, went and put it on top of the stroller as we started to walk. Within seconds a baby monkey came up and grabbed Katie’s sweatshirt and took off with it. Chris tried to chase it down, but the monkey threw the sweatshirt off the edge and then followed it down there. We started laughing while we watched the monkey sit and hold the sweatshirt just staring up at us like he had just won the game. He must have thought it was so funny when he put the sweatshirt in his mouth and dropped his hands.
When we all moved forward to see the ‘little thief’ through the railing, another baby monkey (pictured at the end in the picture below) came over to Matthew on the other side of the bars from him, reached his hand through and slapped him on the cheek and then dashed away. It happened SO fast and shocked all of us. Matt started crying – the poor kid – and Chris picked him up just as the first monkey turned the corner and ran out of sight with Katie’s sweatshirt. It was definitely a hilarious attack on the Johnson family.
A worker had to go track down the sweatshirt in a tree somewhere and we all cheered when he came back with it. When Katie touched it she said, “Ew, it’s all wet.”
Matthew cried for 7 or 8 minutes… totally in shock. When we asked him about it he said, “A monkey slapded mine cheek!” while acting it out by slapping himself hard with his hand. It was so cute. After 8 minutes though, he was fine and happy and excitedly pointing out other monkeys as we came to them.
That was not the case with Megan though. On the way UP the cable car Megan’s favorite animal was a monkey.
Not anymore.
She wanted desperately to get off the giant ROCK and away from the monkeys who were attacking her family. Chris tried to comfort her by saying, “Megan, just stand by me. I’ll protect you.” But I think she figured he had not done any protecting so far. When we told her we weren’t done and wanted to wander around some more she was pretty ticked. Isn’t she just so cute though – the poor girl.
Highest point of Gibraltar with Africa in the distance…
Chuggs and Johnsons… all of us in one picture!
When we were finally in line to head down the cable car (Megan was so thrilled) I noticed this sign and thought it was interesting… especially since I’ve been to 4 of the 6.
Once at the bottom we headed into town to find some Fish and Chips… the perfect thing to eat for our day in the UK. We had a boys table, a girls table and an adult table.
Then we enjoyed a walk through town, successfully fit 11 kids in a red phone booth, and ate delicious Magnum Bars. I had mint and it was divine.
