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| THE ROCK |
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| WINDSOR SUSPENSION FOOTBRIDGE |
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| THIS ONE IS GEORGE, THE BOSS |
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| SOME OF GEORGE'S MANY SUBJECTS |
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| CLIMBING UP TO THE RIDGE |
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| VIEW OF GIBRALTER TOWN, HARBOUR & AIRSTRIP |
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| AN EXCELLENT RESTAURANT |
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| COURTYARD OF MUSEO PICASSO MALAGA |
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| HAVING A BIT OF A SONG & DANCE |
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| STILL TALKING |
Monday 12th, and bus tickets had been booked with Avanza to take us to the town of La Linea de la Concepcion (often shortened to La Linea) - departing at 6.45am, so we were still half asleep during the three hour journey west along the Spanish coast.
We were on our way to see Gibraltar, and La Linea is the town immediately north of the border with the well-known British Overseas Territory. As the bus drew close, the famous Rock of Gibraltar increasingly dominated our field of view. It was our mission for the day to climb it.
From La Linea bus station it took just a few minutes to walk to passport control where we were quickly waved through. Reaching the town of Gibraltar involved a walk across the airstrip - we had to wait a few minutes while an easyJet airliner landed.
The plan was to walk through the town to Europa Point at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, and then return by walking over the rock itself. We noted that there were bastions, gun emplacements and other defences almost everywhere, dating from the Moorish occupation right through to the Second World War. The British Army, Royal Navy and RAF are permanently based here.
At Europa Point is a lighthouse, a Christian church and a mosque, the latter confirming that a Moslem population remains here long after the Moorish occupation ended.
The so-called 'Upper Rock' is actually a Nature Reserve which we entered via the Jews' Gate. As walkers, our entry fee was just 50p each, although this apparently goes up to £4 in April.
We were given a map showing the various paths on the rock, and followed a route which took us initially to Windsor Suspension Footbridge and then to Douglas Lookout. We soon came into contact with the famous Barbary Macaques (often referred to as apes, but actually a breed of tailless monkey) that roam freely in the Nature Reserve. They were well used to humans and amused us with their antics. One jumped on my back and attempted to remove my jacket from my rucksack before I shook him off.
On reaching the highest point of our walk at the Cable Car Station (which didn't seem to be running at the time) we found the views were hampered by the wet fog at the 387m altitude. However, as we started to descend, the views opened up. We could clearly see, Gibralter town, La Linea, the airstrip and the harbour. We had hoped to see HMS Queen Elizabeth in the harbour, since we had seen her distinctive twin control towers as we crossed the airstrip on the walk in. I learned that she had arrived on the 9th, Gibralter being her first overseas visit, but she had 'snuck' out without us noticing while we climbed the rock.
It was downhill from thereon, passing by the Limekiln, the City Under Siege Exhibition and the Moorish Tower before eventually getting back to town. Satisfied that we done all we intended, we headed back through passport control to La Linea to look for somewhere to eat. Although it was past 6.00pm, few restaurants were serving yet. We ended up with a Burger King meal deal which we ate in the bus station whilst waiting for our ride back to Malaga. It was gone midnight before we finally got to sleep.
Given the previous long day, we deserved a bit of a lie-in on our last full day in Malaga, and when we did get up the first priority was to buy whatever gifts we needed to bring home. I wanted to visit the Museo Picasso Malaga, where a substantial collection of Picasso's work was on display. Rubi amused herself in the shops while I spent two and a half hours looking at Picasso's paintings, scultures and etchings.
For the rest of the day we simply enjoyed wandering around the town, drinking Spanish wine in the sun and eating a fine meal at La Cueva restaurant. After a Jack Daniels nightcap in a friendly local bar, we returned to the apartment for our last night.
Our return to the UK the following day, to much cooler, wetter weather, was quite uneventful - except for the extremely bumpy landing at Gatwick due to high winds. Rubi said she thought the wings nearly touched the runway. I was too busy trying to finish off a Suduko puzzle before we had to exit the plane.