Weather: 25º C and Sunny (felt hotter than that though - possibly due to humidity)

Mileage: 335 km; Total 3,775 kms

It was a long wait at the border.
It was a long wait to get our lunch.
It was a long wait for the cable car.
It was a long wait to get the car out of the parking lot.

But it was a great day.

Found a place off the Marques de Larios (the pedestrian shopping street) that was open early for breakfast. The hotel restaurants are open but they tend not to do continental style breakfasts for some reason. Freshly squeezed OJ, good coffee and croissants with jam – lovely.

Back to our little 3 star boutique hotel, checked out, over to the parking and out before the traffic built up too much. Heading for Gibraltar and intending to park in the Focona (secure) Parking facility in La Linea de la Concepcion. No trouble finding the place, made sure we had all our valuables with us and headed for the border. No check on the Spanish side but did get checked out on the Gibraltar side but only because the border security guard was from Napier and wanted a bit of a chat.

That chat however cost us time wise. When entering Gibraltar from Spain everyone, vehicles included, have to cross the runway for the Gibraltar airport. The border guard shut the gate just as we arrived and we had to wait for 2 planes to taxi to the end of the runway and take off. It is one of those airports where there is no taxi way for the planes. This means they have to taxi down the main runway, turn around and take off. As soon as the first plane did, the next one pulled out for its turn. Lucky to see it once we suppose, but unlucky for us to have to hang around for the next one. Can’t be that many planes in and out of Gibraltar but we recommend checking the timetable before you arrive in Gibraltar.

We only planned on having 5-6 hours here as we still had to drive to Seville. First stop lunch. Choice of fish’n chips, “fush’n chups” (for our Ozzie friends), Hamburgers and the all day big breakfast. Ah, that’s right, welcome to England! We succumbed and shared the fush’n chups and a hamburger. Only greasy food we have had on this trip. It was going to take a lot to walk this off so headed off to walk up the “the rock”. With all the delays however, we had to change our plans to keep to our timetable, so took the cable car up instead.

Views were not too bad although it was a little bit hazy. Could see North Africa 26 kms away but not that clearly. Also up on the top were the infamous Barbary Apes. Need to keep a watchful eye on them as they will take anything. We walked a bit away from the cable car building and its lookout to find a group of apes that were quite playful. They are protected by the government and the cable car operator told us that there is a need to cull them as they are becoming a real problem to the islands inhabitants who live inland. Apparently they have to plan the hanging out of washing and other activities around the daily activities of the apes. And the schools need to organise their outside activities accordingly. There has been the introduction of apes from Morocco to introduce additional genes into the pool of Gibraltar creatures but there is a body of residents who would like to see the whole sent back to Morocco from whence they originally came.

Back down the hill by cable car as not enough time to walk. Before heading for the airport runway we stopped into the mandatory Cathedral. Gibraltar has 2 cathedrals – so used to cities only having one. Here they have a Catholic Cathedral (which we visited because it was on route) and an Anglican Cathedral.

The airport runway, this time it was all clear – not even a security guard in sight. Through customs – no one wanted to look at any credentials and back to the carpark. Car had not been tampered with so it was a good day until we tried to get out. Two cars from France in front of us were having trouble trying to pay their tickets at the gate. They had not prepaid and did not have the right money to get out. They did not think of getting out of the way for us. By the time we put our ticket in the machine to lift the barrier our ticket exit time had expired. Eventually the guy let us out.

Then a quick run through to Seville avoiding the toll roads as usual. Avoiding tolls added about 20 minutes on to our trip but we saw some interesting countryside, fields of sunflowers, grapes, olive groves and large haciendas along the way. Once in Seville we disagreed a bit with Billy as we tried to get to the hotel and had to get him to take us around the block once near the hotel, but then all was in order. Across the road for some real food (aka Tapas) from a place that has 4 establishments in Seville. It was really really good – probably the best tapas we have had here and fresh. Dishes included cod balls and spinach with chickpeas As we are here for 2 more nights we will probably try the restaurant again but experiment with different dishes.

Footnote: Alister suggested we went to “The Rock” and now we know why. His travel company (see last picture) was out and about touting to take us up the rock by van for less money than it would take to go by cable car. We declined as we thought there might be a catch – not that we don’t trust you Alister.