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Chris isn’t feeling too well this morning so it’s just me and Ryan… and The Rock. We walk over to the cable car to go up but they aren’t open yet so we explore the Botanical Gardens to kill some time. We get on the first car up and have the top to ourselves. Not even any monkeys yet. By the time we make our way over to the highest point a few are waking up. I went through a separate exhibit on O’Hara’s Battery. It sits at the highest point and can shoot Africa. The battery was built after WWI and has a massive 9.2 inch gun and when it was fired it would break the windows of the towns people below. While the gun is impressive, the engine and mechanism to move the gun below it is even more so.
Next stop is St. Michael’s cave. Supposed to be filled with stalactites and such. We almost didn’t go in but figures since it was included in our ticket, why not? It was totally awesome. Never would have thought these types of formations would exist on this huge piece of mountain. Yes, its was a bit corny but still worth the time and steps. On the other side of the mountain are the Siege tunnels. Hand carved/ blasted tunnels from when the British were fighting the Spanish in 1779 - 1783. Incredible what they were able to do by hand and how far along they went. We were going to do the WW2 tunnels but they were a separate fee and figured after seeing the Siege tunnel, would be a letdown. After talking to some fellow travelers, we were right. And by this time, wrap or not, my ankle was throbbing again. So, we decide to take a short cut and head down the Castle Steps to drop us by the town square. We lost track as to how many steps there were after we got to 200.
A stop by a local Pub, The Clipper, for lunch and we head back to check up on Chris. He’s feeling better so back up we go. (But this time, we bought round trip tickets for the cable car) Now the Monkeys are active! We watch one try to climb a wall and then decide that Ryan would be a lot easier to climb. I don’t know who was more amused, Ryan, me or the monkey. After we head down Ryan and I walk over to the 100 ton Gun, which of course is at the other end of town. Manufactured in 1870, four were originally in existence, two came to Gibraltar and the others were sent to Malta. This is only the only one remaining on the Rock. By the time we get there, there are only 5 minutes left before it closes. That’s all the time I need. Ok, it would have been nice to read through all the stuff on the wall but we didn’t want to get thrown out before seeing the gun so we made a beeline for it. Short stubby thing compared to the one up top but what it lacked in length it made up for it width. (Do you have any idea how hard it was not to be making jokes with my 17 years old son around?)
With all the walking Ryan and I did today, we decide to grab a light bite for dinner at a pub on Main St. before heading to bed. We ended up sitting next to some locals that gave us the low down on the road to Granada and some caves to stop at on the way. Between the walking, Ibuprofen and wine, I slept pretty well this night.
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Adrian Should have read this before posting my last comment. I fondly remember the Apes nicking nuts out of my pocket. Landed at this airport once coming in from the ocean side on an old RAF bucket.