More March Travels

 For our second trip in March we spent a week on Gibraltar visiting my brother and his wife. A whole week without rain and nice sunny days - bliss!

On our first day I was taken up the Mediterranean Steps which turned out to be a lot steeper and more difficult than I had anticipated! However, I made it to the top in a reasonable time and was really glad I had done it. In fact I would do it again as the view was stunning and it was so peaceful. Lush green, colourful flowers and plenty of birds singing away.

Setting off this was the view south to Europa point and, somewhere in the distance, Africa

Lovely view down to the Europa point lighthouse.

We were heading up there somewhere!

Looking south at the eastern side of The Rock towards Spain.

Once we reached the top and stepped over to the West side we heard all the noise of a busy city and dock yard.

Two views of the Western side the first looking to Africa and the second to Spain.

 And of course there were monkeys - Barbary Macaques.

Looking north along the ridge.

And on another day looking south to O'Hara's Battery - I came up from the Mediterranean Steps nearby.

Looking up to O'Hara's Battery from Europa point.

The rock itself is full of caves, Siege Tunnels built in the 1700's and the WWII Tunnels.

St Michaels cave is beautifully lit and my photos do not do it justice.

 Traditionally every evening the four gates to the city were locked and the keys handed to the Governor for safe keeping overnight. Every Saturday at 12 noon there is a re-enactment of The Ceremony of the Keys. Each week the actors wear uniforms from different era's and we were fortunate to see them in these colourful uniforms. They march along Main Street ending at Casemates Square for the ceremony.

Gibraltar airport makes for an interesting landing! The runway stretches across the neck of land that separates Gibraltar from Spain. We found a good spot to watch a plane coming in to land. First though, as the main road in and out of Gibraltar crosses the runway it has to be closed and cleaned.

That van is pulling some sort of cleaning device.

You can just see the plane approaching the runway above - when we landed it felt like we had almost stopped over the sea!

Below you can see the plane crossing the main road.

We enjoyed our week including a day in Spain visiting Tarifa - the bit of Spain closest to Africa. It was a breezy day and there were lots of kite surfers out in the afternoon making a very colourful display.

It was good to catch up with family and an old friend.