Gibraltar – December 7, 2014

Today’s tour started at a place called Europa – it is the most southerly point of Europe and we were able to see Morocco from there.

Next, we went up the cable car (yes, Krista, I willingly got on a cable car for 6 minutes each way) to see the Barbary Apes. These are actually monkeys, not apes and they are tailless. They are quite the hams – they actually pose for pictures. They can also be quite mischievous – if you don’t hold on to your belongings, they might just disappear. These are the only free-roaming monkeys in Europe.

After visiting with the monkeys, we toured the Great Siege Tunnels. These tunnels were carved out of the limestone during the 1700’s in order to protect Gibraltar from being captured by the French. The Siege Tunnels are approximately 700 meters long.

During WWII, miles and miles of tunnels were also built both below and above the Great Siege Tunnels. They actually built a small city inside “The Rock”, including hospitals. The British wanted to make sure that Gibraltar did not fall into German hands.

The airport on Gibraltar is very different. It actually is owned and run by the RAF and the single runway crosses the major highway through Gibraltar. When a plane is coming in to land, barriers go down at each side of the runway to block the traffic from crossing the runway until the plane has landed.

Mallorca – December 5, 2014

There were no tours available in Mallorca, so we took a city bus to the downtown area. Once we got off the bus, we wandered the downtown area for a while. We then got on the “hop on, hop off” bus which gave us a wonderful tour of this island.

The island is beautiful and very clean. We have found that most of the islands in the Mediterranean seem to take great pride in their home – they are usually extraordinarily clean and well maintained.

Barcelona - December 4, 2014

Up until today, we have been extremely lucky as far as the weather has been concerned. The days have been cool and every time that we have just finished a tour, it has started to rain. Today – we were not so lucky as it has rained off and on all day.

Our tour today was to see the La Sagrada Familia. This modernistic religious centre has been under construction since 1882 and it is estimated that the earliest that it will be completed is 2026. It is an absolutely amazing building. Much of the religious significance of the building is lost on me, but, I can certainly appreciate the architectural wonders of it. The pictures do not even begin to do it justice. While not the architect who initially started the project, however, what we see now is definitely the work and influence of Antoni Gaudi. His vision is very different than anything that I have ever seen.

Many other buildings in the city are also the work of Gaudi and it shows clearly – we were quickly able to identify anything that was his work.

Barcelona is a beautiful city – it was just too bad that we visited on a rainy day.