The tourists visit Gib

We are rapidly approaching our last few days in Gibraltar so it was really nice for my (Amanda) mum and dad to come over for a visit. Although my dad had been to Gibraltar many years ago whilst in the Navy my parents had not holidayed here.  It was quite a surprise to walk back from the shower block and find my parents sitting on Magnum even when I knew they were coming as it seemed so out of context.

As Mark & I have done most of the touristy stuff we set my parents up with a map, some tourist info and let them get on with it.  It was easy for them to get a taxi up the Rock to see St Michaels Cave, the Siege tunnels and the Apes Den, at £25 a person it initially seems a lot, but it is a dedicated tour and that price does get you into the Cave and tunnels.

The weather wasn’t as good as we had been having over the first couple of days of their visit but at least it was better than the UK. We headed out to Europa Point to see how blowy it really gets in the Straits and also to see the views of Morocco.

Europa Point with Rock and Mosque in background

After walking from Europa point to Rosia Bay (where Nelson’s body was brought to, stored in a casket of brandy) we made use of the free buses to get around to Catalan Bay, funny that when my dad had been year many years earlier the tunnels were still in use by the Navy and he remembers looking out over Catalan Bay. 

Next day after mum and dad had a educational visit to the Museum we all had lunch and went out to the Botanic Gardens although only small they are so tranquil and make up for the lack of green space in Gib.

Mum & dad under whales jaw in Botanic Gardens

Once most of the tourist trail was complete we hired a car to explore some of our favourite places in Spain.  As my parents had not been to the Costa Del Sol we headed up to Puerto Banus to admire the marina, funny I never manage to get any photos as there were plenty of people flocking to take photos of the posy yachts and cars. We sat and watched the world go by whilst having an over priced coffee!  That was our fill of the busy world and on the drive back to Gibraltar we stopped at Casares a pretty white washed village which also gave us some great views of Gibraltar.

Casares

The following day we headed west along the coast to Cape Trafalgar (yes, where the battle took place) the drive is lovely along the coast but we had bizarre fog all the way (bit like our first sail past Tarifa) so we didn’t get the views we had hoped.  The countryside is full of wind turbines and if you have not been here before it is quite a sight.

Our first stop was a lovely typical Spanish town/village, Vejer de la Frontera, we wandered up in to the town along the narrow streets full of orange trees and around the old city walls, it was not over run by tourists and was surprisingly nice as we were only really planning on passing through.

Vejer de la Frontera

A few miles inland and we reach Cape Trafalgar, the fog had clear, the sun was shining and with the westerly wind we were able to tuck in on the east side of the headland and enjoy our picnic.

Picnic at lighthouse at Cape Trafalgar

Beach at Cape Trafalgar

After Trafalgar we drove through Zahora which looked like a very sleepy surf town and then onto Barbate where we had moored back in August, not much to see but lovely drive along the coast with the sun shining and we had a clear view of the hundreds of wind turbines, it brought back on those special memories for Mark J

Wind turbines close to Tarifa

We had one final stop that day at Tarifa as this is one of our favourite places we couldn’t miss and it made a good coffee stop.

After such a busy day the next day we were going to have a bit of a shopping stop in Spain and then take it easy but we were caught out by a Spanish back holiday, so we headed off to Ronda.  Stunning drive although again we were bothered by the fog which did spoil some of the views but it was nice being up in the mountains and we did get to see some of the wildlife.  There must be over 100 storks that nest of the electricity pylons, every one is full.

Stork & nest on top of pylon

There was no fog in Ronda and the views were stunning.

Mum, dad & Amanda, views over Ronda 

Ronda views 

We walked from one side of the town across the amazing bridge which spans the gorge, we had our daily picnic in a beautiful square with the sun shining and we even had time to pop in the museum.

Bridge over gorge 

The final day with the car was a return trip to the shops! I managed to get a wetsuit from Decathlon which hopefully will be put to use when I am able to finish my Padi scuba diving course later in the year – big thanks to my very generous brother who bought me this for my birthday. I won’t share the photos!

We visited one final Spanish village which was Castellar de la Frontera, the old town which includes a castle (Castellar means castle in Spanish) at the top of a windy little road is very picturesque and peaceful.

Castle at Castellar

It over looks the Guadarranque reservoir, the original occupants of the village were moved out in 1971 and the village now has a small hotel in the castle (although did not look like it was open out of season) and what look like some smaller holiday properties, it would be a very remote location for a holiday as from what we could see there were not any shops, there was a small restaurant and a couple of galleries, we came across Riccardo Pasquini exhibiting his work which was really interesting as it incorporated different colour sands from all over the world, shame we do not have the space or the any money to buy!

So after a busy week there was a the normal sad goodbyes but we all had a lovely time,