The Rock of Gibraltar

Most of Spain has been annoyed by Gibraltar since Great Britain snagged this prime 2.5 square-mile territory through the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.  Although they no longer pursue efforts to forcefully attain the rock back from Great Britain they have tried to make life difficult by limiting air and sea connections, choking traffic at the border, and even messing with the local phone system to “help”  Great Britain see the error of its ways.  But alas the British in Gibraltar stay hopelessly loyal subjects to Queen Elizabeth.  Jared said he was definitely aware of this friction while on his mission, but the only evidence we could find was that the Spaniards allow almost no signs for Gibraltar until you are almost there.  It was a wonderful day for us and the kids LOVED this day because of the infamous MONKEYS! 
We caught the cable car at the bottom of the rock after parking right in the cable car parking lot.  Which was a relief since we didn’t have to walk far or find special parking for the “Milk Carton on Wheels”  that was not the easiest think to park!  We read several times on signs on the way up to not have snacks out or tempt the monkeys because they will just take what you have right out of your hand or pocket. “ Beware of their Kleptomaniac tendencies”.   Okay dully noted. 
Right before exiting the tram Lisa noticed that Megan had a little bag of Chex Mix like snacks that she was eating.  So she took it from her and started to put it away as we exited the tram.  Not two seconds later a monkey walked right down to our group and suddenly and with some force I might add, grabbed Lisa’s snack bag out of her hands and in the process it exploded everywhere!  The tram worker quickly shoo’ed the monkey away and our group starting laughing and recovering from this little welcome to “The ROCK of Gibraltar!  We had a giggle about this as we noticed two steps away another sign warning us that this would happen.  Okay they are serious!!  We knew then that we were in for some fun.
The Rock is home to about 200 “apes” (actually, tailless Barbary macaques-a type of monkey).  The males are bigger, females have beards, and newborns are black.  They live about 15-20 years.  Legend has it that as long as the apes remain here, so will the Brits.  “They can touch you, but you can not touch them”, is the general guideline from the Guides.  (Rick Steves Spain, pg. 682)  They pretty much act like they own the place and honestly after spending an hour or two around them, THEY DO. 
So our cute friends the Johnsons, had more encounters with the monkeys.  Seems after greeting Lisa so abruptly, they tagged them as targets or something.  At one point one monkey stole Katie’s sweatshirt off the stroller (the pink one around her waist below), and took off with it down the hill and threw it in a bush.  (a worker had to recover it) And while they were laughing and in shock from that, another little monkey came up and slapped their littlest Matthew across the cheek!!!  The guide said, that he was just trying to play with him and was treating him like a monkey, but still poor Matthew!  It did make for some hysterical laughs for the rest of the trip!  After that little Megan barely 7 decided she did not like the monkeys and was scared of them.  Can you blame her?  Her mom was attacked in the name of snacks, her sisters sweatshirt was stolen off the stroller, and then baby brother was slapped across the face.  Its not like you could say to her, don’t be scared I’m sure they won’t touch you if you just mind your own business!  Sadly, OUR only encounter with the monkeys was that one was trying to open up Jared’s backpack and look for snacks.  He could completely unzip it, no problem.  They were like a bunch of really naughty toddlers!!  Even two weeks out from our trip, the boys all say this was the best part of the trip.
ALL 15 of our group:
The greatest part of the “Rock” is the fantastic views of Spain and into Africa that you get on top. We were lucky enough to have a clear day and could see a lot of the African continent….poking through the clouds below in the picture. This large “Rock of Gibraltar” mass is nearly a mile long and rises 1400 feet with very sheer faces. According to legend, this was one of the Pillars of Hercules (paired with Djebel Musa, another mountain across the strait in Morocco), marking the edge of the known world in ancient times. Local guides say that these pillars are the only places on the planet where you can see two seas and two continents at the same time.  In A.D. 711, the Muslim chieftain Tarik ibn Ziyad crossed over from Africa and landed on the rock, beginning the Moorish conquest of Spain and naming the Rock after himself-Djebel-Tarik (Rock of Tarik), which became Gibraltar.  (I don’t see the resemblance between his name and Gibraltar, do you?  The monkeys were very fascinating to watch.  This one was picking the bugs off the other one who was just lounging on him.  They also loved to jump off the ledges and then free fall into trees and catch a branch and swing all over.  We definitely know where the phrase “MONKEYING AROUND” came from now.     
After purchasing a monkey souvenir for Josh and Carter, we headed back down the hill to find “fish and chips” for lunch.  We found a little pub and fed the crew before heading into explore the town of Gibraltar.

We even found an iconic British telephone booth and played a game of how many Johnson/ Chugg kids can we cram in a telephone booth?  Turns out that 11 was the answer, but there might have been a few complaints from the back row!   
We even made the leaning tower of Kids pyramid just to draw attention to ourselves incase everyone hadn’t noticed us yet!  Sweet Hanna with her Daddy!  While wandering through town we came across this awesome store of Converse shoes.  It is the most colors I have ever seen!  So FUN!