Family Portrait

Today's post comes from Gibraltar-again, this picture was taken on my great European trek. When in the south of Spain I stopped for the day in Gibraltar and had a wonderful day, though REALLY sore feet at the end of it. I was warned that parking is next to impossible on the rick so I parked just on the Spain side of the border crossing and walked on over into British Territory. You can now drive across the border though you used to have to take a boat to Africa then come back as Spain had closed the boarder completely-no phone, no utilities, no nothing-they want Gibraltar back! It was only re-opened in 1985. Also, Spain asked the people of Gibraltar to vote on joining them-after all, who wouldn't? Well, the Gibraltarians wouldn't-12138 votes to 44! But the line to drive across the border is really long and slow-there is still a lot of stress and Spain is not happy about the tax-free status of Gibraltar. So, I parked in Spain and walked across. Entering territory itself is a bit odd-you take a bus to cross right through the middle of the runway (not much space around there) and often have to wait for planes to land.
After being dropped off downtown I decided not to take one of the predatory taxis around the rock and instead started walking--straight up it seemed. There is a town at the bottom of the rock and a nice visitor center in one of the old military bases at the top. There is a great view and you can see Africa from the top of the rock. There are a lot of old battlements still there including one old gun that could fire all the way across the straight and hit the African shore--impressive! So I walked up the rock-yup, up the darn rock. And across. And back again. Ok, I was a bit lost sometimes but had a great time. If it just weren't for the blisters or bad sunburn on my shoulder :-) All along the top of the rock live the Barbary Apes, one of which is pictured here. I took several pictures showing whole apes and their family groupings-they literally just walk around you and pretty much avoid the tourists unless you have food or really curly hair-but then started taking some extreme face close-ups and happened on this guy. I just love his expression and the framing of the shot-enjoy!