photos from Gib and bike ride inland

We must have walked 10 miles all over Gibraltar from the windy windy top down to caves, a Moorish castle, and Great Siege/WWII tunnels...what a history-filled rock.  And everywhere we went, there were Barbary macaques (like little monkeys without tails) hoping for a handout. Then we rented a car, left the cat with a big pile of food, and drove  north up into the mountains to a beautiful little town of white-washed houses draped over a pointy hill, topped with a Moorish castle and 1800's church.   Our first night on shore in 3 months! We rented bikes and rode 36 km (22 miles) along a train track converted to a bike path through  30 tunnels and over 4 bridges, past hills covered with scrub and olive trees, with the occasional white ranch house.  Most of Spain seems to still be on vacation at the beach - we didn't see a single person the whole ride.   We're slowly getting used to the Spanish time schedule...many businesses close down completely in August/early Septemeber when everyone is on vacation, tourist sights also close on Mondays, and  particularly in small towns, EVERYTHING closes for several hours every afternoon for siesta.  And as in Portugal, a lot of empty houses and half finished construction projects due to the construction boom and European debt crisis.  Tomorrow we leave Europe for awhile and sail across the Straits to Morocco.

Hugo and Gibraltar's Barbary apes



Olvera, the town where we spent the night




Scenery on our bike ride on the Via Verde de la Sierra



The kids swear they can navigate

the tunnels by using echolocation.

I like hearing them go "boop...boop...boop"

the whole way through because then at

least I know they are somewhere

ahead of me in the dark.

One of 30 tunnels, this one is 990 meters long

 (and one of the few with good lighting)