Gibraltar Tuesday 20th Jan
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Tue 20 Jan 2015 20:51
Harry and I got up early this morning as we were on a mission to climb to the top of the Rock and see the sunrise. It was a brilliant hour, seriously steep up, up, up, to the summit 419 metres above sea level. Gibraltar Bay with Algeciras beyond were really beautiful with both ship lights and street lights on, slowly the dawn light gave definition to the silhouettes and we had to keep the pressure on as we really had no clue as to how long it would take us to reach the top.
At a sign indicating the final 450m length of road we could see the clouds turning pink so we realised we were very close to sunrise. Fortunately when we did finally pop out at the top (at O'Hara's Gun) the sun was just rising and the sight was breath taking with fabulous visibility in all directions. The sea was a long way below and the world stretched far into the distance. Great timing! Harry did so well, I was terribly impressed with him.
After admiring the views he bounded off with yet more energy along the Douglas Path to the Douglas Lookout ~ more vertical drops with "ATTENTION VERTIGO" signs ~ and before long we were at the sight where Barbary Apes are being fed. As they were munching into apples and oranges we could get close up and they were not interested or worried by us.
A very rewarding morning and we're both exhausted now!
The other amusement today was going to watch the 'Changing of the Guard'. Our guide book is very misleading and we waited 45 minutes to watch what we hoped would be a ceremony similar to outside Buckingham Palace. Eventually three soldiers performed a ceremony that lasted about 2 minutes.
It was fun to look down on Queensway Quay from the top, Thursday's Child looked very small!
