Another travel day. Destination Gibraltar, the southern tip of Spain. We woke early (7:30) and had our final excellent buffet breakfast and headed out for our walk to the train station with a few pit stops along the way. Even though we crossed the new bridge, Maeve made no mention of death, maybe the edge had worn off. The kids were once again great troopers as we trekked across the city uphill toward the station with luggage in tow. Kate picked up her personal battle with travellers checques once again. Stopping at a bank that flatly refused to deal with her and was extremely rude and rushed having no patience for her. We found also that the bus station was rude and impatient. Kate later tried 3 different banks, all of them refusing her transaction and not in a polite way either. Seems the business crowd of Spain is much less polite than the tourist crowd. I guess that stands to reason, but a little bit of a let down.
We waited at the train station for our 10 am train, as the time was getting closer we headed outside to the platforms. There were plenty of signs with all kinds of numbers on them, so it wasn’t exactly obvious which platform we were at. Kate and I checked the schedule and found 3 trains coming in near the same time, both of us thinking how could those 3 trains all arrive and depart so quickly. That and a fellow traveler asking us whether he was on the right platform, made us realize that we should double check our platform. Sure enough, we were in the wrong spot. And had to cross under to platform 3.
The train ride was touted to be one of the most beautiful in all of Spain. It followed a river bed for awhile and crossed through some tunnels at points as it wound through some minor mountains, but honestly a drive in the country south of Verona is more beautiful. Besides Kate slept through it. We arrived in Algeciras, a town on the opposite side of the bay, as planned. The second to last stop was listed as La Linea – P___, so it was likely we could’ve gotten off there and taxi’d to the border (I’d like to research this one I get back), but I decided to stay with our original plan. Likely the original plan cost us at least an hour, as we had to get our bearings, find the bus stop,
navigate purchasing a ticket at the bus stop (which turned out to be just buying a ticket with the driver), and get stuck in major traffic at points, especially leaving Algeciras and entering LaLinea as we headed for the Gibraltar border. And unfortunately this was not the direct route, so we stopped at every bus stop along the way. And there were quite a few. Finally the bus arrived at the LaLinea bus stop. All the kids but Theo were sleeping. We then had to walk the luggage an unknown distance toward the border. Turned out the distance was only half a mile or so. But the heat of the day was beginning to pick up. Customs was easy, and we bumped into the number 9 bus which stopped at the edge of the center of Gibraltar. I hadn’t yet gotten our bearings on the map, and had to get off with all our luggage in order to let other passengers off. One of the passengers said this was the last stop for the number 9, so we all jumped off. A long hot walk uphill. All in all, we arrived at our hotel around 2:10. We walked into the lobby and the first thing that struck all of us was the cool air conditioning.
The second was the very welcome sounds of the Queen’s English. The kids thought the room was cool as there was a connecting room between us, and especially liked the 8th floor rooftop pool. We dropped our things then headed out for a bite to eat. The hunger pangs were setting into Kate again and she forced a decision. The place we happened to be standing in front of at that point served fish and chips, the meal everyone was interested in getting. I noticed later that almost ever place served fish and chips. The waitress warned us that the kids meals were small servings and had few chips, but she said they could bring extras. The portions were huge especially for kids meals, so I had to help finish the chips. A little girl wondered over to us and started talking to us offering her Nintendo DS. She was 4 years old, the same as Maeve.
Her mother said she was not shy. I suspect that she’s the reason some of the regulars come back. I know I’d come back just to visit her. With the remainder of our day we decided to bus out to the Southern edge of Gibraltar to see if we could see Africa. On the way we stumbled into a fortification that had been converted into a bowling alley, movie theater and Ice skating rink. Quite a combination and nothing I’d expect to see in Spain, but in Gibraltar. Sure, why not. The bowling alley was by far the nicest bowling alley I’d ever seen. We found the bus stop, and rode out to Europa Point. The ride also gave us our bearings for the cable car we hoped to hop onto the next day. We hopped off the bus, and sure enough there was Africa in the distance and large boats all over. Almost looked like a traffic jam at sea. After a quick snapshot of Africa and the family (if you look very closely you can see Africa just above Jane’s head on Zeke’s side),
we hopped back onto the bus and headed back to the hotel. We hit the 8th floor pool for some family fun
. Checking out the view, it turned out we wouldn’t have had to head to Europa Point to see Africa. We could see it and the harbor from our hotel roof.
We then headed back down to the room around 8 for a late (but early by Spanish standards) supper. The kids wanted pizza, so I walked around town looking for a pizza joint that took Visa. There were few pizza joints and even viewer that took Visa. A barmaid near the bowling alley gave me the tip I needed. A pizza hut at the entrance to the city. That’ll do. Hope they take Visa. They did, and 25 mnutes later I was heading back the successful meatlovers pizza hunter/gatherer. I’d even rounded up an ice cold can of diet pepsi for Kate. I dropped the food at the hotel and rushed up to the rooftop to see what was left of the sunset. Mostly it was gone, but the large boats were beginning to turn their lights on and decorated the harbor. The seagulls were also becoming quite numerous as the temperatures dropped.
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