Day: January 10, 2024

I Braved competition with Spanish bureaucracy and won !!! The train we took from Madrid to Seville a few days ago was 30 minutes late. I mean, compared to Australia that would be considered super punctual, but we were told you can claim a 50% refund on the fare, when the trains are over 30 min late. I’d tried the website with no luck, but waiting for the train to Granada I’m sitting outside the Renfe office so thought I’d give it a go. Took a few attempts as I’d chosen the wrong option on the ticket machine but after an hour I’m €36 richer. We just need rules at home like this enforced on Jetstar, Virgin and Qantas.

Today we visited the Cathedral of Seville and the La Giralda Bell Tower. It’s the largest cathedral in the world, it’s astonishing just how massive it really is, considering parts of it were constructed close to 900 years ago, and completed as a church about 500 years ago. It started off as a mosque during the moorish period. In reality it’s just another massive European Catholic church, but I couldn’t get over just how much stonework and masonry skill must have gone into its construction. The stained glass windows are super impressive as well and most of them are the originals.

The bell tower started its life as a minaret attached to the mosque before it was converted to a bell tower when it was converted to a church. We climbed to the top, there is no lift. I was not really looking forward to climbing 30 stories of stairs, but it’s actually a ramp and is a lot easier than I imagined.

Other interesting note of that Christopher Columbus is supposedly buried there. I say supposedly as the jury is out on if it’s truly his remains, apparently recent DNA testing was inconclusive.

The view from the tower is supposed to be great but it was wet and raining (as well as bone chilling cold) so we didn’t get to see a lot.

We have done some amazing awesome things this holiday but for me I think today was the highlight. I’ve always wanted to visit Gibraltar and today I got my chance. It’s a 2.5hr drive down the motorway from Seville so we did a day tour.

For those that might not know, Gibraltar is a tiny bit of Spain that Britain took in the Spanish war of succession in 1704 and signed over to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 with the treaty of Utrecht. It’s super strategic as from it you can observe and control shipping into and out of the Mediterranean Sea.

As you can imagine this is a bit of a sore point for the Spanish in general, but as the guide explained the locals on each side of the immediate border get on well and are happy with the status quo. Lots of people move across the border for work daily.

Gibraltar is a quirky and cool as I was hoping. Even though its sovereignty is controlled by the UK, it’s not the UK completely. It’s classified as a British Overseas Territory.

• Everything is in English
• But Drives on the right hand side like Spain
• Speed in Km/h like Spain
• Pay in pounds
• Mints its own coins (Still pounds /pence)
• More red phone boxes than I saw in London

It’s not an island, but to get into Gibraltar after going through customs and immigration you need to cross the airports tarmac. There is now a road tunnel under it that opened 12 months ago but foot traffic still walks across. It’s far quicker to get through the border as a pedestrian, so the tour companies walk you across and out you on a local tour bus on the Gibraltar side.

Seems most people cross on foot, or the vehicle of choice, an electric scooter. There are thousands of them. It was very cool having to wait for a plane to land before being allowed to cross the Tarmac.

We did lots of cool stuff in Gibraltar. We saw Africa, which is only about 20km away. The caves on the island are quite amazing, something they undersell a little. Gibraltar has narrow, super steep scary roads with hairpin turns and precipitous drops to one side. They say if you can drive in Gibraltar you can drive anywhere. I’m in no hurry to try it.

Monkeys…. OMFG… they warned us not to feed them or get too close, or take bags near them as if they see you opening the bags they will push you out of the way to get your stuff. We were a fair way away from the monkeys, but one ran up and jumped on Emma’s back! She didn’t freak out, but I was thinking “how the hell do I remove the monkey without it biting me or Emma..”. At that point, it was my circus and was my monkey. Luckily after about 30 seconds it just jumped off anyway.

Best bit of the day?… Annoying Emma with stupid dad jokes about the Rock. “this place rocks!” ”We need to rock on” etc