We had a three hour bus ride on Thursday 21 May, from Seville to Tarifa (population 17793) the southernmost point of the European continent, well known as a good location for wind surfing. It was windy and cool, the average May temperature is 16 degrees Celsius according to holiday-weather.com.
We stayed at Hostal Las Margaritas but walked to the old town for a steak dinner followed by Majitos at the cocktail bar next door. Then a few of us went to an exhibition of paintings and heard a local African sing who was advocating for immigrants, an issue here since it is only 15km from Spain to Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar.
After breakfast on Friday 22 May, we used the laundromat and rushed to catch the bus for an afternoon visit to Gibraltar. The bus left at midday and made a stop at Algeciras (population 116917) and smaller places along the way, before we got off at la Linea then walked across the border. I was so caught up in getting through the queue and having my passport ready that I did not get any photos of the rock (only views from the rock, click any image below to see it full size).
Gibraltar (population 30000, plus about 10000 commute into the city for work and school every day) is a British Overseas Territory, but the locals proudly call themselves Gibraltarians not Spaniards nor Britons. We paid 23 British Pounds for a mini bus tour of the rock. We sat in the van for a while waiting for a plane to land so we could cross the airstrip to town. The first stop was the Pillars of Hercules, the views were fantastic.
Next we saw St Michaels cave, complete with theatre seating for 400. Plaques stated proudly that Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1954. We stopped as close to the top as allowed and took photos of the monkeys (known locally as Barbary Apes) which cunningly extract food from tourists or break pieces off vehicles.
The final stop was the Great Siege Tunnels. Drilling started in 1782 during the Great Siege, continued after and more extensively during the Second World War (read more). It would have been good to have taken the cable car up then walked down to points of interest that we missed, and explore the old town and high street, but we did not have enough time. it was a very good afternoon, we were all glad we’d made the visit.
Tony's Blog 
I like that St Michaels Cave
They did not seem to want to conserve the natural state of the cave as much Australian caves I’ve been to like the Jenolan Caves.
That’s a really awesome photo of the cave, the glowing blue looks really awesome! Shame they aren’t interested in conserving it as much, I suppose natural exhibits are Australia’s primary tourist attractions so we have to take care of the few we have…while Europe has far more to offer, natural and not.
Sounds like an awesome holiday 😀