Madrid and Gibraltar

Its been a long couple of days of bus travelling from northern France to southern Spain that borders Gibraltar.

But in the trip our first stop over for bus transfer was in Madrid, now we had about 9 hours to kill, so we had decided that we would go explore the city the best we could, starting by hopping on the metro, listening to a local, playing some musical instrument on the train.

We got off at the centre of town, walked around a bit checking out some shops and nearby building, water fountain and a newly engaged couple doing some "save the date" type photos around the fountain and roping in randoms to hold the sign up for them, it was entertaining to say the least.
After this we paid for the hop on hop off bus and its a great way to see the basics and get the snap shot of the city without having to get off the bus and read things. By the time we got back to the centre and lunch, another protest was going through the city, same staff different country?

But once that left the town filled with people again and you can feel the energy of the place, all the Disney mascots walking around, street acts, random alien vs predator thing happening, its the first city that actually felt busy and packed with people it was awesome. Its buildings, cobbleroads, history, many water features and statues, its a very pretty city, and one of the main parks is great to walk through, it has a small lake in the middle where you can row a boat on it, or sit and watch people row into each other.

But as said before it was killing time till the next bus for La linea, Spain that borders the UK, Gibraltar.

Getting off the bus at 530am in a city you don't know, can't check in till 1pm, nothing is open, so what do you do?

Watch the luner eclipse, wait abit till a cafe opens then have an amazing cappuccino and watch the sun rise over the incredibly large Rock of Gibraltar, and my first thought when seeing this rock is "that rock looks really familiar", turns out is was used in a scene for a james bond movie and throw a jeep off of it.

La linea was pretty cool when things actually open, things buzzing with activity, cafes open, bars, and street stalls, was nice.
After checking in to the hotel, we were to cross the border into Gibraltar and meet a fackbook friend for the first time and be shown around the small island.

Now you'll think crossing borders would be long or hard, nope, just walk through the two checkpoints without really being stopped, sucks that we aren't collecting stamps on our passports.

We had a couple hours before meeting up, we'd taken the bus around town, seen a couple of the main streets, lunch, then checking out the old fort walls, gates, few info bays, its amazing for the small island it is, its packed with history.

Meeting my friend we were driven to the top of the Rock itself and my god its a unique sight, and the day we had, blue clear skys ( still only less then 15 degrees ) you could see Morocco in north Africa, Spain and Gibraltar, it was an incredible sight and many photos were taken, afterwards taken around to see the monkeys that live on the rock, you could get up close with them to take photos, even seen a baby one running around, on the rock itself it has the army training base, old fort elements, the old jail, and just spectacular views across the board, i thank my friend for taking us and showing us your beautiful city and telling us some of the histroy of Gibraltar and taking the time to meet us and drive us around, thank you.

Now we are on our way back to Madrid on the night bus, short stop over and we fly to Rome...