September 6th, Wednesday: Day 8

We had to wake up very early this morning. Today was the day that we were going to drive down to the Spanish southern coast to Gibraltar, a small British overseas territory. We woke up from our deep slumber at around 5 AM, so we could get ready and go to the rental place to drive our car from our hotel in Seville. We headed downstairs to eat our free breakfast provided to us from the hotel, and we grabbed an extra piece of fruit or two for the journey ahead of us. We headed back up to our room to grab our bags and we headed downstairs as 6 AM rolled around. We called for a ride down to the local car rental place. It was rather cold that morning, so we all had to wait inside the lobby. Tyler even made some hot chocolate from the provided beverage machine, but he got some of the powder on his brand new rainbow Asics.

Tyler's rainbow Asics got hot chocolate powder on them!

After he was through being mad about it, we looked at the time and realized we needed to head out. We decided not to return the car we had been using in Seville, and drive it down to Gibraltar and return it in Malaga. The return was going to be in Malaga because we would need to drive from Gibraltar to the Malaga airport to catch our flight to Barcelona! 

Our rental car that we drove.
(Mason stood on the road to take the picture)

It was still early in the morning, so some of us slept while Chris drove. Andre started playing some tunes in the car as we got farther into the drive, and it got pretty entertaining and the car ride turned into a fun experience. After 3 hours in the car, we arrived out our hotel in Gibraltar around 9 AM. It was called the Caleta hotel, a standard hotel that offered free breakfast and looked like a place that would provide us shelter for the next night or so here in Gibraltar. We parked the car in the parking lot out front of the hotel and unloaded our baggage. Chris got out to get the cart to bring our suitcases inside, but he tripped on the curb and hurt his knee. We had to run inside and get him some ice from the ice machine and after we washed it and put a big bandaid on it, Chris was alright and we continued on the quest to our room. After Rohan checked us in, we all put our stuff in our room and prepared to set out for Saint Michael's Cave (History), our first stop of the day in Gibraltar. I took the time to research it back in the hotel, which had free wifi, and read up about it. I read that it was created million of years ago by rainwater mixing with limestone and corroding the rock to form cavities. I also read that it had extensive military use like even as a hospital in World War II. We drove up to the entrance to the cave and parked in the parking lot in front of the main entrance building. It was still very cold so we all bundled up. We walked into the entrance building and paid the fee of €18.85 each and then we walked down the steps into the cave. It had brilliant lights and the main chamber called Cathedral Cave which served as an auditorium and a place where concerts could be held. The ceiling of the auditorium had wonderfully lit up stalactites which helped increase the glow and the overall warm feeling of the cave. The rock formed such a long time ago was amazing to see up close. We walked up to the top of the auditorium steps and took a couple pictures of the blue lights in the cave, which looked beautiful. 

The view we had of the cave from the top of the steps.

After a few hours of exploring the available chambers, we headed back up the stairs to our car and we prepared for our next stop, the Mediterranean Steps (History). When I was back in the hotel researching the cave, I also researched the Steps. They were constructed in the 1940s as an overseas defense post by the British during World War II, with large gun emplacements as heavy British ordnance. As we climbed, we got very scared because there were no railings and cliffs leading straight down to the ocean almost 1000 feet below us. I almost got a heart attack from the heights, it was very scary. When we got to the top, though, after lots of zigzagging and thousands of steps, the view was breathtaking. I was astounded by the view of the ocean below us and the mountainous Rock of Gibraltar.

Our view of the Rock of Gibraltar and the sea below after climbing the steps.

It was simply beautiful. The view was so hard to look away from so we made sure we got lots of pictures. A lot more people spoke English when we went out to lunch, we found. After we a classic Spanish lunch out at a restaurant we headed back to our hotel for a nap and that would be where we would stay for the rest of the night until dinner time rolled around. We headed out for a quick bite at night but that was all we did for the day. We looked forward to another great day in Gibraltar!
Average weather in Gibraltar:
The weather in Gibraltar averages to be about 24 degrees Celcius during the month of September, which directly translates to 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit.