Before we even knew Sarah was coming we'd tentatively planned a trip to the south of Spain for the holiday. Luckily, Sarah took Spanish in high school and now has a roommate from South America, so she not only spoke a little of the language, but also had at least some desire to go there.
We ended up taking 6 days for this trip, and I thought it would just be easiest to do a separate post for each day.
Saturday, December 26th
So the day after Christmas in the UK (and a few other countries) is a national holiday called Boxing Day. Historically, this was the day when the aristocracy would give their servants a day off (because they obviously had to be there to serve on Christmas Day), and would tend to give them a "Christmas Box" with gifts, bonuses, and sometimes left-overs. This was also the day that churches would open up their alms boxes and make distributions to the poor.
In the UK, they do a very good job of celebrating holidays. This is both good and bad. Good in the fact that pretty much everyone gets the holidays off. Bad in that absolutely everything was closed. For example, we had planned to maybe go to a movie on Christmas night, but all the theatres were closed. Our second option was to go into the city, but there were no trains running. We were also affected by this on the day we left for Spain. The trains were at least running, but on a very light schedule, and the first train to the airport left after our flight. So, what should have been $15 in train fares turned into a $130 cab ride. Not the best start to the trip, but we were going to see a new place where it was warm in December, so we didn't care.
We arrived in Malaga on the south coast of Spain, picked up our rental car, and headed straight off for Gibraltar. This is a very small piece of land inhabited by about 30,000 people that is actually part of the UK. It sits right on the passage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, so it was a strategic location during wartime, and the UK has controlled it since the early 1700s. The Spanish claim that it should belong to them (which makes some sense since it is effectively part of Spain), but the people who live there (mostly retired Brits who want the UK culture but not the climate) want to stay British. As it stands, the Spanish pretty much try to ignore that it is there. On the highway, there were literally no signs directing you there. It was interesting because you crossed over the border (passport check and all) and suddenly it was like being back in England - pubs and English accents and all. Weirdest part - the main road crosses the city's airport runway. A few times a day they close down the road so planes can land and take off. Needless to say we were very cautious as we made this crossing!
The main site of Gibraltar is The Rock. Most of the land is actually one big mountain, which held the real strategic value. The Brits built defenses inside the mountain, set up cannons, etc, and were able to control a lot of the naval activity in Europe from here. 
The Rock is also where all the sites were. We grabbed a quick bite at a pub in town before driving up the mountain. We saw a few caves (one with stalactites and one with cannons and got some great views from the top, even seeing Africa, which is only about 30 miles away. The real star of The Rock, though, and really Gibraltar in general, are the monkeys. Gibraltar is home to about 230 Barbary Macaques, the only wild monkeys anywhere in Europe. 
These monkeys can be found all over the mountain, and we came across a group of them right away when we got to the top. It was incredible. The big ones mostly were sitting around, but the little ones running around and jumping through the trees and just generally having a great time, which was really fun to watch. They also loved to be fed (big surprise). Someone had come and dropped off a huge supply of veggies, so there were carrots and lettuce scattered all around the ground. You could pick up a carrot, and suddenly become a monkey's best friend. We pet a few; I had one climb on my shoulder; and Sarah had one jump on her back which made for a pretty hilarious reaction. In the pics below, notice both Jenna's reaction as the monkey starts to make its move, and Sarah's when it decides to use her as a springboard from the van to the ground!
The most memorable part by far, though, was our second encounter with the monkeys later in the day. We came up on another small group and pulled the car over. Immediately one monkey ran up and hopped on the hood. Jenna refused to get out because she was positive that there was another one on top of the roof waiting to pounce on her head. So, Sarah and I got out and reassured her that there was nothing to worry about. She cautiously opened the door and started to get out, and when she did the monkey on the hood made its move. Jenna got out of the way in a hurry, but didn't have time to shut the door before the quick little bugger was in. Luckily, he didn't care too much about getting in the car - he just reached for the closest thing he could get his hands on, which happened to be Jenna's toiletry bag, and took it back to the hood. 
He immediately started tearing into it and eating everything possible - toothpaste, lip gloss, lotion, etc. Worst of all he became very protective. We figured it probably wasn't great for a monkey to eat body lotion, but any time I tried to take anything away, he went into pre-attack mode - crouching down and "oohing" at me. Not wanting to get in a biting match with a primate, I decided not to force the issue. I was able to grab the razor away, and figured everything else was probably pretty harmless. He ate through most everything before eventually getting bored and leaving us with a small mess to clean up. 
On that note, we decided that maybe we'd had enough of the monkeys and Gibraltar, so we headed off to nearby Algeciras, which is where our hotel was. We don't normally mention our hotels, but this one had come recommended from our GEP friends Kirk and Reid (who pretty much did this exact trip during the summer), and it stood out for one important reason - free minibar!! This was the most unheard of thing I've ever seen, Europe or otherwise. Lots of hotels have small fridge stocked with goodies, but it is always incredibly over priced - like $6 for a can of coke. Here, though, it was no charge! I was literally flabbergasted. Not that it was completely stocked - there were just a few bottles of Coke, Fanta, and water - but still...free!!!!
We had dinner in the hotel as there was nothing much else around, and took off to bed early so that we could get up early in the morning for our day trip to Africa...
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