On Wednesday night we took the ferry back to Spain from Morocco and drove to the country of Gibraltar, a Great Britain territory for our fourth day on the Sephardic Heritage Trip. We had a delicious dairy dinner at Gibraltar's only kosher restaurant and then checked in to our hotel.
This morning, after another great breakfast (with Michael Chakkalo manning the egg making station), we set off to explore this fascinating and beautiful country. We drove up a winding road to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, where we drove through two of the smallest tunnels in Europe. On the way, our tour guide told us some of the history of Gibraltar and pointed out many of the landmarks from the battles between Spain and England over this very valuable and strategic territory.
We stopped at point Europa - a gorgeous breathtaking spot to see where the Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas meet. We could see the parts of Spain and Morocco that we visited yesterday.
We then climbed further up the rock to visit and interact with the famous Barbary apes. It was so much fun!
We also visited the St. Miguel Cave and the World War II cave. The St. Miguel cave had beautiful stalactites that were formed out of water dripping for thousands of years . In the World War II caves we climbed through, we learned about how the British broke through Gibraltar's rock and expanded and built an incredible network of tunnels to help with the war effort and use as a possible evacuation route.
Once we got back from the caves, we walked around the quaint and picturesque Main Street for around 2 hours, where we shopped till we dropped. Tonight, we plan on praying in an one of the historic synagogues in Gibraltar followed by a deluxe Shabbat meal. We are also looking forward to meeting with the members of the religious community of Gibraltar and getting to learn more about this very special place.
Shabbat Shalom!
~Aaron Harari, Class of 2017
