Visit the Famous Rock of Gibralter - the Last British Colony in Europe

Having the only apes living wildly in Europe, with the possible exception of the British themselves (the Germans have been known to call the British "island apes", you see), the 30,000 Gibraltarians living on Britain's last European colony have a special relationship with the 250 Barbary Macaque monkeys living upon their famous Rock of Gibraltar. Legend has it that the "apes" warned the British garrison of an eminent Franco-Spanish attack in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession - the peninsula later being ceded to Britain by Spain in perpetuity in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. And a popular superstition is also the belief that should the monkeys ever leave the colony, the British will, too.

Having on the one hand the appearance of a perfectly British city, replete with Guinness pubs, colonial style houses and fish and chips restaurants on every street corner, the steep steps, hot Saharan winds and Gibraltar's many Indian, Senegalese and Moroccan residents also give the place the touch of being a modern version of that old Hollywood classic, Casablanca. After all, the Straight of Gibraltar is a very narrow barrier between the European and African continents (one "Pillar of Hercules" being here, the other in Morocco) and many a hopeful African immigrant sees Gibraltar as the gateway to Europe. Whereas the ancients may have believed that the Pillars of Hercules marked the end of the known world, many modern refugees see the Rock of Gibraltar as marking the start of a new one.