June 29 Saturday – QC arrived at Gibraltar at 10 AM.
“In a few moments a lonely and enormous mass of rock, standing seemingly in the center of the wide strait and apparently washed on all sides by the sea, swung magnificently into view, and we needed no tedious traveled parrot to tell us it was Gibraltar. There could not be two rocks like that in one kingdom” [Innocents Abroad, Ch 7].

Sam wrote from Gibraltar to his mother and family.

“Arrived here this morning, & am clear worn out riding & climbing in & over & around & about this monstrous rock & its fortifications. Summer climate & very pleasant” [MTL 2: 67-8].
From Sam’s notebook:

“Blucher in Gibraltar blowing about being American to British officers—to hotel keepers—to commandants—to band-masters, whores, chambermaids, bootblacks—making an ass of himself generally” [MTNJ 1: 351]. Note: in his Jan. 7, 1870 to Mrs. Fairbanks, Sam wrote “Greer is Blucher,” meaning Frederick H. Greer, of Boston. In his June 29, 1871 to Fairbanks he described Blucher as “an eccentric, big-hearted newspaper man.” Greer/Blucher was the prototype of the “Interrogation Point,” described in IA.

Sam was taken back by the behavior of many of the passengers throughout the excursion. He would ridicule them in his newspaper articles and in Innocents Abroad.