Gibraltar

Hello to you all from Gibraltar, that bastion of Britishness at the southern tip of Iberian peninsular.  Gib wasn't originally on our radar but it is so close as to be touchable.  So, with time on our hands and a tempting 1-day package deal we headed off to the Rock with a mix of a dozen other European tourists.

Tarifa (right); Gibraltar (centre) and Mt Musa, Tangier (left)

A mini history & stats
Gibraltar is a jagged piece of jurassic limestone, the result of a massive volcanic eruption 200 million years ago - wow!  At its peak it measures 426m.  It was once woodland but was cleared for fuel during the Great Siege (1783) and the top area is now a nature reserve.  There are 32 miles of tunnels, all belonging to the MOD, two of which (the Great Siege Tunnels and WWII Tunnels) are open to the public.

Today, Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and is pretty much self-sufficient.  It has no unemployment.  It has sterling as a currency and has an education system along the lines of that in Britain.  The Gibraltarians are bilingual being taught English at school but Spanish is the native tongue.  Quite often the locals start speaking in English and finish in Spanish - and I heard that in practise - strange!  There are 10,000 Spanish working on the Rock at present.  The Gibraltarians have a mixed heritage - Jewish, Genoese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and English.  The current population is around 30,000 - a mix of Gibraltairan and other European folk.  Today it appears to be an integrated, multicultural society.

Once over the frontier at La Linea de la Concepcion - only fully reopened in 1986 - we changed to a smaller minibus to negotiate the hairpin bends on the island.  The first thing we noticed were the road signs - all in English and with royal or military connections (e.g. Winston Churchill Ave, Cannon Road, Queensway, Reclamation Road).  We also saw British Police in the usual uniform.  Cars bear GBZ numberplates and are driven on the right-hand side.

Nelson at the South Bastion - could you get more British?

Where better to start than the top: we whizzed up to the peak for some aerial views.

Boys and guns - Tangier in background

The highest point of Gibraltar (426m) with Mosque in foreground

Next up was a visit to St Michael's Cave which has fascinated people since Roman times.  The cave was once believed to be bottomless and gave rise to the story that it was connected to Africa via a 15 miles of subterranean passageway and through which the Barbary Apes (which are actually monkeys) originally arrived into Europe.  More recently, the cave was prepared to provide an emergency hospital during WWII, but was never used as such. It has some pretty impressive stalactites and stalagmites.

That's a funny looking stalagmite!

On the way out we bumped into the monkeys.

This one was a bit shy ...

But these two weren't!

After this we had some free time to look around the town.  The Main Street featured a few UK high street names: Next, WH Smith, Holland & Barrett, BHS and, of course, that rock of UK retail - M&S!  The bargains here though are spirits and ciggies with tobacco being half the price of that in Spain (which is already half the price of UK tobacco) so a real bargain for smokers.  There isn't much of a town really - its very small and the hub is the Main Street or Casemates Square.  We also passed the Trafalgar Cemetery and watched the Changing of the Guards.

Time for lunch and we really fancied some pub grub and the Cannon Pub was offering an irresistible pie & pint deal (being a lady I chose a g&t!)  After that it was back to the coach for the trip home.  We had a good day and are really pleased we visited the Rock.  We didn't get a chance to go into the tunnels but that could be something to do if we return.  So we'll leave you with a couple of shots.

The Spanish South Bastion Wall & icon of Britishness

But this is will be our enduring memory of Gib:

So, blog fans, our next post will be from Jerez de la Frontera so until next week, keep well and thanks for following us. xx