Gibraltar

Before I went to Gibraltar, I was warned that it was extremely expensive and not to spend more than a day there. That advice was pretty sound.

Gibraltar is part of the UK, and as such uses the pound as its currency. But, cool!, a lot of places accepted Euros, and a few cafes/restaurants were even willing to accept US Dollars. Which was a little weird, why Gibraltar of all places.

The Rock is located on the western-ish side of the peninsula, and the main city is nestled onto the eastern side between the coast and the Rock. At the northern border with Spain lies the Spanish city of La Linea (de la Concepcion, a less expensive place, and very un-touristy, mostly I felt like the only English speaker in the entire city). The border was easy to cross, just hold your passport at your side. Seemed to be that as long as you have a passport, they'll let you through. A lot of people seem to come to La Linea to buy groceries and carry them across to Gibraltar.

Immediately after Customs is the Gibraltar Airport, which looks more like the bus station of a small city. The airport's airstrip lies east-west, and must be crossed on foot, then the city begins. It was amazing to suddenly see so many signs in English after seeing almost exclusively Spanish. Unfortunately, Gibraltar was also an extremely touristy place, the main commercial centre was half high-end stores, half cheap souvenier shops. But a lot of old things were there preserved among the new, including more churches per capita than I may have seen in my life, at least one for every major denomination (one synagogue, two mosques, at least three Catholic churches, one Anglican cathedral, one Church of Scotland, one Methodist... etc) it seemed, as well as an old convent, the original Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper printers, etc. The Gibraltar Museum included a basement section in which the ruins of 14th century Moorish baths could be explored. The Trafalgar Cemetery holds graves of sailors who fought in that battle and others of the late 18th century/early 19th.

Because, as like the rest of the southern Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar has had a long history of several conquests. Way back they know that Neanderthals lived on Gibraltar, thanks to a skull found that is actually featured on the back of the Gibraltar pound coin!. They believe that the Rock of Gibraltar was one of the two Pillars of Hercules, and that the caves on the Rock may have been inspiration for myths about the descent into Hades--but then, honestly, what caves weren't? The area was Spanish until 711, then came under Moorish control until about 1462? when it became Spanish again. The peninsula was claimed by Britain in 1707 (I think) and has been British ever since.

At the southern end of the peninsula, where there are neighborhoods and very few traces of tourism, lie the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe, which I found absolutely beautiful; a large mosque, isolated and open; and the Europa Point lighthouse, built in 1843 and closed off to visitors. Kind of a shame, that. Europa Point was recommended as a place to visit but out there wasn't much to see. Not of the lighthouse, anyway; the (south)eastern coast of Spain was easy to see, and Africa was visible and would have been easier to see on a clearer day, I am sure.

The Rock itself was so cool. Now, I wasn't able to climb up to the top as I planned, mostly because everything seemed to be private property and I couldn't find the road that went up to the top. But, the national park area has a lot of cool little sites. On the north face are the Moorish Castle, built several times over up to 1333 and completely accessible to the public, and the Great Siege Tunnels from 1779-83. This Great Siege was the point of Gibraltar History everyone seemed proud of, but I couldn't tell you what exactly happened, or why, only that the British held their ground and almost all starved to death. Also there were the World War II Tunnels, where Eisenhower apparently planned invasion of North Africa, but this was privately run. Also there was a really bad two-room Military Heritage Centre and outdoor City Under Siege exhibition---in this latter, I learned about how the Gibraltar-ians starved. It was brill.

Along the walk to the south is the Apes' Den, where a large concentration of macaque (monkeys) can be found, though really they seemed to be everywhere on the rock. A Cable Car passed from the edge of the city centre, up to the Apes' Den at the middle station, and to the top of the rock at the Upper Station. More South was St. Michael's Cave, which as I said before, may have been inspiration to the myths of Hades, but who knows. The caves were by far the most tourist-ful of the Rock displays.

All along the rock were remains of military structures: batteries, magazines, a lime kiln, watchtowers. Gibraltar has no natural source of water, and little arable land, but has been prized as a military outpost since forever it seems, and the first mention I heard was when the Moors used it as an entry way for their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

I'm sorry for using the term "Moor" so much, but that's what all the information has and I don't know who these people were really, so unfortunately you're stuck with it.

-A lot of shops, especially, had stickers reading "Keep Gibraltar British!" At least we know their feeling on the subject
-Had an Irish Town, which was really about three blocks by one block and not particularly Irish?
-I had no idea they were allowed to mint their own money!
-There was a lot of mention about of the Gibraltar military forces, as well as the RAF. I mean it, everywhere.
-The price of petrol was surprisingly low, about 65p/litre. It's about 1 pound here in Scotland
-A lot of places advertised genuine "English Fish&Chips!" And there seemed to be few signs of Spanish heritage. By design? The shopkeepers were much more comfortable speaking English, as well, but my impression is that many of the residents may have preferred Spanish.
-They had four bus routes, an extensive amount for so small a peninsula, I felt.
-A lot of plaques about that commemorated the visit in 1954 of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Duke of Edinburgh, which was kind of weird, I guess the Queen doesn't go to Gibraltar all that much.
-On the western side there seems to be only one main road, and just beaches, not much in the way of development.