Gibraltar

Two weeks ago, the day after we went to Morocco, my friend Ida and I had a much better experience traveling to Gibraltar.


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That morning, after spending the night in the port town of Algeciras, Spain, Ida and I grabbed the city bus over to La Linea, Spain, the border town next to Gibraltar. It took about a half hour to get there but the cost was only about $2 (as compared to a taxi which was around $40). Upon arriving in La Linea, we were dumped at the bus station and crossed the boarder into Gibraltar on foot. We were hoping to get our passports stamped but no dice. The border patrol barely looked up and just waved us through.

In Gibraltar, there is a cable car that takes you to the top of the rock. When we arrived at the entrance to the cable car, a nice young man from a competing business told us that for just 3 euros more, his company would take us on a tour of the rock in a van complete with information from the guide, stops at all the sites on the rock, and free entrance to the caves and to the military defense tunnels (normally 10 euros each). We would also get to feed the Barnaby apes that live on the rock. Sign us up! Off we went with a group from England (there are many Brits in Gibraltar as it is a sort of commonwealth of the UK although it has its own government and constitution).



On our way up the rock, we stopped several time for scenic views. We also stopped at the famous caves of Gibraltar. These caves include a performance venue inside. It was outside these caves that we first met the Barnaby apes. They are extremely friendly although will steal food if you are holding it in your hands. Our guide was extremely familiar with the apes and had them sitting on our shoulders and eating out of our hands.

















It was also at the caves that we also first came across a strange travel group. This group consisted of approximately 15 American males ranging in age from approximately 20 to 40, mas o menos. And, in the great spirit of representing the States, the spoke with terrible grammar, some were missing teeth, some wearing bib overalls, many heavily tattooed, and they were all drinking beer in and out of their van at around 11 a.m.. As a cyclist was headed down the rock, the one dude said to him, "Way to go, Louie Armstrong!" Douchebag, it's Lance Armstrong. Later, when a soccer field was in view, the same guy yells, "Hey, I think David Beckman is down there." Beckman, he said Beckman, not Beckham, but BeckMAN. I was mortified that such a group was representing all of us abroad. I spoke to one of the least obnoxious members of this group and asked where they were from. He said they were all from Louisiana. As we continued to see them, stop after stop, I wondered what would make 15 friends from Louisiana decide they wanted to hop on a plane and fly 10 hours to a small British country on the edge of Spain. Finally, at the last stop and after the comment about David "Beckman", I apologized to our tour guide and explained that most Americans were not like them. He laughed and said that these guys were actually from an oil rig in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. They had started drilling in Egypt and had eventually made their way to the Strait. He said he understood not all Americans were similar to these guys. I had several reactions to this news. First, it made sense. They were from Louisiana, they were young, and they were all dudes. Of course they were oil rig workers. Then, I again became mortified. These guys had been traveling all through North Africa and now Europe acting like this and representing the States. I am sure that somewhere on Facebook, there are pictures of them in their bibs with beer in front of the pyramids grinning their toothless smiles. However, f they are able to travel to such interesting places, perhaps I should consider a future on an oil rig.

The entire day in Gibraltar was great. After our tour, we had a lunch of fish and chips, walked through the old downtown, and just generally enjoyed being around people who were speaking English and not trying to swindle us. We had some extra time to kill before our train back to Granada so we crossed the border a little early and went to the western most beach of Costa del Sol.

One of the interesting aspects of Gibraltar is the airport, or to be more specific, the runway. Gibraltar is a small country. According to Wikipedia, it's 2.6 square miles or about 1600 acres. That's not very big. At the location of the airport, Gibraltar is 1.1 miles wide. As such, the runway must run the whole width of the country/peninsula. No problem. Oh wait, what about the main street into town? Ah, the runway bisects it. Thus, when a plane is taking off, traffic on the road is stopped and the train proceeds down the runway including crossing the main drag. Luckily for us, we were able to see a plane take off. It was pretty cool.
























All in all, we really enjoyed Gibraltar and felt very comfortable there. It's not a big place and was very clean. We highly recommend it. Ironically, just a few days before our visit, Prince Charles and Camila were there. They also visited Spain and were told by Prince Felipe that he'd like Gibraltar back. It's been British for 300 years. Spain's not getting it back. Nice try though, Felipe.