Europe Travel Diary – Part III – Gibraltar

Previously: Part II – The Alhambra

It was another early morning as we were up at 6am to catch our train from Granada to Algeciras. We arrived at around noon, walked to our hotel (across the street from the train station), checked in and dropped off our bags. We then went directly to the bus station and caught a bus for the hour-long ride to La Linea. From there we walked across the border, flashed our passports to the guard and voila were in a different country!

Technically, Gibraltar is one of fourteen “British overseas territories.” I am choosing to count it as a country in its own right on my list of countries visited. Not everyone will agree with this and that’s OK. When it comes to counting countries I say you can follow any set of rules that allow you to sleep at night. By the way, precedent had been set years ago when I choose to count Bermuda as a country (it’s another overseas territory). Also John and Yoko were married there. And so was Sean Connery. So there.

Upon arrival in Gibraltar we boarded a local bus and rode out to the southern most point of Gibraltar, Europa Point. From there we could see the ships travelling through the Straight of Gibraltar and, in the distance, mountains in Morocco. This is the closest I’ve ever been to the continent of Africa!

Our next stop was the cable car to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. As soon as we made it to the top we were met by one of the local Barbary Macaques (better known as Barbary Apes). It was just sitting minding its own business but I wanted nothing to do with it. See, I’m not really an animal person so having wild apes around was a little unnerving. Of course they’re totally accustomed to having people there but the warning signs made it clear they were not to be messed with!

The views from the rock were great and we even got to watch a plane land on Gibraltar’s runway. The runway is partly on reclaimed land that juts out into the bay. All vehicle and foot traffic into and out of Gibraltar has to cross the runway so when a plane is about to land or take-off they bring down barricades and temporarily close the road! We choose not to stop at the apes’ den half way down the rock because we’d seen plenty of apes up top, it was hot and we were tired.

We spent the rest of our time wandering through town and having dinner at a local pub. I embraced the Britishness and had a pint of beer and fish & chips. Yummy!

At the end of the day we walked back across the runway, into Spain and caught a bus back to our hotel in Algeciras. It was a long day but a great one. Gibraltar certainly is a unique place and I’m happy to have been able to visit. My full set of Gibraltar photos are here.

Next: Part IV – Barcelona