Hello and welcome to the Gibraltar leg of our journey.
Straight away I can say that this was the biggest culture shock of our journey so far.
Gibraltar is technically part of the United Kingdom, so you think "yes we are heading to somewhere where I can speak English somewhere with customs that I am more familiar with!"
Well Nope!
We didn't know this till it was too late and we were nearly there but we were told by a Guardia Civil guy in the Bla Bla Car that Gibraltar has a massive drug problem! Because this is the closest point to Morocco this is the entry point for a lot of the drugs that get to Europe - specifically I am told Cocaine.
The trip started with this new found information in mind and with the warning that you could walk through the wrong neighbourhood and get jumped by 20 guys in broad daylight!
So now that I have painted the picture that we were running around with the hairs on our backs up on ends, lets jump into the adventure!
The Journey to Gibraltar: We arrived from Seville by Bla Bla Car to the Spanish side of the 'Linia de Conception' which I got the vibe that this was as close as our driver wanted to be to Gibraltar.
The driver pointed us in the direction of the border/frontier and told us that we had to get there by walking.
The last time I had an experience like this was when I (Mercedes) was 12 years old and my family decided to visit Mexico via the USA border...There is a definite area that only the brave enter, something along the lines of no-mans land. Then you come to the official looking fence and guard posts and then you start to get processed.
The below image was taken from the Spanish side of the border walking to the official crossing fence and guard posts - you can also see the Rock of Gibraltar in the background.
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If you remember from our previous blog Kyran had impaled himself on a tandem bike, so once we arrived in Gibraltar our first priority was to ditch our bags and get into town where we were to meet a doctor that had kindly agreed to see Kyran and give him a tetanus vaccination.
After being delayed with our accommodation issues we headed into town but the doctor had to go somewhere and would come back later.
So we went in search of food. Kyran insisted on the need to try some Ben and Jerry's Vegan Ice cream (I think it was comfort food after our accommodation debacle)... Yes we ate all the ice cream in one go.
So I guess we should tell the story about the accommodation. I do make a point of not being negative, but I guess this is worth a tell as it adds to our experience of Gibraltar.
We found it on Airbnb, it was cheap and IT.WAS.CHEAP! The apartment was advertised as being on the English side of the boarder. It turned out it was on the Spanish side, the guy said he had advertised it like that so that he didn't have to pay taxes in Spain, he also reckoned that he was a police detective but also that he owned a few original picaso art works. I don't think a police salary covers much and probably not a few Picasos - or at least not a corrupt one!
To describe the place in two words I would call it a 'drug den'... Things like "Wolf Creek" come to mind. The bed was broken, there was no internet, the window shutter was rusted in place. The hall lights were missing, the sink was full of dirty dishes, he walked around the entire apartment smoking and in the morning there was a broken ceramic spoon on the table with something black burned in it and white powder on the table.
Kyran was so uneasy that he went out and didn't want to come back until as late as possible, I guess that is why he went and bought a tub of ice cream and ate 2/3rds of it!!So we survived the night - we ran out the door as quick as we could the next morning and only returned to pick up our suitcases after we had been out to the Rock of Gibraltar all day.
Photo to the left: Kyran attempted to sit at this restaurant as long as possible to avoid going back to the apartment!
The Rock of Gibraltar
We had been told that there were "1000" steps that you could climb up to get to the top of the rock and by doing so save us the 25 pounds per person that it would cost to get up the cable car.
Me being frugal decided that that was something we could do, and Kyran for reasons unknown decided that he could probably do that too.
So we caught the bus from the border to the base of the Rock, and standing at the bottom looking up I decided that £50 to get to the top was not so bad after all.
As the saying goes: Is this the hill that you want to die on? or in our case die trying to climb!
So we paid the money which included a visit to the caves and tower all of which we will talk about later. The cost of the ticket included the cable car and the national reserve entry tickets needed to go and see half of the attractions up there anyway, so it wasn't a bad tactical move in the end.
The way up
The view was amazing! and everything looked very civilised from up here and less like the wild west that we decided it was more like.
As we came into the station at the top the first thing we did was to take a selfie the second thing we did was spot one of the infamous monkeys that inhabit the top of the rock.
The monkeys we were told would steal whatever they could. We initially found them quite placid and they kept to themselves as they basked in the sun. The adults were de-liceing each other and the youngsters were fighting and eating flowers.
Note: For videos for of the monkeys check out our Facebook page: Findlater Travels or our new Video Blogs!
Above: Kyran had to show the monkey his was bigger 😁
I could have sat and watched the monkeys play and fight all day but alas time was moving on and we were not. So we made our way down the hill, to a Glass walkway
There were a lot of things to see so before we get to carried away let me show you the view that we have from all over the Rock of Gibraltar!
Above: It is hard to see in this photo but this is the view out towards Morocco / Africa. We could see it! only just, but we could definitely see it!!
We came across "O'Hara's Battery" which was a large artillery installation near the end of the Rock, out close to the sea. There were two large 'turrets' which were basically massive cannons mounted on swivel bases and covered in an armoured shell. The cannons had a range of about 28,000 yards, or about 26 kilometers. They can hit the other side of the Straights of Gibraltar, which were only about 13 kilmeters wide.
The cannons didn't look like they were very serviceable, all the parts were rusty and unkempt and it would probably take a lot of effort to restore them back to service! Lucky there are no wars on nearby...
OK well that is enough about big guns. On the walk down the mountain we also came across St. Michel's Cave here is a plaque that was at the entrance.
I don't know why but in all our travels we seem to be drawn to Caves. Most of them are off limits for protection but this one was the complete opposite. They added lights and concrete, and let people walk around freely! Now is is a concert hall!
A Lime Kiln!
Below is a picture of the last remaining lime kilns (ovens) in Gibraltar. Here's an exerpt from the Gibraltar Tourism website:"This is the last remaining Lime Kiln that has survived in Gibraltar. It appears that this type of Lime Kiln must have abounded in Gibraltar as there is even a street named after them, proof of their usefulness to the local community.
These 'kilns' or ovens were used to produce lime for which were a variety of uses. Lime was used to whitewash buildings, to paint water cisterns so that the water was free of bacteria and perhaps most importantly in times of plague, to pour over dead bodies in mass graves to prevent further spread of disease.
This particular lime kiln is estimated to date back to the late 19th or early 20th Century and the heat resistant bricks were made in England." Source
The Moorish Castle!
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| Photograph by G.W. Wilson in late 1800's |
We neared the end of our epic walking adventure in and around the Rock of Gibraltar, and finally got to the Moorish Castle we saw as we first entered Gibraltar, down at the airstrip. It was a pretty neat building, on a dominating cliff with commanding views down the slope and across into Spain. The tower there today was rebuilt after the Moors re-captured Gibraltar from Spain in the mid 1300's over the top of the old one which was destroyed. The tower was purely a defensive structure, and was located at the end of a pretty awesome curtain wall which sealed off Gibraltar peninsula from the mainland of Spain. There isn't much left of the curtain wall anymore though, it's been absorbed into the town over the centuries.
A very narrow walkway into the tower - the only way in and out!
As you walk up to the entrance, this plaque is above it:Typical castle windows - deep and thick
A square spiral staircase for us dirty tourists to walk up and down the tower!
Baths and Hygiene!
There were baths, and pools, and even rainwater collection features for this castle tower. Very cool! (pun intended). Pictures below show the bath stalls
A Prayer Room:
The domed roof of the prayer room in the castle. Castles often had chapels and prayer rooms, but this was more of a defensive tower than an accomodation, so it was probably the mayor/lord of the town's last place to pray before the tower got taken in siege?
The Gibraltar flag is flying high above the castle on a beautiful day! The flag is actually showing a castle, and a "key" representing the key to naval trade between the Mediterranean and the rest of the world (in my opinion).
Peekaboo! Mercedes has come to seee you! We got to the top of the tower at last!
After a pleasant look around at the top of the castle and lots of pictures, we made our way down the castle and back into town and headed back to our Airbnb and creepy host to get our bags and flee!
Once we got our bags and left the bus station to Algeciras we could finally breath a sigh of relief. As we had a few hours to kill before our Bla Bla car ride to Granada we decided to look for food. Which was an amazing idea as we managed to locate this quaint little vegan restaurant that was not too far out of the way from were we were/had to be.
The food was amazing! Here are some of the photos that we
took. The sun was quite strong (bad for photos!) but you can see the great options that they had available, with a hint of the Moroccan spices from over the water.
All in all we had an good enough time in Gibraltar. We did
leave with the thought that “Yep we have been there done that, Check it off the
list and never come back”… but with time who knows, we might go back with a
little more money and have a completely different experience.
Thanks for reading this blog I hope you enjoyed the photos and the stories. Stay tuned for the next part of our adventure where
we head to Granada to see another cousin and check out the sites.
Also don’t forget to check out the Video blog that
accompanies this and see all the monkey business.
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