Gibraltar

October 18, 2024 Lisa Comments 0 Comment

I really wanted to see Gibraltar. It is one of those unique areas, despite its small size, that has been very important throughout history. It is the crossroads of Europe and Africa; Morocco is only 24 km away. It is also the crossroads between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and, like other areas on the Mediterranean, it had a large role in WWII.

We read that crossing the border with a car can take hours. So we left the car in Spain, at a parking lot, and walked across the border.

http://www.vidiani.com/maps/maps_of_europe/maps_of_gibraltar/detailed_tourist_map_of_gibraltar.jpg

I threw away the map I picked up at the cable cars before taking a photo but found this one online.

The Visit Gibraltar site was useful for planning. We needed to do a little more, however, as we missed some sites we wanted to see.

I had purchased Nature Reserve tickets in advance. They can be used anytime within a year. The tickets included almost everything I wanted to see in Gibraltar and more. Pre-purchased tickets also allow you to get in the short line at the cable cars. We were there on a Saturday morning and the line to purchase tickets was quite long.

Nature Reserve Sites

The Nature Reserve includes the following sites, in addition to cable car tickets, and a free shuttle from the border to the cable car station. We did wait for the return shuttle on Sunday for 45 minutes and it never came; it’s supposed to run every half hour.

There are NO maps or directional signs at the upper cable car station, the only signs are to the gift shop and restaurant. We finally found one entrance to the Nature Reserve after walking on some trails to the south and east and then returning to the cable car station and asking for help.

We did see the Barbary Ape feeding station and had some great viewpoints before finally finding the entrance to the reserve. They checked our tickets here.

We should have continued south, however, to see the Skywalk, Saint Michael’s Cave, Jew’s Gate, the Mediterranean Steps, and the Windsor Suspension Bridge. I am disappointed that we missed all these sites.

Instead, we immediately headed north, looking for the Siege Tunnels. We thought we’d return to see everything else then take the cable car back to town. We did not. It would have been a long walk, all up hill. We did discuss getting a taxi back up, but just ran out of time.

Recommendation: check your google/apple maps against the paper map and see all these sites before heading north!

We saw the Barbary Apes, or macaques, everywhere on the rock. It is the only wild monkey population on the European continent. There were signs everywhere about not feeding them, not touching them, warning about bites, but, of course, there were many people trying to pet them. They are a popular souvenir, also. We saw them in many stores.

“All these tourists are just tiring me out”

The Nature Reserve is 40% of the area of Gibraltar, so getting from one end to the other is a lot of walking. There are some roads but most are limited to official vehicles or taxis. There are various parking areas on the borders of the reserve.

We spent about an hour walking from the cable car station to get to The Great Siege Tunnels.

Repair of a cave-ins, this is supporting the wall

Overlooking the airport from Siege Tunnels

There are many informational signs and exhibits inside the tunnels about the French and Spanish siege of Gibraltar, lasting 3 years and 7 months, the longest siege in British military history. We learned the Spanish and French were taking advantage of the American Revolution keeping British forces busy. There was information about the creation of the tunnels. There are some excellent viewpoints throughout the tunnels, including one over the airport runway and “Jock’s Balcony”.

After the Siege Tunnels, we saw the Military Heritage Centre (just a couple of small rooms of memorabilia) and enjoyed the views from Princess Anne’s Battery.

We continued down hill, stopping at the interesting exhibits in City Under Siege. Like the siege tunnels, they had exhibits and signs explaining much about the siege, the diseases, desertions, and discovering a “cure” for scurvy with captured lemons and oranges and brandy. I think the brandy was a bonus making everyone feel better more quickly.

We headed towards the WWII tunnels, stopping briefly to read the informational signs at the Lime Kiln; lime was used to white wash the buildings and more importantly to keep bacteria from the water.

We visited the WWII Tunnels, or at least the very small portion open to the public. There are over 55 km of tunnels under Gibraltar, an underground city that could house the troops stationed there, food, power generation station, hospital, and much more. Our final stop on the way down to town was the Moorish Castle.

Other Sites

After coming down off the rock, we walked to Grand Casemates Square. A large open place, lots of cafes, shopping, and people. It leads to the pedestrian Main Street, more store and restaurants. If we hadn’t been so tired from our morning, we would have enjoyed both more. It was a pleasant walk up Main though to get to our hotel. We passed a number of great sites on the walk, including St. Jago’s Arch and the Southport Gates.

I thought Gibraltar would be more walkable, but there are many curved roads without access to cross streets, many hills and other obstacles, so we took a taxi to see Europa Point after checking in to the hotel. There are many great sites here, although they were also difficult to get to. They were setting up for a mountain bike race, the MTB Eliminator World Cup, so we had to weave between some metal barricades set up on the road to block off the course.

The Europa Point Lighthouse wasn’t open for visitors but definitely worth seeing. We saw Harding’s Battery and the exhibits underneath. There was great information about Gibraltar, its history, and battles from the siege to WWII.

We learned it was named for Tariq ibn Ziyad. He initiated the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711-718. He crossed the strait from Africa and kept his troops at what is now known as the Rock of Gibraltar. The name “Gibraltar” is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq or “mountain of Ṭāriq”.

We also saw the General Sikorski Memorial. General Sikorsky died in a B24 crash in 1943 here, he was commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile.

All of Europa Point offers beautiful views of the Rock, Morocco and the Bay of Gibraltar.

The next morning, we enjoyed some tea and coffee on our balcony, and the beautiful views over the strait.

After checking out, we walked through the beautiful Gibraltar Botanical Gardens. We thought we’d go down to the waterfront but couldn’t get across Rosia Road. We did have some nice views from the Saluting Battery Promenade, but just returned to the cable car station.

After waiting for the shuttle, we started walking towards the border thinking we’d pick up a taxi somewhere but ended up walking all the way. I enjoyed it, though, walking up Main Street again. We had additional time to enjoy Grand Casemates Square. I am actually glad the shuttle didn’t come, as it allowed us to see more. After Grand Casemates Square, we went through the Landport Tunnel, saw several additional batteries, before making it to Winston Churchill Avenue and the airport.

The airport is right on the border with Spain and the sole runway can be crossed by pedestrians on the west side. On the east, the road goes under the runway. We arrived at the crossing just as guards were closing the gates and hurrying the last few people to leave the airport. We got to see the plane take off, then the gates opened and we walked across to passport control.

Final thoughts, I thought we could see everything in one day. Maybe you can if you pick up a tour, and there are plenty of companies offering tours. But I wish we had an extra day, to finish up the other sites on the Nature Reserve as well as the Gibraltar National Museum, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, enjoy people watching at the Casemates Square, and more.

Gibraltar is quite expensive, partly because of the exchange rate but also things are just simply expensive regardless of the currency. Very happy to see it, I know I could see more if I returned, but, I doubt I will have the opportunity.

Hotel and Restaurants

We stayed at the Rock Hotel, centrally located, with beautiful views. We had a great room and lovely balcony where we could see Morocco across the strait. We both forgot about a UK plug adaptor but, fortunately, they had one EU type outlet for an electric kettle. It allowed me to charge my phone, plus we were able to make coffee and tea the next morning.

We had a very late lunch after getting down off “the rock”. It was after 3pm and surprisingly a number of restaurants seemed to follow Spanish hours and were closing. We did find some good fish and chips and some good cold beer at Aragon Bar.

Later that evening, after returning from Europa Point, we made the mistake of having a beer and a Moroccan Pastille in the restaurant before bed and it was over $34. Do NOT order anything at the hotel!