Gibraltar

Today’s port is Gibraltar…..also known as “The Rock”. It is a peninsula 2.75 miles long, ¾ of a mile wide and 1,400 feet in height. A population of about 30,000 people live in Gibraltar, which is part of the United Kingdom. With its strategic location at the western entrance of the Mediterranean, “the Rock” offers great value as a military strong point. Europe is only 8 miles from Africa at this point. Whoever controls Gibraltar and the harbor at its base is in a good position to control the passage between the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.

The Rock--Gibraltar

Over the centuries control of Gibraltar has passed from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the Moors from North Africa to Spain and finally the British.

Our plan today was to walk into town from the port and then take the cable car up the side of the Rock. There are roads zigzagging around the top and side of the Rock and plenty of stairs to go from one level to another. We changed our plans when we started to realize how long it would take to walk on these roads to get from one site to another in the limited time we have. So, we became a party of 8 to take a taxi tour of the Rock. In 1.5 hours we were able to cover all the sites on the Rock.

At our first stop we went inside St.Michael’s Cave, with its chambers of stalactites. There is an underground cavern which has become an amphitheater for concerts, plays, and even an occasional wedding.



The amphitheater inside the cave

 Then it was on to see the Apes Den, home of the famous Barbary Apes. Actually tailless monkeys, the Apes are native to this area, but not to the rest of the Spanish mainland. Legend has it that Britain will retain the Rock as long as the Apes live here. At one point during WWII, they seemed to be dying out so to boost morale of the troops, Winston Churchill gave the legend a bit of help by bringing in ape reinforcements from North Africa in 1944.

At several overlooks of the area, we had a good view of the airport runway down below. It stretches from one coastline to the other, a distance of no more than ¾ mile. It separates Gibraltar from Spain and what is most unusual about it is that the road from Gibraltar to Spain crosses the runway and whenever an airplane is landing or taking off, traffic must be stopped!

The airport runway in bottom third of photo....with road crossing over it.

Our final stop on the Rock was at the tunnels dug out and used for firing cannons during wartimes. There are 34 miles of tunnels dug into the limestone rock. These tunnels were used during the Great Siege in 1779-83 during the American Revolution, when the Spanish and French attempted to starve the British into surrendering. The British held strong. More recently Gibraltar was a key naval and airbase during WWII.

Cannon inside the tunnels on the Rock

Having seen the Rock, we spent the afternoon walking around town, enjoying an authentic lunch of British fish and chips and watching a crystal blowing demonstration in one of the shops. It was then time to head back to the ship and say goodbye to the Mediterranean.

An Anglican Church of England with Moorish architecture



Glass blowers



We now will have 2 days at sea as we head toward Southampton.