Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a small but critical sea and military connection between the Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas.  The rock of Gibraltar houses 28,000 people with goat like traits. The many walkways are steeper than the Santorini donkey tracks.

Gibraltar is an English Colony with Pounds Sterling as its currency. This place is steep, steeper and ridiculous with a bunch of rare, tailless Barbary Apes living at its highest point. Admittedly, most people live in the few flat bits around the base of the rock and have reclaimed so much land from the sea that the Spanish are currently complaining that the British Colony is stealing their land.

The international airport has an interesting tourism feature; the main (only) road from Gibraltar to Spain cuts across the centre of the runway and when planes land, cars are supposed to stop at the stop signs on either side.

The “rock” also hides a carved out fort of over sixty kilometres of underground tunnels, complete with artillery, currently in use as part of the Iraq theatre of war.  Back down on the ground a true British flavour is evident in the town. There is a Marks & Spencer store and many fish and chip shops that offer vinegar with your chips.

Beer, fish & chips, a bit of shopping at Spencers and back to the boat, that’s a good day. The Captain has pointed the boat at Paris so into the deck spa for the sail-a-way party and evening martini.

p.s. The British Royal Guard march to the Spanish border every day, about 1 kilometre away, to protect the border, across the international runway :) 

In this next photo look for the road crossing the runway, on the left. The runway is on reclaimed land and four international flights land per day. The Spanish border is immediately on the other side of the runway. The foreground is the rock of Gibraltar and the background is Spain. A fun tourist thing to do is to get a taxi across the runway, pass the border post into Spain, turn around and come back. You get a Spanish and a Gibraltar stamp in your passport. The Spanish hate you doing it and the taxi drivers demand double payment to take you. Did I do it? Is the Pope a Catholic?

The big white area in the middle is the cemetery and it appears to be eating into the side of the runway.