Day Trip To Gibraltar & Other Stories
Sausage, bacon and egg in a bun, a little dash of brown sauce, a sweetened cappuccino: hangover cure par excellence. It’s needed, last night was a long night and today is going to be a long day. But we can’t be this close to Gibraltar without making a visit – the first visit to an overseas British territory for either of us.
Our base now is the coastal town of San Luis de Sabinillas on the Costa del Sol, for our last taste of the Spanish Mediterranean on this long journey south. We’ve chosen this location not just for one last dip in the blue but for two other reasons as well: firstly to make that trip to Gibraltar, and secondly to meet up with Jo. Jo is an old friend and colleague of Michaela’s who moved out to Spain some fourteen years ago, and it’s a long time since they’ve seen each other.
Emotional reunions soon give way to rounds of drinks and a long night is underway, in fact Jo and her partner Darren keep us up way, way beyond an old man’s bedtime. I can scarcely believe my eyes as I crawl into bed and realise it’s almost 3am – neither of us can even remember the last time a night out lasted until such a naughty hour! In truth we may not remember too much about this one either.
Once the ever reliable hangover cure has done its work we’re off down the coast to a little piece of Britain in the sun. On the advice of Jo and Darren we leave the car on the Spanish side of the border and go through passport control on foot – entering Gibraltar on foot means that the first thing you do on the British side is walk right across the centre of the main runway of Gibraltar airport, which in itself is a bit of an odd feeling, strolling across the runway while the Easyjet aircraft roars its engines and prepares to fly.
Approaching the famous rock and its surrounding metropolis is actually quite a sight – a genuinely unusual panorama around a rock which is both instantly recognisable and an awful lot bigger than we had imagined. It’s an imposing mass; little wonder ancient sailors believed that the end of the Earth lay just beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.
Coming into the town centre via the main square and into the streets, we are expecting Gibraltar to look and feel like Britain did a couple of decades ago, but in reality it’s not really like that at all. Yes there’s some red double decker buses and some red phone boxes, but otherwise Gibraltar is a mix of British and Spanish, with both languages, both currencies and both cuisines in evidence. In other words, it’s not so different from the Costa del Sol towns the other side of the border.
With just a few hours here we opt for a minibus tour for part of our day – pricey but at least we’ll get to see everything we want to, including the obligatory visit to the top to see the famous macaque monkeys, Europe’s only wild monkey colony. Never mind these little fellas, the views from here are amazing, both out to sea and along the coast in both directions. The macaques are rather well behaved, carefully taking food from the hands of people rather than raiding and stealing like they normally do.
The rock of Gibraltar is one of the two “pillars of Hercules”, the other being Jebel Musa in Morocco, between them forming the gateway between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Beyond here to the west was where early explorers and sailors feared to venture, the end of the flat Earth was out there in the great blue expanse, waiting to claim the lives of those who ventured too far and fell off the end. To this day, the shipping area out in this vast beyond is called “Finisterre”, literally meaning “end of the Earth”.
St Michael’s Cave, on the way up to top of the Rock, was once prepared in readiness for war as a military hospital, though was never in fact used for that purpose. Nowadays, the terrific display of stalactites and stalagmites forms the backdrop to a sound and light show every 20 minutes or so – all very touristy but quite cool to witness nonetheless.
Coming down the tiny one way lane over the rock brings us to the entrance to the World War II tunnels, sections of which are open to the public and form a fascinating subterranean walk. As a front line at the edge of the continent and a base for the British Army, Gibraltar was a target for Hitler and a strategic part of the Allies’ defence. The interior of the rock is a positive honeycomb, with 34 miles of tunnels capable of housing 16,000 troops and holding out against invasion for 16 months.
Remarkably the aggregate length of the tunnels is almost double the total length of Gibraltar’s roadways. Although the first tunnels were excavated in the 18th century, most of them were completed over two years of WW2: several of these underground streets and interchanges are named after places back home, mostly in London. Maida Vale, Baker Street, Clapham Junction.
We opt to walk back down to town from the tunnels, via the castle. Even though we took the minibus option we end up walking more than 11 miles over the course of the day, not bad after a 3am bedtime. In town, preparations are underway for tomorrow, Gibraltar’s National Day, and it’s clear that it’s going to be one BIG party. We’ll stay out of it, we’ve partied enough for one weekend.
The fish’n’chip signs are out, vying for position with albondigas and Spanish omelette, or pizza, or curry. Gibraltar is a marriage of cultures rather than a distinctive culture of its own, though apparently true Gibraltarians speak in a dialect which is difficult for both Brits and Spaniards alike to understand, and is, amusingly, the origin of our word “gibberish”.
With Gibraltar done, we make one last visit to a beautiful mountain village, Casares, which has possibly even more steep hills than the daft inclines we’ve seen elsewhere. It’s a beautiful little village though, with Moorish architecture as evident here as it was in Granada.
Casares is a quiet little place where we are amongst just a handful of visitors, unlike Mijas where we called in en route to the coast from Granada. Mijas was alive, not just with day trippers from the likes of Fuengirola, but with its own fiesta in full swing – turns out today is their patron Saint’s day. As we’ve seen many times on this trip, any excuse for a fiesta will do, so a special Saint’s Day is a given.
White bunting adorns the streets which are full of ladies in traditional Spanish dress, temporary bars fill the squares and the beer and sangria is flowing. We seem to have seen similar scenes several times over the last few weeks.
And so to our last day in San Luis de Sabinillas. One last swim in the Mediterranean – a colder dip here with the Atlantic waters mixing in – and a farewell drink with Jo and Darren, and we move on to our last destination on this long journey through Spain.
It’s Seville next.
25 Comments
Nemorino
I never knew the origin of the word gibberish, but I couldn’t understand them either when I was there in 1963.
Phil & Michaela
I don’t think we’d heard that little gem before either!
Andrew Petcher
I have never been tempted to go to Gibraltar. Surely should be part of Spain?
Phil & Michaela
Kind of felt we had to do it while so close, though. Was definitely worth the visit but I wouldn’t recommend more than a day, two at most.
Andrew Petcher
I think they take advantage. Claim to be British and demand UK Government protection from Spain but pay no UK taxes. I’d give it back to Spain. The prospect of paying Spanish taxes terrifies them.
Are you going to Cadiz? We are doing a couple of days there next month.
Phil & Michaela
No not this time, I was in Cadiz for a few days last October so it’s not on the agenda this time.
Monkey's Tale
Gibraltar is on my list, but I didn’t expect you could visit it in a day trip. I also didn’t know the origin of gibberish, funny! Maggie
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Joanne Guyver
Loving your views of our local area and it is really interesting to read from a different perspective. From my point of view, I find Gibraltar very different from the towns on the Costa del Sol. The daily commute takes us from a Spanish town where we wouldn’t dream of conversing in English (unless sitting in English company) to Gibraltar where we can converse freely in our own language and work. A place where we go from saying ‘Gracias’ to ‘Thank you’ in the space of two seconds passing through passport control at the Border. So lovely to see you both and I do hope you will visit us again someday 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Hi Jo, yes was great to meet up, we both really enjoyed our time there. Interesting to read how you view Gibraltar….and you would definitely know better than us!
wetanddustyroads
Oh yes, we know that feeling of hanging out with people we haven’t seen in years into the wee hours of the morning … just think how easy it was when you were younger (maybe it’s another sign of age Phil 😉). Thanks for the tour of Gibraltar – beautiful photos. Love the views from the top!
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Corna! Gibraltar was interesting…for a short visit..
WanderingCanadians
How fun that Michaela got to meet up with an old friend. I honestly can’t remember the last time I stayed up until 3am. Sounds like everyone was having a great time!! Love the views from the rock and of the macaque monkeys.
Phil & Michaela
I’d forgotten what 3am looks like!
Toonsarah
Sounds like a special evening with Jo and Darren – I hope you do remember the best of it at least 😄 The trip to Gibraltar sounds interesting. I never knew ‘gibberish’ came from that name. We have a friend from there, resident in the UK for decades, who does have a rather odd accent! As for Casares, it looks delightful 🙂
Phil & Michaela
We didn’t know about the gibberish thing either, isn’t it amusing. Have you noticed something odd with WordPress? Suddenly your comments on our blog (and a few others too) are coming in via email but they’re not going into “notifications”. And some the other way round. It’s driving me nuts trying not to miss any!
Toonsarah
Yes, I noticed yesterday that I could see comments in Jetpack in the ‘all’ section that weren’t listed under ‘comments’ and which ‘d had no notification of via email. Very frustrating!
grandmisadventures
What a great visit to Gibraltar! I love the pillars of Hercules separating the ancient and modern world. The WWII tunnels look really interesting. But the best part was the joyous reunion of friends and a night out that you may or may not remember very well 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Lots of good memories as well as the fuzzy ones!
leightontravels
Ah… Gibraltar. I feel like it often gets a bad rap from people who have never been or bothered to find out a bit about the place. Great to read about and see your time there, I feel it’s such a distinctive and charming place with an incredible amount of natural beauty. Meeting up with old friends while travelling is always such a joyous occasion and it looks like you made the most of this one.
Phil & Michaela
Gib is definitely worth a visit. Maybe not a long stay but certainly worth experiencing.
Latitude Adjustment: A Tale of Two Wanderers
Nice postive report on Gibraltar. Not really on our list but will add for a day trip. Just to see the tunnels would be interesting!
Phil & Michaela
Definitely worth a day trip, maybe two at a push
Mike and Kellye Hefner
What wonderful destinations, you two! It’s interesting that you had to walk across the runway in Gibraltar, but it looks so worth the weirdness of getting there. As always, the post was informative, well written, and beautifully photographed.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Kellye