Gibraltar

Hi everyone,

We've now been in La Linea for over a week.  During our stay we've walked into Gibraltar twice for day trips.  We were stamped out and back in to Schengen each day.

Barbary Macaque

Our first day in Gibraltar was with Toni and Peter of sv Tigger.  We first met them in the Indian Ocean in 2015 and hadn't seen them since.  We spotted their boat in Alcaidesa Marina.  They very kindly took us around The Rock in their car.

Once across the Spanish border one walks or drives across the Gibraltar Airport runway.  From there we drove towards the southern end of Gibraltar, stopping at points of interest.

Rosia Bay

View towards Europa Point

Victorian Gun

We drove up The Rock to St Michael's Cave.  Along the way we came upon our first Barbary Macaque monkeys.  They seemed pretty laid back, probably due to the relative lack of tourists.  Apparently they can be quite rowdy in crowds.  St Michael's Cave is quite an extensive network, parts of which can only be reached by divers.  The outer cave forms a natural amphitheatre used for concerts.

View north along the western side of Gibraltar

Macaque Monkeys

The macaques were relaxed with so few tourists

St Michael's Cave

St Michael's Cave

From St Michael's Cave we drove north to the Cable Car station where there's an observation deck.

View of Gibraltar's eastern side

View north along The Rock to Spain

View of Gibraltar Airport and Alcaidesa Marina

From the Cable Car station we drove to the Great Siege Tunnels.  These are impressive with displays at key points in the network.  Most interesting was the engineering developments during the siege.  One was the gun carriage allowing cannon to be fired downwards.  The carriage featured separate sliding and fixed parts, the fore-runner of modern gun carriages.  Prior to these the whole carriage rolled backwards to absorb the recoil of firing.

Great Siege gun emplacement

Great Siege gun

Great siege gun

Next was the WW2 tunnels which are far more extensive.  They're interesting but there's less to see in terms of displays.  It's their size which is impressive.

WW2 Tunnels

Map of the Tunnels

Hospital in WW2 Tunnels

More monkeys

Lastly we visited the Moorish Castle.  Another interesting place.  The Moors ruled large parts of Iberia for 800 years.

Moorish Castle

On our second day visit to Gibraltar we explored the town.  Much of the town is on reclaimed land and is outside the original walls.  This makes the road network interesting since there are limited penetrations of the walls.  And to make it more interesting Gibraltar changed from driving on the left to the right some years ago.  This makes some of the intersections 'strange'.

Main Street is pedestrians-only.  Lots of fancy shops and all duty free.  There are squares with many cafes and restaurants.  Dotted around the town are pubs, and in one of them we had a very good lunch.

Lots of memorials around the town

We visited King's Chapel which adjoins the Governor's residence "The Convent".  It's a nice chapel and the Governor has his own balcony accessed from his house.

King's Chapel

Finally we visited the Trafalgar Cemetery where some of the wounded who later died in Gibraltar are buried.

Exploring Gibraltar has been a lot of fun and very interesting.  There's been no wind to take us anywhere so we were able to explore at leisure.