heading off from La Linea
view of the peak from the Upper Nature Reserve
monkey trying to get into Cheryl's bag
Yesterday we walked into Gibraltar, a 15 minute walk from our hotel in La Linea de Conception, just over the border in Spain. La Linea is a rather seedy town full of apartments for the 12,000 workers that go into Gibraltar every day. Just as well we walked – the traffic was horrendous – apart from the workers, heaps of Spaniards go there for the cheap petrol and duty free shopping. 2000 Moroccan workers also semi-permanently live in Gibraltar. Total area 6.4 sq km; population 30,000. Interestingly (especially to Cheryl) the Jewish population is 700 – we ran into a group of orthodox Jewish school kids, and the only shop we went into, to look at handbags, was run by a 4th generation Jewish Gibraltan.
On entry one is immediately accosted by people selling Gibraltan tours. We opted for a 2 euro lift to St Michael’s cave, fairly near the top. We saw the caves (concerts are held inside), walked up to the top of the cable car for the fabulous views of the rock peak(s), and then headed down to town, visiting the other sights on the way – the Siege tunnels, the Moorish castle, and of course the Barbary Apes (actually macaque monkeys) that are everywhere. The monkeys are very cheeky – one jumped on Judy, opened her back pack and tried to pull out a plastic bag; apparently they know that plastic bags usually contain food. Gibraltar has been under siege 14 times; the great siege in the late 1700’s lasted nearly 4 years. Gibraltans voted in 1967 and again in 2002 on whether Gibraltar should be part of Spain or not, but they almost unanimously rejected it each time.
3 days ago I lost part of a filling and tooth, and my poor tongue has been getting cut up by the sharp edge of the remaining tooth. In Gibraltar I found a dental clinic, waited 20 minutes, had the tooth filled and paid about 2/3 the Australian rate. Great service!
The main town in Gibraltar is full of duty free shops, especially jewellery, tobacco and grog. It is SO British – with red letter boxes, bobbies, English names and strong English accents everywhere. Quite a contrast to Spain less than a kilometre away.
Does Gibraltar rock? Yes and no – the rock itself does, and the town is interesting. It’s worth a day trip in from Spain.
Today we passed through Tarifa (torrential rain – didn’t look like a an exciting beach resort at all) and Cadiz, where we had to rely on Judy’s 40 year old (!!) Michelin guide to get us around. Some things don’t change much and it served us well. We are now in Jerez de la Frontera, home of sherry. After a tour of a small exclusive bodega with tastings of sherry that sells for 55 euros a bottle, it’s a wonder I can even type up this post. Tomorrow we finish our white villages tour, ending in Seville for our last 2 days in Spain.
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