I was amazed at how many photos I could manage to take on just 2.5 square miles of this British Overseas Territory. That mileaage doesn't include the paths and trails all over the mountain or the tunnels that honeycomb its interior.
This was the last of our unexpected stops on our Africa detour and turned out to be one of our favorites.
I've set this post up a little differently than the usual, more geographically than sequentially.
Although we did begin with a short drive into town where I took photos through the front windshield so they are a bit blurred. Sitting in the middle of the front seat with nowhere to put my legs is not my favorite spot in a vehicle but since we never had to drive very far from location to location it wasn't too bad. Streets in Gibraltar can be wide or narrow, depending on which part of town you're in. The roads on the mountain itself are definitely narrow and one way! Up on the hillside we could see the Moorish Castle that would be our final stop.
Two things about this photo, first, this wall separates the old town and the new town on the more inhabited side of Gibraltar. You'll get a view of how it delineates in just a few moments. Secondly, we noticed right away that we were driving on the right hand side of the road. Now while that may not seem weird to you, we've been in enough former British colonies over the past few months that we were surprised that since we were technically in Britain we weren't on the left hand side here like we have been in those. When Karl asked our guide, Dominic about it, he said they did drive on the left to begin with but in 1929 changed to the right because with their immediate connection to Spain, where they drive on the right, it began to cause too much confusion changing from one side of the road to another. Tuck that little bit of trivia away for a Jeopardy question someday!
And why, might you ask, would we make a stop at the airport, right after we got off the ship? You'll find that out in just a moment, but I also took this photo on the right just outside the security gate to the airfield. Does it seem as weird to you as it does to me that there are unattended backpacks at an airport?
Here's the runway for the airport in Gibraltar. As you might imagine there is limited space for it as it runs across the peninsula, paralleling the Spanish border.
What is really crazy about it is that people walk across the runway all day long, except when planes are landing and taking off. People who live here know the schedules for the most part so there are many who use it. There is a restricted walkway but its' plenty wide for people going both directions, going to work, taking kids to school,
or being tourists and taking a selfie in the middle of an international airport runway. It was definitely one of the most unique things we've done. They used to let cars drive across as well but about a year ago a tunnel to reroute cars/trucks was completed so now motor vehicles are required to use that instead.
The airport terminal here is on the border between Gibraltar and Spain. The edge of the terminal is adjacent to the sandy spot at the back right which was supposed to connect to a Spanish terminal, make it easier for travelers to go cross the border directly after a flight. Unfortunately Spain hasn't come through with their part of the terminal yet.
So the border crossing is not far from the airport, one side to Spain and the into Gibraltar.
Even the traffic circle signs can direct you out of the country. It's not a terribly crowded border with many people making the crossing back and forth every day.
From atop the mountain you can get a better view of how the north side of Gibraltar is laid out. This is the most populous side. The land across the Bay of Gibraltar is all Spain.
Besides just being a photo of Serenade you can see the large marina in Gibraltar. One of the perks for large container ships anchoring at Gibraltar is that they don't have to pay an anchorage fee, almost unheard of. Gibraltar makes their money by selling ships provisions and fuel. The large, round fuel tanks that you can see in the distance sit on the spot where there was an early settlement. The Phoenicians were here around 950 BC but there were inhabitants even before that. The Visigoth Kingdom of Hispania ruled here from 414 until the Moors captured Gibraltar in 711. They were eventually ousted in 1462 by the Spanish.
Part of the reason for locating a settlement here was the proximity of fresh water from the river in the background of this photo, which is across the bay from the rock. Gibraltar itself has no fresh water sources so all their water comes from a desalination plant. In fact, they are pretty much self sufficient, they don't depend on water or power from Spain. Apparently they can't trust the Spaniards to always play nice.
The British have had a presence on Gibraltar since 1704 when they captured it from the Spain during the Spanish War of Succession. In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht ceded the British this piece of land "to be held and enjoyed for ever without any exception or impediment whatsoever." Spain has since regretted the loss of this strategic bit of land and made several attempts to take it back, always being rebuffed. In this photo you see the British naval base that has been here for over 100 years.
There are 38,000 people that live in this 2.5 square mile territory, most are on this older, more densely populated side.
In this photo you can see the gray wall that divides the old city on the right with the newer city and its high rises on the left.
As you look off the tip of the Gibraltar peninsula to the north and east you get a view of the Strait of Gibraltar. This photo actually shows you three countries at once, Spain to the right, the U.K. in the center, and Morocco on the left. Not to many places in the world where you can see two continents and three countries all at once!
This photo shows Jebel Musa, the mountain peak on the Morocco side of the Med that rises to almost 8,000 feet.
Okay, now that we've got the geography lesson sort of out of the way let's move on to the south side of the peninsula where you find this area that was settled by Catalan fishermen, and still has fishermen who live in these colorful houses and fish the waters of the Mediterranean. We decided it would be a lovely place to spend a couple of weeks.
The sand is fairly fine and bits and pieces of shell abounded.
They keep a net around the swimming area as there are jellyfish at certain times of the year that they want to keep out.
These pretty pink blossoms are called Limoniastrum and the red ones are a mystery.
At the tip of the peninsula you find Europa Point.
You can see we were still waiting for the clouds to burn off so we could see the mountain peak, it was a bit like the June gloom in Santa Monica where the fog rolls in in the morning and you wait for it to burn off and get warm in the afternoon. Also near Europa is Ibrahim-Al-Ibrahim Mosque built by Saudi Arabia's King Faud in 1997 for the Moroccans working in Gibraltar.
Harding's Battery has existed with various types of cannon at this spot since 1844.
The cannon currently here is one that was discovered half buried at another battery on the island and was brought here in 2013 when the battery was renovated and restored.
Also here at Europa Point is this memorial to Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister in exile. of Poland and general of Polish forces at the time of his death in 1943 when his plane crashed seconds after takeoff from the Gibraltar airport. The crash was ruled an accident but without Sikorski's powerful influence with the west, Poland ended up in control of the Soviets after WW2.
Just a photo to see how lovely blue and clear the waters were here.
There we were, standing in Britain with Spain to our right in the photo and Morocco to our left.
The Europa Point Lighthouse was commissioned in 1841 and is still a working lighthouse today. It made for great photos. I limited myself to just publishing two here.
Greek mythology tells the story that Heracles, or Hercules as the Romans called him, smashed his way through the two mountains, Mons Abyla (Mount Jebel Musa) and Mons Calpe (Gibraltar), linking Europe to Africa during his tenth labor in order to delay the setting of the sun over the western horizon.
Since those ancient days these two mounts have been known as the Pillars of Hercules. In those days, according to one side of this sign, this place was known as a religious shrine and as an entrance to Hades. To many it was known as "Non Plus Ultra", the end of the known world. In modern times it's memorialized as an "important tourist, trading and financial center created by the enterprise and initiative of its citizens. With a unique position at the crossroads of land and sea routes where the east meets the west."
It was now time to begin our touring underground for a bit as we headed to St. Michael's Cave, a natural cave known as far back as Roman times.
For a long time it was believed to be bottomless. That story led to the idea that it connected the Rock of Gibraltar to Africa via a subterranean passage under the strait. Despite the narrow entrance the main cavern opens up once you are inside.
They have colorful lighting throughout the cave at times.
See if you can see the Angel of St. Michael's Cave here.
She's a bit easier to pick out in this photo,
and spectacular in this amazing photo that our friend Bob McCullough was able to get.
While the formations were nice, what was even more impressive was the
large central chamber that has been used for concerts and currently seats several hundred people for viewing the light show which runs every few minutes called "The Awakening" that tells the story of the creation of Gibraltar.
Insede the cave is a stone commemorating the one and only visit of English royalty to Gibraltar, Queen Elizabeth in 1954.
During WW2 the cavern was set up as an auxiliary hospital but was never needed for that use.
Soon we began seeing the monkeys, the macaques, that Gibraltar is famous for. There are several groups of them on the rock, totaling somewhere between 270 and 300.
They are an endangered species and well cared for here on the peninsula.
They have to make sure to keep the different groups apart as they can be very aggressive.
They look so cute don't they?
But there are these signs warning you to be careful.
This one seemed willing to pose nicely with several of us,
and then she decided to jump on Mark's head and snuggle up. He was eating it up since he loves animals in general but I was glad to see her get down without creating any scratches. He said she was quite heavy! 🤣
I'm not usually one to take a dare but Jane dared me to sit next to this macaque for a picture. I didn't notice the red spot on the wall that looked like blood until after I sat down. After we snarled at one another I took the hint to move away!
And just one of my many silly Jane photos, this one where she was posing like the monkey.
We even got one with both Karl and I plus a macaque in it, completely with Gibraltar and Jebel Musa.
Unlike Harding's Battery on the coast, O'Hara's Battery is located at the highest point of the rock and is named after a former governor of Gibraltar. This battery, along with Lord Airey's Battery at the same spot, date back to the 1890's and both were in use during WW2. Guns were last fired from here during training exercises in 1976.
Below the battery was a tunnel
where munitions were stored along with the machinery to turn the gun.
Formerly there a stone tower built on this site, proposed by O'Hara himself and built between 1787 and 1791. He believed that a tower here would enable the garrison to keep an eye on the activity of the Spanish fleet at the port of Cadiz, 60 miles away.
Unfortunately for him that was much to great a distance to be able to see, especially with mountains in the way. The tower became known as O'Hara's Folly.
O'Hara and Airley batteries definitely had strategic lines of sight for the Strait of Gibraltar.
Karl and I with the view back towards Spain and the Mediterranean.
Same view without us in the picture. You can see how almost impossible the rock is to climb. At one time there was a shepherd's path that went up but after an enemy group was led up it centuries ago it was destroyed.
I ventured with part of the group up the Mediterranean Steps trail,
which gave me a great view looking the other direction, towards Africa again.
One last spot we visited in this area was the Skywalk, a glass platform over the side of the top ridge.
I'm guessing you can tell by now that I couldn't get enough
of the views from the top. Here you can really get a feel for how small Gibraltar itself really is as you look back towards Spain.
Jane posing on the Skywalk for us.
The rock.
An interesting story about this beach on the Mediterranean side. It's not far from the Catalan beach and has some small houses on it, not nearly as colorful. What makes it interesting is that the small beach there began to erode and disappear so it had to be reconstructed. Since there isn't any spare sand in Gibraltar so they had to bring it in from elsewhere. They ordered some from Spain but when it got there somehow they found that is was from a protected area and couldn't be taken out of the country. Alternatively this sand was brought from Morocco at a higher cost. So here's a little piece of Africa on the Rock of Gibraltar.
A few more flowers, some yellow ones that looked like daisies to me, and this pretty white and lavender bloom with the funny name of Bear's Breeches.
There are various archways that were built into a wall that goes up the mountainside, this one is called Prince Phillip Arch.
While the Windsor Bridge is a pretty amazing engineering feat I never really understood the purpose for it, but it was a fun photo op.
We got some great views of Gibraltar Bay and it was a little spooky when somebody started it swaying as we walked across.
Our guide had just told us to walk across and come back to head for our next destination, so obedient tourists that we are,
some of us went back across the bridge and others took the trail to take a photo of us all
on the bridge.
I am such a frump next to Jane, but I'm okay with it. 🤣
It was a fun group to travel with that day!
A closeup of some Bear's Breeches, and some lovely Evergreen Honeysuckle.
A view of the bridge itself.
As I believe I mentioned earlier, there are tunnels throughout the Rock of Gibraltar, it's kind of like a big piece of Swiss cheese. The first of the manmade ones was the Great Siege Tunnel.
This one goes back to the late 18th century when Britain's military power had been weakened through fighting the Revolutionary War in America. That red coat look familiar?
A large troop withdrawal from Gibraltar to help fight the colonies resulted in the Spanish declaring war on Britain in hopes of regaining Gibraltar. The British weren't too worried about the siege until the French joined in with reinforcements in 1782.
To better defend the rock the British began tunneling into it to create a spot to place cannon inside at a place they called "the notch". It was horrendous working conditions until they opened up a hole in the side of the mountain to allow air in and dust out.
Then they realized that they could also use holes like that to place the cannon and shoot out of. Lightbulb!
Thus begins the honeycombing of the mountainside. Note the thing that looks like a curtain rod above the portal. Those were mounted above the gun ports and had thick curtains made from heavy rope that were called "mantlets".
They were there to give the gunners a bit of protection from enemy fire and may have helped minimize smoke and sparks from blowing back into the area when the cannon was fired.
Views here are out to the airport runway and the Spanish border. We actually saw the gates get closed when planes landed and took off later in the day.
The Great Siege had gone on for over three years, with the British outnumbered over two to one against Spanish/French land and naval forces before reinforcements finally arrived in 1783 and hostilities ceased.
This area was hollowed out as a powder magazine. During the Great Siege Gibraltar's guns used nearly 8000 barrels of gunpowder and fired over 200,000 rounds of shot. Interesting to note that there are still places in the rock that are closed and blocked off that store modern munitions.
As the Notch was the spot the British were initially tunneling to so they continued on,
eventually creating St. George's Hall near there.
As noted in the plaque above there were seven guns placed here and at one time a banquet was held in St. George's in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant. It's also where I took the photo of Karl and I that's in the postcard for this post.
The tunnels again became strategic during WW2 when an underground garrison was created within the Rock of Gibraltar. In fact, there were Royal Engineers making tunnels there until 1968, including vehicular tunnels.
All of Gibraltar's civilian population had been evacuated to England by 1940 due to the German's North Africa campaign. As this sign says, the emphasis was to create "Fortress Gibraltar", able to withstand a 16 month siege.
Wearing our hard hats we traversed one of the long tunnels of this underground city to check out a little of what conditions would have been for men stationed there.
You can see how the tunnels went on and on, damp and with little ventilation.
In the righthand photo you can even see the natural fault line that runs through the rock.
Displayed inside are photos of the men living and working there. Pictured as well is a plane from that era and a photo from a visit by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1942.
Long, long rooms contained sleeping mats and bunks for the men. We had to wonder how often they might be able to go out to get some fresh air, or how hot and stuffy did it get, or how long at a time did they have to go without sunshine?
It was definitely a place where you wished the walls could talk.
Commemorating the work of the Royal Engineers.
If there were a place to get a little air and sun it would have been something like this spot, which you had to reach by ducking your head and zigging and zagging through a short, narrow tunnel.
I have to imagine that it would have been a place men liked
to come for a breather, just like we all did.
Final stop on the Rock of Gibraltar, just a short walk downhill from the entrance we used for the WW2 tunnels was the Moorish Castle.
From the road you took this walkway to the courtyard where there had been
more gun emplacements. The carriage on this one looked like it might have been part of the old Queen Charlotte's Battery located here.
The first Moorish Castle was built in 1160 but later destroyed when the Spanish reconquered the site between 1309-1333. When Abu'l Hassan recaptured the castle site in 1333 the current tower was built.
Since that time these walls have withstood 10 different sieges.
Staircase photos looking up and down.
I did think it was kind of funny that the stairs inside are actually made by a fire escape company.
Some of the old interior walls.
These spaces were originally for bathing or washing.
One more glimpse up the stairwell going up before rounding this corner to get to the roof.
It doesn't look as if the Moors who built the castle were very tall.
The view from here was stellar, Gibraltar, Morocco and Spain once again.
You could also see some of the gun batteries on the mountain,
as well as tunnel vents or balconies.
Just me trying not to get sunburned on a castle roof in Gibraltar, you know,, just another day in the life.....
One of our two guides wanted a picture of the group before we got back on Serenade. Like I said before, a fun group to go with, all part of our Serenade family.
For once we decided to go up on Deck 12 for the sail away from Gibraltar, probably since it was easy to do as we started to move just as we were finishing our lunch on Deck 11. Spontaneity would also be the reason I don't have a hat on. Yes, I got sunburned, and was my hair ever tangled by the wind!
I decided to map where we were at the moment.
The first picture of us was with Europe in the background, then we moved ten feet and it was Africa in the background. See why my hair was a nightmare?!
And there you have it folks, the Rock of Gibraltar in our rear view mirror. It doesn't look like much here but it is one of the most strategic bits of land on earth.
Thank you for visiting Gibraltar with us!
And as a farewell treat I'll leave you with this collage of the gorgeous Mediterranean sunset we experienced that night as we sailed east towards Greece, on to Corfu and back to our original itinerary.
Wow! I thought Gibraltar was just a big rock!!!
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