Climbing the Rock

Gibraltar was founded in 1160 by a Berber Dynasty from Morocco, but was part of the Visigoth Kingdom as early as 418. Around 710 the Berbers conquered the area around Gibraltar, with settlement occurring around 400 years later. Since then it had been fought over up until today. Spain continues to harbor claims over Gibraltar and the Gibraltarians continue to remain loyal to the Crown. There are about 34,000 people that live here on this little 2.6 square mile tip of land that juts out into the Mediterranean. There are palm trees.

Our ferry from Morocco arrived about 90 minutes late into the Spanish port of Algeciras.

Since we were landing in the EU we had to cross the border and enter from Morocco when we exited the ferry. Then a short walk out to the curb, and catch a taxi that would take us to “La Linea”, the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar.

Because Gibraltar is part of the United Kingdom you actually leave the EU when you cross the border from Spain to Gibraltar. So we hopped out if the taxi and walked to the EU exit border control, then continued walking and entered the United Kingdom.

On the other side we could catch a taxi that would take us to our hotel called The Rock.

The Rock is a grand dame of a hotel that has passed its prime and is located in the upper reaches of the town so that it overlooks Gibraltar. It was built in 1932 and has hosted dozens of celebrities and royals since that time. Their photos are hung in the lobby ad testament to former glories. It survived WWII and has seen plenty of history.

The hotel scene in Gibraltar is fairly limited so we picked this for the views over the bay. Ultimately not a great hotel but you can’t deny the history.

We immediately dumped our bags because we had very little time to get up to the overlooks on the Rock of Gibraltar before sunset. It turned out to be much more complicated than anticipated. Originally we had planned to take the cable car up, but it closed two years ago for repairs that do not seem to be underway. Taxis cannot take you up anymore and so your only option is to find a tour and join it.

So we scampered down the road to the bottom of the hill to find a tour we could join. Fortunately we found one leaving in five minutes and had two spaces.

So it was a van of six tourists and the driver who took us up to the top of the Rock. And by top I mean top:

Even after having been on the tour I really don’t understand how the vans get up the single lane, very narrow, winding road. In places turns are so sharp that they have to back up to make them. Back up to the edge of the cliff. It was insane but the views matched the insanity.

Here is what the road looked like in case you missed it above.

And here were some of the views.

Armies have been fighting over this space for centuries so it’s no surprise to find a cannon.

You also meet up with the famous monkeys of Gibraltar. Word is they can be aggressive and so we worked to avoid them. Ultimately not that many of them and easy to avoid.

You also get some very nifty views of Gibraltar’s famous airport.

Once down from the top we were able to get our hearts restarted and walk around the town.

Really cute. Stores take Euros and Pounds and you can take out both from ATMs. People are generally bilingual and easily switch from Castilian to the King’s English. That is weird when you’re used to people switching from Spanish to American English – very different.

We ended our day back at The Rock Hotel where we had a beautiful view of the bay and this perfectly shaped umbrella pine.