We left Spain today and went to England! Well sorta. Gibraltar is an overseas territory of the Crown. Hence if is full of English, they use the Pound for currency and not the Euro, their food is way inferior to the Spanish and they have an attitude very different from their neighbor to the north. Their bad attitude, I believe, stems from the Great Siege. The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the American War for Independence. This was the largest action fought during the war in terms of numbers. At three years and seven months, it is the longest siege endured by the British Armed Forces. Oh, the British won, and they have never allowed the Spanish to forget that.
We were told to park on the Spanish side, and walk over to Gibraltar. Take the tram to the top, then work our way down to see the sights. The sights included the over 300 Barbary Macaques monkeys pestering you, the nature reserve toward the top, the siege tunnels from the 18th and 19th century, the caves and the Morrish Castle from the 8th century. A busy day resulted. Lots of walking in the hot, humid weather.
Spain is to the right. You can make out the International Airport on the right as well. The only runway. You walk or drive across it to get from Spain to Gibraltar! When planes take off or land, they stop everyone, (like at a train crossing). Weird. Not a very busy airport, only two landings and one jet taking off all day.
Too many lights and too much music in the caves. We even heard the theme song from The Love Boat!
Over 32 miles of tunnels in The Rock. A few of the openings dug in the 1700’s to bombard the Spanish and French
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