The Rock

I'm now on leave, what a relief. Busy day ahead if I can summon up the energy to to all the things that I need to.

Anyway, at last, what was Gibraltar like? As I’ve already said, I just seemed to have a permanent grin on my face the entire time I was there, which was possibly just because I had escaped for a few days, but it gives an indication that I did like being there. Mind you, standing on your hotel room balcony in glorious sunshine looking out across the sea might raise a smile on a few people’s faces.

Gibraltar has a population of just under 28,000 people. Think of the number of people that could fit into most premiership football stadiums and you could fit in the entire population of Gibraltar and still have an echo. Gibraltar is only about two and a half square miles in size.

The first thing you notice when you land in Gibraltar is that the main road runs through the runway, as the photo on yesterday’s post shows. A Gibraltarian said to me that he thought they were the only civilised country where a road ran across the runway and I said a somewhat cheeky “surprising!” in response. Only about four planes land (and then take off again) a day so I guess it doesn’t cause too much inconvenience to shut one of the main roads closed a few times a day. Because the runway is so short, when we took off to return to the UK, the plane went right to the very end of the runway, turned round and then accelerated at full throttle going from stationary to airborne before it reached the mid-point of the runway. That’s quick.

The history of Gibraltar is interesting, but I won’t go into it here. However, you may be aware that there is some serious tension between the UK and Spain over ownership of Gibraltar. It’s a British Overseas Territory, but Spain have disputed this and wanted it returned to them. For about twenty years from the late 1960s, the border was closed between Gibraltar and Spain so it was impossible to go from one to the other – and even now the Spanish government won’t allow any flights between Spain and Gibraltar. In fact all the flights into Gibraltar are from the UK. Anyway, I was amused when I switched on my mobile phone and my network sent me a message which said “Welcome to Spain”. I guess they’ve decided who owns it then.

I was very excited to see the monkeys – which are actually Barbary Apes or Barbary Macaques. I saw them up on the actual main rock part of Gibraltar and also at the hotel where I was staying. They would just sit in the road and cars would drive right up to them and they would slowly wander out of the way. I took quite a few photos of them and was really excited to see them. I do sometimes have the mentality of a five year old and get excited by seeing small fluffy creatures.

I was also really excited when I realised how close Gibraltar is to Africa. It is just over 10 miles from Gibraltar to Morocco. I’ve never been to anywhere in Africa and I was beside myself with excitement to see Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar. It wasn’t just some speck in the distance but was really imposing. I took various photos of that as well. I could actually see it from my hotel balcony but we took a drive down to the southern most point and looked at it from much closer. I don’t know why I found it quite so exciting to see Africa but I did. I think my only disappointment about being in Gibraltar was that I wasn’t there long enough to take a trip over to Morocco. Perhaps another time.

I actually managed to leave my work mobile in Gibraltar. Oops. Someone I work with is still there, so is going to bring it back for me next week. Good job I am not on call at the moment. In case you are wondering, I did actually do some work while I was there and my talk went well, but to be honest that is all just a vague memory from my time there now.

Anyway, I really enjoyed being there. Spending time in the sunshine. Staying at a nice hotel. Seeing the sights. Being able to just exist for a while leaving all my troubles behind was just great, and I just smiled and smiled and smiled.