Around The World Without Flying: Gibraltar

I am now on what is called a ‘Mediterranean Experience Cruise’. The ship left Southampton on 22 July and returns to Southampton on 5 August. But I am remaining on it for a back-to-back cruise to the same region, though mostly different ports, eventually arriving back in Southampton on 19 August.

Between them I am travelling to, or have already travelled to, Gibraltar, Nice in France, two ports in Italy that are near Rome and Florence, Genoa in Italy, Lisbon in Portugal, and Seville, Cartagena, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga in Spain. A couple of these ports I will see on both trips, but that's OK as I will take very different shore excursions each time.

Our first port of call was Gibraltar, currently part of the United Kingdom, but with a border on its north shared with Spain. More about that later.

When one thinks of Gibraltar, one automatically thinks of the Rock of Gibraltar. Now that was a surprise. I just assumed it would be a big brown solid rock. Not so! It is made of limestone, so is mostly white and grey. And it is riddled with big caves and tunnels. The tunnels were made by blasting and digging, not by machines, so it is astounding to discover there are a total of about 55 kilometres of tunnels in that one rock, mostly made by British armies over the last 200 years. That is longer than the rest of their road network! (The total area occupied by this territory is only 6.7 square kilometres.) However, some of the tunnels are now closed as they have been deemed unsafe.

On my trip around Gibraltar, we drove through several narrow tunnels as well as along very narrow roads. Inside the tunnels was a dark grey. It felt quite weird weaving your way in and out between the outside and inside roads, often up high, in a small coach. A large coach would not fit!

Of course the main purpose of the tunnels at the time that they were built was to hide their armies and their machines, equipment and even hospitals away from enemies. The problem is that Gibraltar is in a prime strategic position. On one side is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other, the Mediterranean Sea. The opening to the Mediterranean Sea where Gibraltar is located, known as the Strait of Gibraltar, is very narrow - only 13 km wide - so any ship entering the Strait must run very close to Gibraltar.

Nowadays, when they have no active commissions, many cargo ships and tankers anchor just off the coast of Gibraltar because of its strategic position. If they get a job involving the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, they can just take off and get there quickly. We saw several on our trip.

The town of Gibraltar is surrounded by three sets of high walls, built by successive conquering armies to protect it. Once upon a time, woe betide a citizen who arrived after the massive gate was closed for the night - he had to stay outside until morning! The innermost wall, built by the British, is so wide in parts it now houses shops and even an iceskating rink. The bricks help cool them, which is really needed as the climate is generally very hot. It rarely rains, so two desalination plants are used to supply all their water needs.

Our tour guide, a former Londoner who move to Gibraltar for its warmer climate, was a real hoot. “Did you know the skull of a Neanderthal was found here? One was found near Cologne in Germany too. But it was determined theirs was a male and ours was a female. And this was before DNA testing. You know how they knew? Ours still had her mouth open!” (How sexist, but still very funny.) And so it went on, joke after joke.

Anyhow, he took us for a very interesting tour around the territory. We saw a couple of beaches (without setting foot on them though), went through some tunnels as I said before, saw ‘land’s end’, as it were, where a lighthouse stood at the junction of the two seas, and observed the border with Spain, which is strictly controlled. There we learned of the efforts made by General Franco to acquire Gibraltar for Spain. When a referendum was held and its citizens voted overwhelmingly to remain British, Franco was so furious he closed the border in retaliation, throwing thousands of Spanish people out of work. Today the Spanish border force occasionally deliberately slows the border crossing, again mostly hurting Spanish citizens who live in a town close to the border. About twelve thousand of them cross the border each day to work in Gibraltar, which has a thriving economy. This obstruction also causes traffic chaos on the Gibraltar side. Our guide said that there would be no way they would agree to become Spanish as a result of Brexit! They now have had two referendums in recent years and each time it was very clear the people had no desire to become part of Spain.

Interestingly, the people of Gibraltar have their own language which is a mixture of English and Spanish. But they all can speak fluent English and fluent Spanish as well.

Finally we had an afternoon tea of drinks and tapas at one of the top hotels, so all in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon. I look forward to coming back to Gibraltar on the return cruise. Perhaps next time I will explore the caves. I will think about it. But one thing I will not do is go on the cable car up to the top of the rock. Dangle over the rock? Not on your nelly!