We walked off the ship, us four, Cutlers and Robins. The Gibraltar Taxi drivers have a bit of a hold on this place. because the rates and tours were the same no matter who we checked with. The place is only 2 1/2 square miles so how much fuel can you burn? A two hour tour was 25 euros [$39], per person and that was with six or eight shoved in a van. That comes to $312 for the van load! Forget about it. [Fuel cost about $1.80 litre by the way.]
We walked to the town centre that was just coming to life around 9.30 on a Sunday morning, rather dull if I might say so. We decided to tour on our own and actually waited at a bus stop for a few minutes after enquiring if there was a circle tour bus. Common sense prevailed and we hailed a cab and negotiated with a cabbie for what we considered a reasonable price.
We saw the apes, the cable car, St. Michael's Cave, [discovered by the Roman BC] and the Siege Tunnels, and also visited the Moorish Castle. The interesting thing about the caves is that it was used as a hospital in the past 300 years and is now a tourist attraction where they have seating for about 300 where theatrics are held. The acoustics are great and it is a unique setting. However I wonder about the logistics of getting people up the narrow road on the hill and out again after as there is absolutely no parking at all.
We went to the Siege Tunnels dug in 1779, I believe, to enable the British to rain cannon fire down on the attacking French/Spanish ships below. The tunnels were 370 feet in length housing I think six large cannon. The siege went on in various forms for 5 years or more.
The tunnels are an amazing piece of engineering done 230 years ago by some ingenious hard working sappers or engineers. I cannot even begin to think about the hardships and dangers encountered and endured by those souls. Once the cannons were in place and actually firing the noise, smoke and other hazards echoing through the tunnels would have been horrific to say the least.
There is another set of WW ll tunnels that are even more complex, many miles of them. Moe and Barb visited them as well. We did not.
Next, to a Moorish castle still intact in Gibraltar. A bit of history is needed on that. Phoenicians were possibly the first 'civilized people' to settle here. Followed by Romans that poked around here as well, then sometime after the Roman Empire changed, or as some say, fell, Barbarians from the north occupied the area. These nasties were here until around the 8th century when the Moors took ownership. Then around 1200 the Moors were expelled from all of the Iberian Peninsula by the new good guys on the block, the Christians. [The foregoing is close enough to the facts for the purpose of this writing.]
The unfortunate thing is that there is so much new building going on in the form of low cost government subsidized housing that the appearance of Gibraltar has changed into that of any other modern waterfront city. The centre of old Gibraltar is still full of charm and history. It must be very difficult to combine history and need in a place that is so steeped in history.
When we browsed through the town later it was in full swing for tourists and locals to promenade the streets and sit and have a coffee for a couple of hours. [Smoking is alive and well in Gibraltar]. It would appear that a great deal of Brits nip down to here for a vacation, flights must be cheap. I thought that us North Americans dressed rather shabbily until we were shown how to really do it today by visiting Brits. [Sorry my UK friends, but it was true here today.]
We had a delightful English Sunday Roast lunch today and a pint of lovely English bitters, [beer].
Some of you may recall my comment yesterday about us eating in a place called 'Smokey Joe's' while touring in the area in 1960, 48 years ago. We asked the taxi driver, who was born here, and he pointed it out, different name. We went in and It sort of looked like it might have been the place but I was not sure. I asked the barmaid, but Fellette pointed out that she was not even born in 1960!! The barmaid pointed to some rather mature looking men in the corner having a Sunday pint. I interrupted and asked about Smokey Joe's, two knew of it. One of them took us out and showed us where it was, about 30 feet up the lane. It was now shuttered. He seemed rather happy that somebody would ask about the place where he used to enjoy his pints. [I wondered to myself if I looked as old and weathered as my contemporaries.]
The taxi driver said that in the 60's, when Spain and Britain were a little feisty about Gibraltar, the Spaniards had an old navy ship across the bay, posing an apparent threat to Gibraltar. That ship usually had black smoke coming out of it's stack and the locals called it 'Smokey Joe'. It would appear that that little restaurant that we ate at for a week in 1960 has a name that lives on!
On the subject of nations and relationships, I have included a picture of the Gibraltar Airport runway, that is reclaimed land and runs out into the sea. Please note that the road crossing the runway is the only land route in and out of Gibraltar. You can see the traffic on both sides waiting to cross when the plane has settled in.
Gibraltar celebrated 300 years of British ownership in 2004. That sure is an annoying little piece of rock in foreign hands for the Spanish.
During nasty times the Spanish would shut the border to ruffle Britain's feathers for some reason. The biggest cries of protest came from the masses of Spaniards that crossed that border every day to go to work in Gibraltar!
We sailed at 4 PM and headed out into a placid Atlantic Ocean. We head north tonight and visit Lisbon tomorrow. The skies were absolutely clear and a beautiful blue all day and still are as I write this at 9 PM. Clocks back an hour tonight, we are now on UK time, eight hours ahead of Vancouver.
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