What an interesting place!
For those of you who don't know, Gibraltar is an Overseas British Territory on the coast of southern Spain. It is essentially, a tiny territory with a giant rock.
Home to 32 thousand Gibraltarians and 230 monkeys, the territory was handed over to the Brits during the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
The official language is English, although almost everyone is bilingual in Spanish as well. I spoke mostly English, although, I did hear some interesting accents from the locals. Llanito is also local dialect used by code-switching between English and Spanish.
Gibraltar is full of history and I certainly experienced a real mix of cultures. We took the cable car up the rock and bought tickets to see the attractions for £17.
There is still a Moorish castle from 1160 complete with Arabic baths in the centre!
The Rock of Gibraltar is home to the barbary macaques - the only wild apes in Europe - which were introduced during the Islamic period. The rock also contains a network of tunnels dug during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
There is a Naval base which was a key site during WWII and the Napoleonic Wars.
We visited St Michael's Cave which had an incredible angel-like stalagmite/stalactite formation!
While the population of Gibraltar has roughly equal British/Spanish ethnicities, the labour force is made up of a Spanish majority who commute everyday.
Notes:
- 763 Jewish people make up 2.4% of the Gibraltarian population making it the second-largest Jewish population per total population outside of Israel!
- Gibraltar uses Gibraltar pounds, but they accept Euros too.
- All retail is duty-free, so you can enjoy British items with Spanish prices.
- We parked outside in the official parking spaces, then walked across the border (I was told later that the McDonalds car park is a free option). Make sure you bring your passport/ID to cross the border.
- The main road doubles up as an airport runway, so we waited for a plane to land before we were able to cross!
Comments