Gibraltar

Gibraltar – Travel story from Polly

     Stand on the Rock of Gibraltar, and you are spanning two continents: Europe and Africa; and two waterways: the Atlantic  Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.  From the Rock you can see the outline of northern Africa (Morocco) some eight miles away and the waves of the mighty Atlantic as they mingle with the calmer blue Mediterranean.

     Focusing on land after a six day cruise across the Atlantic, my husband and I were wide eyed as our boat docked in the shadow of the Rock, a gigantic lump of limestone , rising nearly 1,400 feet, and riddled with tunnels and caves  that eclipse the city of Gibraltar.

     Gibraltar, a British colony, perched on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, proudly displays not only stunning geological features, unusual wildlife, but also the undeterred determination of the native Gibraltarians.

     In the company of our guide, Dinah, a staunch Gibraltarian, we headed up this port’s most recognizable sight via a minivan and a cable car.

    “For centuries we have defended ourselves from the Moors and the Spaniards,” declared Dinah, as she led us into the opening of the Great Siege Tunnels originally carved out of the Rock by the Merchant Marines in order to defend Gibraltar in the late eighteenth century.

     Relying on brute force, the muscle of their arms, their sledge hammers, and metal bars, the company of men used gun powder to blast out part of the tunnel and made their way through rock and dust in order to strategically place cannons.  The tunnels were extended in World War II traversing a distance of more than 30 miles containing some of the most extensive military fortifications in Europe which included a barracks, offices, and a fully equipped hospital.  Chiseled openings provide a gasping glance down on the Gibraltar city of 30,000 citizens and their airstrip that runs right through the main road heading towards the land border with Spain, and the downtown area.  Traffic and pedestrians are stopped every time a plane lands or departs. 

     Dinah remarked that “it has been ranked as the most dangerous airport in Europe.”    

     Outside the austere rocky components, a short panoramic ride in a cable car glides between olive and pine trees, and over 500 species of flowering plants, where here and there a furry tail rises through the majestic landscape.

     The Barbary Apes (macaques), the only wild monkeys found in Europe, have found a home and sanctuary here since they were brought over in the eighteenth century from North Africa as pets for the British Captains.  Now numbering nearly three hundred, the little rascals preen and pose at the top of the Rock. People are warned not to feed them, yet, we watched as one appeared out of nowhere, snatched a chocolate bar from a tourist, and mischievously unwrapped and held it like a child in a candy store, savoring every morsel. 

     Out ranking nature at the summit of Gibraltar, the glittering coastlines of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean hide history’s struggle for control of this strategic point.   In 711 Tarik-ibn-Ziyad, the Governor of Tangiers, invaded the Rock and named it: Djebel al-Tarik, “the mountain of Tarik,” from which the name, Gibraltar derives.  The Spanish reigned over Gibraltar from 1462 to 1754. Since 1754, the British have controlled this small strip of land approximately three miles long and one mile wide, but not easily.  Over time, the Gibraltarians have barricaded themselves, endured fourteen sieges inside the tunnels and caves, and even more recently been isolated from the rest of Europe by the Spanish.

     In 1969, Ferdinand Franco, King of Spain, closed the border from La Linea, the Spanish suburb of Gibraltar, to create economic hardships in an attempt to regain sovereignty over Gibraltar.  The citizens were stranded without communication (telephones) or transportation. 

     “For fifteen years, it was a cruel blow for those of us who had family and friends living across the road,” explained Dinah.  She likened it to an “iron curtain.”

     Finally, in 1985, King Juan Carlos freed them.  

     It is interesting that today, eight thousand Spaniards cross that border daily, to come to work in Gibraltar.   As with many other worldwide visitors, they mix and mingle with the Gibraltarians making the Rock a crossroads of the world destination.

.