Gibraltar is a British overseas territory which is bordered by Spain, the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It’s close enough to Africa that you can easily see the north of Morocco on a clear day.
To enter Gibraltar by land the path requires you to walk ( or drive ) across the airport runway! The runway is actively in use and there are gates and guards that close the crossing path when planes takeoff and land. I don’t mean little prop planes either, I’m talking about full sized passenger jets. It’s quite an odd experience.
I knew next to nothing about Gibraltar aside from where it was. I didn’t even consider the fact that while on a map it looks to clearly be a part of Spain, it is not. It’s the UK. Union Jacks everywhere. Not only do they use British pounds for currency, they even have UK power outlets. Apparently until fairly recently they even drove on the left, but that was causing too many accidents since most people drive into and out of Spain on the right so they gave up that bit of UK’ness.
Gibraltar is a unique spot — a melting pot of culture and a place of historic and current military importance. The location is the path into and out of the Mediterranean sea and sees the passage of 300 ships per day. It’s also the home to the only wild monkeys in Europe. Alcohol, tobacco and diesel fuel are less expensive there by European measures, but everything else is more expensive. Since it’s part of the UK the place is loaded with fish and chips shops.
The Rock of Gibraltar isn’t just a rock on an island, the rock *is* the island (although this island has grown over the years by artificially extending the usable land mass). Hotels, homes, schools and resorts surround and climb up its sides. The rock has roads and tunnels all over it and even a cable car to take a more direct ride up to the top.
It’s a super-touristy place at this point with lots of shopping and restaurants. But there are 30,000+ permanent residents who call Gibraltar their home. The climate is warm and dry year round and strangely, it was cooler there than it was in Seville, where we’re staying. 23c vs 30c yesterday.
There are some beaches there and what appears to be lots of resorts but there is also an industrial vibe to the place, surely related to its location and ability to import and export things between Europe and Africa. One other thing that was mentioned is that the city is considered a tax haven because there is no tax on capital income. In Gibraltar there is no capital gains tax, wealth tax, sales tax or value added tax! Residents of Gibraltar generally learn both English and Spanish since they interact with Spain so regularly, but since Spain is a part of the European Union and the United Kingdom is not, you do have to go through border control to enter or exit. EU residents have quicker passage than others as they only have to show their ID cards and don’t have to use their passports to get stamped in and out like other foreigners like us.
We visited as a day trip which was perfect. It was great to get to see it and learn a bit about this unique location that I’d only ever seen in encyclopedias.
