Day 22 - Gibraltar, Great Britain

LAND AHOY - thank goodness…it’s been a few long days at sea with a lot of ‘turbulence’. Today we have arrived in Gibraltar and today, we are going to cycle to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. We had 10 riders and I think they were all from the ship. Pretty intense trip but definitely worth it and now off the bucket list. The roads were narrow, some were pretty steep and a ton of taxis and buses..was a bit ridiculous and reminded me of the bus trip to Victoria Peak or Stanley Park in Hong Kong. It’s November, it must be completely unmanageable during peak tourist season. We stopped at a few viewing points which were stunning, including riding across the runway that, in effect, is the boundary between Gibraltar, Great Britain and Spain. I found myself focusing more on the bike and pedaling cuz you really didn’t want to stop cuz very difficult to get going again on an incline. The worst part, I had my Map my Run ready to go and was sure I had started it but NOPE 🤬. Somebody else did so I took a screenshot of hers. She had clocked us for a 12km ride but Paul thought it was closer to 18; she said the elevation gain was 1800 feet. The guide didn’t give us a lot of information on Gibraltar so I googled 5 interesting facts. Here they are:
1. The current population of Gibraltar in 2023 is 32,688, a 0.12% increase from 2022;
2. Gibraltar is only 6.8 km2 in size;
3. Gibraltar is a British overseas territory, which means that it is under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, but technically it is not part of the nation;
4. Personal taxes are low across the board, with an effective rate of income tax of only 25% (27% for a period of two years from 1 July 2022 as a response to Covid expenditures) on all incomes up to £500,000. All companies in Gibraltar pay only 12.5% tax on profits; and
5. The Gibraltar airport is the only commercial airport in the world that has a highway passing across its runway. To avoid nasty collisions between planes and road vehicles, the traffic on the highway is closed for 10 minutes in the event of a landing or a takeoff.Read more