Rock of Gibraltar

It has been 1 week since we left Phoenix! Today we drove to Gibraltar, one of the highlights we really wanted to see while in the Costa del Sol. It is only about 1½ - 2 hours’ drive, and a very scenic one, with mountains all the way along the Mediterranean coastline. Traffic is very heavy going across the border, so we parked on the Spanish side, took photos of our first view, and walked across airport runway.

The runway is used by everyone: pedestrians, motorized traffic, and airplanes. When a plane is due to land, the gates close, and a street sweeper clears the runway. Then the plane lands and taxis back over the runway to the airport. Pilots have to have special clearance for this airport because the runway is so short and there are a lot of cross winds. If a pilot doesn’t make the landing in two tries, s/he has to fly to the airport at Malaga to land. It was a weird feeling to walk across the runway to go between the border and the town.Read more