Gibraltar

We leave for Gibraltar around 0800 and arrive around 1045. There was very heavy stop and go traffic. We followed the coast and passed by long stretches of very dense apartments and hotels along the way. Franco, the Spanish dictator, deliberately developed Marbella as a holiday destination in the 1950s. At that time, throughout Europe, vacation weeks were becoming the norm. From that time, the Costa del Sol has expanded.

Gibralter has always been a strategic location where the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas meet. The Phoenicians first settled here around 950 BC, and then the Romans. Around 700 AD, the Moors landed in Gibraltar and created a jumping off point for their invasion of the Iberian peninsula. Gibraltar got its name from the corruption of the Moorish name for the area.

Gibraltar went back and forth between the Moors and the Christian Castillians. In 1700, Britain captured this strategic point from the Spanish during the Spanish war of Succession under the Treaty of Utrecht.

During the ensuing years, the Spanish fought the British numerous times for the peninsula, but Britain won every time.

In 1967, under a United Nation's mandate, a referendum was established to have the people of Gibraltar vote as to whether they wanted to stay with Britain or join Spain. 99% voted to remain British. In retaliation, Spain closed the border with Gibraltar from 1968 to 1985.

During both WW1 and WW2, Gibraltar had a very significant military purpose. It was refortified again and again over the centuries to resist invasion. An interesting Canadian history was during WW2, the Royal Canadian Engineers came to Gibraltar in 1940 to work on extensive tunneling projects and to build the runway that was strategically important as Italy entered the war. To this day, Gibraltar has the 5th most difficult runway in the world to land on due to winds from the Sahara, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic.

As we walked along Main Street, a pedestrian walkway, we noticed many high-end jewelry and clothing stores, as Gibraltar is a duty-free zone. There is also a significant British military presence. We saw the Royal Gibraltar Regiment preparing for an annual ceremony, called the Ceremony of the keys. This ceremony is steeped in history and involves the Governor of Gibraltor, who is the keeper of the keys.

We had a typical English lunch of fish and chips and steak pie. Both dishes were delicious.

After lunch, we were transported up the rock to see the various sites, including the large ports, the old fortifications, St. Michael's Cave and the Angel of St. Michael's cave, and of course the monkeys of Gibraltar, the Barbary macaques.

A wonderful experience overall.Baca lagi