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Gibraltar

After Morocco, I caught a ferry to to Algeciras and then a local bus to Gibraltar.

Where am I?

Telephone booths

It all looks strangely like the UK.

Postbox

But it isn’t.

Badge

This is Gibraltar, a large pinacle of rock at the bottom of Europe.

Gibraltar

There is a cable car that takes you to the top of the rock.

Cable car

The town of Gibraltar is not very big. The place reminded me of Hong Kong: an ex-British outpost, perched on the edge of a large moutain, and having a unique character of its own.

Gibraltar

The town is on one side of the rock and nothing much exists on the other side of it. On the day I went up, the eastern side thick with fog but the western side was sunny.

The rock

Gibraltar is famous for their Barbary Macaques. Tailless apes that are the last remaining in Continental Europe.

Barbary Macaques

They are major tourist attraction. Here we have tourists behaving badly. Despite signs warning them to not get too close to the wild and unpredictable apes, these people were trying to get them to climb on to them and their children. It all looks like a lot of fun, but those warning signs are there for a reason!

Barbary Macaques and tourists

Underneath the rock there is a small cave system.

Cave

Part of the caves have been turned into this concert hall. It was very damp and dark inside (much darker than this photo would lead you to believe).

Concert hall

Gibraltar sits on the end of a peninsular with Spain on the mainland side. Here we see the Spanish town of La Linea de La Concepcion built up to the border.

Spain

The airport of Gibraltar is built upon reclaimed land (also like Hong Kong).

Airport

The only road in and out of Gibraltar crosses the runway. People and cars need to stop everytime a plane takes off or lands.

Airport runway

Gibraltar has a long military history because of its strategic position at the mouth of the Mediterranian Sea as well as being a large rock that is easy to defend.

Canon

Tunnels were dug into the rock to defend Gibraltar from invasion. These tunnels were used in the 1782 Great Siege of Gibraltar when the French and Spanish tried to capture Gibraltar from the British.

Old tunnels

Reminders of the Great Siege of Gibraltar in 1872 can be seen in the square today. This type of canon is unique to Gibraltar. The canon points down to fire from positions on top of the rock.

Canon

During WW2, it was thought the Nazi’s might want to capture Gibraltar, so miles and miles of tunnels were dug into the rock. Thousands of British soldiers spent three years digging tunnels and living in them. In the end, Hitler did not attempt to capture the rock.

Tunnel

Anywhere in Gibraltar can be reached through the tunnels. This spot is called Clapham Junction because it was a central point where many of the tunnels met. In London, Clapham Junction is a major railway station.

Clapham Junction

Despite the long military past, Gibraltar today is a peaceful place with a unique mixture of Spanish and British cultures.

Square