We have explored Gibraltar from top to
bottom on foot and on our bicycles – we took the cable car to the top of The
Rock, with our bikes (folded as they do not allow bicycles normally) and had a
great day out riding and walking around seeing all the sights. For such a tiny piece of land, Gibraltar has
had a fascinating history (the first Neanderthal skull was found in a cave
here), and there are many little places to visit. The local museum is well done and has a
wonderful collection of items from ancient times to modern. Most places and items of historical interest
are well-labeled with placards containing explanations, and almost all are
easily accessible.
Europa Point Lighthouse at the southern tip of Gibraltar
The main street through the centre of town
is closed to traffic which means that you cannot cycle through it – we walk our
bikes, though, as it is the shortest way to get to either the other side of the
peninsula or to the border. As Gibraltar
is a tax-free area the majority of the shops sell liquor, wine and tobacco, as
well as watches and jewelry but there are also the usual British retailers like
Marks and Spencers, Top Shop, Mango (and probably more but I am not a shopper
and therefore didn’t spend a great deal of time investigating). There is a huge supermarket called
“Morrisons” which has everything British in the way of food items including
meat imported from the UK. What I found
rather curious was why people would prefer frozen or imported meat to the
delicious locally-grown meat from Spain? Still, it was nice to be able to stock
up on things like brown sugar, baking powder, tortillas/flat bread and a few
other things we hadn’t been able to find in France, Spain or Portugal.
On chatting with some of our fellow marina
residents, we discovered the ease with which one can ‘duck into’ Spain across
the border. Somewhat nervous about our
Schengen situation I was the first to venture across using my Canadian passport
(in case they decided to stamp me into Spain or out of Gibraltar). Interestingly, you walk/ride/drive across the
airport runway (which is oriented east-west across the isthmus that joins
Gibraltar to Spain) to the frontier.
Here, the cars/buses/motorcycles and bicycles are directed to a queue
for inspection. The pedestrians (the
majority as it is much easier and faster) simply walk past a booth waving their
id (passports or other identification) at the Spanish immigration person, and
then go through a customs area where some people are questioned about their
purchases in Gibraltar but most just walk through – a process which takes about
2 minutes – and then you are in Spain!
No stamps, no worries! On the way
back, the Spanish are nowhere to be seen and the Gibraltar immigration officer
has a look at the main page of your passport and off you go!
The first impression of La Linea (the town
that borders Gibraltar) is how rundown and shabby it appears. The border area really is a no-man’s land of
unfinished buildings, tenement apartment buildings housing the Spanish who work
in Gibraltar, and a park which no one seems to go to. A short walk later and you are in the town of
La Linea which is rather cute with a pedestrian shopping street and what I like
to call an ‘eat street’ – these are typical in the towns of Spain where the
whole street is closed to traffic and there is one restaurant after the other
with their tables set out on the pedestrian way. Lunch time and evenings these are packed with
families, friends and all ages and stages eating and drinking the local specialties
and it’s a wonderful atmosphere.
My first mission to La Linea was to
investigate the supermarket and see what I could find in the way of fresh
produce and meat as well as other bits and pieces. I was thrilled to find not only a
well-stocked (and well-priced) supermarket, but also that there was a market
every morning as well as a market day (with outdoor stalls selling clothing,
footwear and much more) on Wednesdays.
Tad has accused me of single-handedly trying to boost the Spanish
economy as I have gone to Spain almost every day since being in Gibraltar and
never come back empty handed! The thing
is, the fresh produce is so nice and the prices are so reasonable – the same
goes for the clothes, sandals, etc.
Gibraltar is lovely and has some nice shops but everything is priced in
English/Gibraltar pounds! So what you
would spend in Europe in euros is priced the same but in pounds. For example, a main course of food (a HUGE
platter in Spain) might cost 7 or 8 euros in Spain, but costs 7 or 8 pounds in
Gibraltar. This can add up as it adds
about 30% to your bill. Once I realized
how easy it was to cross the border, I became a regular visitor to Spain and
Tad joined me on one occasion.
The hard-to-find Camping Gaz bottle!
One of the items that has proved a
challenge to find is a supply of butane for our stove and BBQ – apparently
Gibraltar is not licensed to sell gas canisters for some reason, so you have to
go to Spain. Well, that’s all very well, but the type of canisters that they
sell at the petrol stations are not what we have purchased for our trip. Let me
explain: in France, we were advised to buy the blue steel ‘camping gaz’ brand
of butane bottles for our cruise through Europe, for the simple reason that
they can theoretically be either purchased or refilled pretty much
everywhere. The problem is that the
largest ‘bottle’ or canister is only about 5kg. Now butane burns hotter than
LPG so you use less, but as we cook our dinner either on the stove or the BBQ
almost every night, even butane gets used up.
The French have a larger bottle made from fiberglass which they use, but
we were told that we would not be able to get it filled so there wasn’t much
point in buying them. We decided to buy
two blue camping gaz canisters in France, thinking that we should have no
problem getting them filled or replaced.
Well, we haven’t needed to until now – and of course we now cannot get
them in Gibraltar! On my last foray to
La Linea, I finally found a place that sold them but was informed by the lady
in the shop that they had sold out and wouldn’t have any more until
tomorrow! Not a problem normally, only
that we were hoping to head to Morocco for a few days before venturing north
into the Mediterranean! No one else in
the area supplied the camping gaz type of butane and as we already had the
hoses and regulators for these, there was no point in trying to switch
over. The irony is that the same large
canisters that we might have purchased in France are widely available at all
petrol stations in Spain AND as they are so large, chances are that we wouldn’t
have needed to refill them anyway if we had two!
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