Gibraltar is a British overseas territory in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, which has been subject to strong winds for thousands of years and has experienced numerous wars and conflicts. Now, in the world of globalization and modern technology, we have an excellent opportunity to visit where several centuries ago, instead of modern cargo ships, there were ships of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar to see the shores of Africa (in the video just visible :)).
Just recently it was difficult to get here due to visa restrictions, but now the situation has changed for the better.
Visa
Persons whose passports contain:
can enter Gibraltar without a national visa — multiple entry UK visas valid for at least six months;
— multiple-entry Schengen visas category C (minimum visa validity period is at least 7 days at the time of departure from Gibraltar).
Also, citizens of the Russian Federation can enter the territory of Gibraltar without issuing an additional visa – as part of a one-day tour organized by Spanish tour operators. That is, if you bought a tour to Gibraltar and enter by bus as part of a group of tourists from Spain, then even your single-entry short-term Schengen visa will work.
These tours usually depart from Seville or Malaga, the largest cities in southern Spain.
How to get there
Gibraltar has direct connections with Spain, Great Britain and Morocco.
The city can be reached from Spain by renting a car. But in Gibraltar itself, traveling by car is not very convenient, since the streets are narrow, the terrain is hilly, and entry to the rock – a national reserve – is prohibited for cars with foreign license plates.
I found it convenient to buy a bus ticket from Malaga in advance (there are direct flights from Aeroflot and S7 between Moscow and Malaga). Bus company website: venta.avanzabus.com.
A bus with comfortable seats and air conditioning. When purchasing a ticket online, you can choose your seats. A one-way ticket costs 15 euros.
Flights 4 times a day, I chose the earliest one at 7:00 am. From the bus station we drove towards Gibraltar, took a 3-hour nap and at 10:00 arrived at La Línea de la Concepción station (Spanish: La Línea de la Concepción). It is to get there that you need to take a ticket, and then walk 700 meters to the border post. If there are no crowds of elderly tourists from China, then you will very quickly pass through security and almost immediately find yourself on the runway of Gibraltar Airport, which is located, in fact, right on the border (Spain and Great Britain are still arguing whose territory this is).
We had to stand at the barrier for about 10 minutes, along with office clerks on mopeds, taxi drivers and that same group of Chinese pensioners, until the British Airways plane took off in the direction of London or Manchester.
In Gibraltar, the symbols of Great Britain immediately catch your eye: red telephone booths, double-decker buses, police uniforms with black and white checkers.
Things to do
Gibraltar is a very small city. One full day will be enough for you to satisfy your travel needs, two will be enough to do it in a very leisurely manner, and there will still be time for shopping. Since you are in duty-free territory, many things in boutiques are cheaper than in Spain or England. I was not at all interested in shopping during the trip, so I walked along the main street at a brisk pace.
My gaze was fixed on the top of the monumental rock of Gibraltar. You can get there on foot along the serpentine road (if you want to train your legs and back, lose an extra hour and a half of time and a couple of kilograms of fluid from the body) or by cable car. The cable car offers different ticket options:
- one way – 17 euros;
- round trip – 20 euros;
- round trip + entrance to the territory of the national park – 30 euros.
Discounts apply for children, students and pensioners.
The objects of the National Park are all kinds of caves and exhibitions. I wouldn’t recommend skipping them. Once we’ve reached Gibraltar, it’s stupid to skimp on such entertainment.
Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where semi-wild monkeys – magots – live in natural wild conditions. According to local belief, Gibraltar will remain British as long as at least one monkey is alive.
They are not very aggressive, but it is necessary to keep an eye on bags, smartphones, glasses and children. Special observers look after the monkeys; each individual has a special GPS sensor implanted in it that tracks its location. There are about 200 of them in total and, they say, each has its own name.
Monkeys will accompany you almost everywhere.
Photos at the summit are incredible, especially with a wide-angle lens.
In cloudless weather you can see Africa.
Next to the large-caliber cannons, you can imagine how they were fired during the First and Second World Wars, how the cannonballs whistled back in 1727, when the Charlotte battery fired volleys at the Spaniards and the French.
We climbed to the O’Hara battery, the highest point on the rock. Its 9.2-inch guns have a firing range of 29,000 yards – enough to cover the strait to Africa.
After examining the batteries, go to the caves. Some of them have been converted into a museum, some into a concert hall with multi-colored lighting, others are simply interesting to observe the unusual geometry and patterns of rocks.
I was very impressed by the suspension bridge. We spent about 30 minutes on it, taking photos and videos from all possible angles, listening to the signals of cargo ships and the cries of seagulls. The views are so mesmerizing that you forget about your fear of heights, even though the bridge swings quite a bit.
You can also go down the cliff on foot. The main thing is to watch carefully so that a cobblestone does not fall from above. Still, the monkeys are jumping there…
In conclusion
Gibraltar is definitely the place to spend a day of your life. Take a lot of colorful photographs, touch the history, absorb the energy of the place and move on: to Spain, England, Morocco… It was to this African kingdom that I was heading.
Near Gibraltar there is a town called Algeciras. From there there are daily ferries to Morocco. Having descended from the cliff, at the same La Linea bus station we took a bus to Algeciras (20 minutes on the way) and spent the night in the hotel closest to the port.
Hotels in Gibraltar itself are more expensive than hotels in nearby Spanish towns, so if you want to save money, then it’s worth taking this into account.
Ferries towards Morocco run almost every hour during the daytime. The schedule can be found on the company’s website.
And read my report on the trip to Morocco in the next blog.
See you soon!
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