Gibraltar

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Gibraltar is another place I've passed on a couple of occasions without visiting it. So on this trip I made the time for a day trip.

After getting the bus to La Linea de la Concepcion I walked the few hundred metres to the frontier. There was a steady flow of pedestrians through the police and customs posts.

Having completing the formalities, I followed Winston Churchill Avenue towards town. There was a green man showing at the first pedestrian crossing, so I continued onwards, looking left and right, checking for oncoming aircraft. A fresh breeze was blowing over the wide exposed expanse of the runway to Gibraltar's airport which cuts across all land access onto the Rock.

The main street was bustling, on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The shops were busy. People were enjoying lunch on the terraces outside the pubs. Inside fans were debating the merits of VAR as they watched a Premiership match.

I wandered down as far as the Alameda Botanical Gardens. It didn't take long to find a two-tailed pasha butterfly which I had never seen before and some monarchs feeding on flowers and sun bathing on vegetaion.

On the way back to the frontier I had a quick look around Trafalgar cemetery. Only a few of the sailors who succumbed later to their injuries are actually buried here. Those killed during the battle were buried at sea, with the obvious notable exception of Nelson himself.

The imposing heights of the rock towered above me the whole time I was there. I would love to have walked to the top, but I knew it would be a rush to get there and back in time for the last bus to Tarifa. So I saved that for another time.

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