A Short Stroll to Spain, Although an Airport Was Kind of Involved

---

As had been predicted, we could see that the cruise ship had arrived in the harbour. There were also no monkeys outside our room today, as they are all ready and waiting at the Top of The Rock, practicing their pick-pocketing skills ready for when the poor, unsuspecting cruise ship passengers arrive.

To start the day, my wife and I went a walk around the Botanical Gardens, which were immediately outside the hotel. Lots of varieties of plants that I can't name, but a nice, pleasant walk and enjoying the plants despite knowing nothing about botanicals.

Whilst my wife and daughter went to the pool, I thought I would go for a walk to Spain - which is not something that you can say every day. It was about a mile and a half from the Botanical Gardens to the border and, by Gibraltar standards was quite flat. It was starting to get hot though and I was nursing some burnt skin from all the time on the rock yesterday.

Everyone was waiting for the runway to open, and it was quite a long wait as there was a private plane and then a British Airways to land (the latter probably being the same flight we had arrived on). We were then allowed to cross, but they were hurrying us along and anyone who stopped walking got shouted at over the announcement system (i.e. me, pausing to take a picture along the runway with my phone) as an EasyJet flight was getting ready to take off.

There were no Ryanair flights, but it's highly likely that it would be them who wait for the traffic.

I had the immigration area all to myself, so after getting my passport stamped I was soon into Spain and go exploring. Looking back I could see all the holes in the rock from those tunnels I had walked in previously, with all those cannons pointing this way.

I understand that La Linea is mainly a commuter town for all the people who work for the gaming companies in Gibraltar, although I expect that that is an exaggeration, not least because a lot of people on our flight in were going across there for their holidays. There was a market leading from the border and then the Old Town, which I had a walk round, although there was not a lot to see. The café culture seemed huge and a lot of people were enjoying a lunchtime coffee, wine or beer. It seemed rude not to join them, but I decided not to and headed back to the border.

There was more of a queue coming back to both get the passport stamped again to leave Spain and then another check to enter Gibraltar. I walked back through Main Street to check out some shops and then met my wife and daughter back at the hotel pool. I got another Sangria (what has happened to me?), but it was impossible to relax as there was an all consuming noise of drilling from where they are removing part of the side of the rock to make way for a new building.

For the evening we had booked onto a gin tasting tour at a local Gibraltar distillery. We were talked through the history of gin, along with six samples of the gin from different points in that history. Even our daughter found it interesting, but then she'd love any history where there is gin involved. Maybe that's an educational tool that I could recommend to the schools. I bet the kids would be in favour, but the teachers and parents, probably not.

Some key points from the history of gin:

* The botanicals from that garden could be put to good use as they are the main ingredient in gin (although there are certain rules about which botanicals).

* A form of gin was first made 2,500 years ago as a byproduct of experiments to find the "secret of life" (as well as other little projects such as trying to turn lead into gold). Apparently, they used bread to seal the joints in their equipment and the yeast contaminated the liquids and created alcohol.

* Any distilled alcohol should always be clear. Any colour is a result of other things added to it afterwards or if it's then left in a barrel for a number of years (i.e. whiskey).

* Gin was given to the troops in war time to help motivate them to fight. This idea came from the Dutch, hence the term "Dutch courage". This was used a lot in Gibraltar to help motivate the troops, although they probably couldn't shoot particularly straight afterwards.

* Alcohol was added to the water on ships to purify it before drinking. Gin was added to the officers' water and rum was added for the sailors.

* In 1690 the women took over the production of gin, which led to the creation the gin as we know it today.

* When distilling the gin, the first 5% is known as "the head" is mainly methanol and is thrown away as it will make you blind if you drink it. Hence the term "blind drunk".

* The tail is the last 20% or so where the purity of the gin starts to decrease, so this is removed and used to make Vermouth.

* The alcohol helps hold in the oils that give the gin its taste. Hence, it is not possible to make an alcohol free gin. The taste is actually enhanced if water is added, as it helps to release those oils.

* The term "mother's ruin" comes from gin consumption in the 1700s, but not due to mothers being drunk, but because the money they were making, controversially, made them ineffective as mothers.

* A series of posters went around at the time showing "Gin Lane" full of poverty and destitution, and then "Beer Street" where everyone was prosperous and happy. I'll go along with that, but my wife and daughter won't.

* The Gin Act to limit consumption and control the taxes meant that gin production went underground leading to "Bathtub Gin" which we tasted and was disgusting.

* Gin went massively into decline in the 1980s, not helped by James Bond drinking vodka martinis, but is booming now.

So that explains a lot of those sayings that we use, but don't know the background to! And it's good to know that the secret of life is ALCOHOL!!

The gin tasting is a great idea as people pay to effectively get marketed at and then are a weakened state when the shop opens afterwards. Actually, that isn't really fair as it was very informative and we really enjoyed it. They also have a shop at the airport (to save having to put any purchases into the hold baggage to almost certainly get smashed), although we will have sobered up by that point and may also struggle to remember which gin is which.

We then proceeded to have a lively discussion about Brexit with a Gibraltar couple who were also there for the tasting, which started to become very passionate despite the fact that we were in total agreement about it (along with the rest of Gibraltar).

After that, we walked to the main town square for something to eat. We all had pizza as we guessed that that would be good for soaking-up all the alcohol. And, no, I'm not an alcoholic, despite the way this particular blog has been going, although I might now be tempted to have a beer next time I'm in an airport at 6.30 in the morning (see More British Than Britain).

We had a great view of the sunset from our balcony when we got back to the hotel.

We later found out that Commonwealth Games baton relay came through Gibraltar earlier today. It's a shame that we missed it, but oh well, never mind.

---

Photos

Closed Runway
British Airways flight coming into land whilst the road is closed.

Cruise Ship Arrived
The monkeys are ready and waiting.

Botanicals
One of the flowers in the Botanical Gardens (not those for use in gin though).

Gibraltar Logo
Seen in the Botanical Gardens - I really must look-up what this symbolises.

Route to Spain
A short walk this way to get to Spain.

Spanish Market
Market leading the way from the border crossing.

Spanish Architecture
The church in the middle of La Linea.

Crossing The Runway
No stopping to take photos.

Digging The Rock
And making a lot of noise whilst they are at it.

Gin Tasting
The different jars of gin for tasting.

Sunset Over Gibraltar
Sunset viewed from our hotel balcony.