Travel Diary. Day 11. Gibraltar
Currently a small patch of British land that connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean, yet with a seemingly independent rhythm of life, its own flag, and the unusual-for-Britain traffic flow on the right side of the road. A coveted piece of land since ancient times - even today Spain has not given up hoping to reclaim it.
It really is a small patch of land, whose greater part is occupied by the impressive Rock of Gibraltar. Densely populated with narrow streets that climb steeply up and down. Driving through them was quite a challenge. But despite its compact size (just over 6 km²), Gibraltar has its own airport, where the runway manifests as a wide road across which traffic flows daily, but when a plane is scheduled to take off, road traffic is briefly halted.
After Portuguese and Spanish, the ear was sharply surprised by the English tongue. A short switch to a linguistic reality one can actually understand. Two things here are definitely worth seeing - the mountain, to which one can ride up in a cable car, and the southernmost point of Europe, from which with the naked eye one can see the African shores and the mountain on the other side of the strait with the curious name - Jebel Musa.
On the Rock of Gibraltar sits a park with walking trails. This park at the top of the mountain is the only place in Europe where wild monkeys - Barbary macaques - live. There is a belief that Gibraltar will belong to the British for as long as at least one of these monkeys remains alive. The monkeys are quite nimble, happily jumping onto tourists' shoulders, giving them quite a fright, or else sneaking up unnoticed to deftly snatch a coveted item - sunglasses, bags, wide-brimmed hats, and the like.
Up top an expanse that the mind cannot grasp in a single moment - more than 400 m above sea level. Beautiful. Check out the photos! ;)
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