Gibraltar
A subtropical climate, cheap food and drink, friendly locals and a huge great rock in the middle of the city centre – Time Out discovers the sunnier side of Gibraltar
Standing atop the Rock on a beautiful spring morning, admiring
Europe’s only wild primates, gazing across the ocean to Morocco, with
the sierras of southern Spain behind me, and fresh from a sumptuous
(and dirt-cheap) continental breakfast on the quayside, I’m thinking a
reassessment of this British colony is long overdue. We’ve spent so
many centuries fighting to keep it, we should be making more of it.
As
you may have heard, you won’t go hungry if you want fish and chips and
a pint of Worthingtons in the five or so square miles of this little
corner of the UK in the far south of Spain. Yet that’s only part of the
picture. Look a bit further and you’re more likely to be impressed by
its classic charms: pristine red telephone boxes, tanned policeman with
old-school helmets and the daily sight of British couples following in
the footsteps of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and getting hitched here. The
Rock itself is truly spectacular, now topped with an enormous mosque
built with money from the late King Farad of Saudi Arabia. The almost
vertical gradient on one side hides some of the most ingenious work
ever undertaken by the British army, which, under the guise of the
Royal Gibraltar Regiment, still resides here.
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Yachts in Gibraltar's pretty harbour
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The centre of the
Rock is riddled with tunnels. Some were built by the British in 1779
and used to fire on Spanish besiegers desperate to get back possession
of Gibraltar (which has been in British hands since 1704). Another huge
network was excavated during World War II (when the local population
was airlifted out to places as far away as Jamaica and Northern
Ireland) to accommodate an underground hospital, power station and
nearly 10,000 troops. This opened to visitors only last year and is a
staggering monument to the stoic determination of the British forces
who were forced to co-exist in cold, cramped and dark conditions for so
long to protect Gibraltar and its crucial strategic location as a
gateway to the Mediterranean and the Suez canal.
Elsewhere,
picturesque Casemates Square and the constantly expanding Marina Bay
are the social hubs of the Rock. Despite the offshore banking
facilities and preponderance of multimillion-dollar yachts that
dominate the bay, it’s still popular with locals who come to drink
coffee or dine alfresco in restaurants such as Da Paolo with its decent
international menu and inviting quayside terrace. Unfortunately the
daytime charms of these areas fade in the evenings with the influx of
bored members of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, their demands for cheap
lager and karaoke making for a rather more raucous vibe.
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The quiet beaches, secreted away on the other side of the Rock
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With
these more negative connotations so widely spread, it’s easy to forget
that Gibraltar is famed for a much more engaging form of wildlife.
Cocky Barbary macaques parade around the Rock, happy to pose with
tourists in between their own conversations, mutual scratching sessions
or sleeping on benches. It’s said that when the apes leave Gibraltar,
so will the British, a saying Winston Churchill took rather seriously,
importing more of the creatures here from Africa after WWII.
And
if the apes can’t persuade you, maybe the promise of bargain prices
will. You’ll struggle to spend more than £25 a head in even the
priciest of restaurants and the tiny airport’s duty-free store contains
what must surely be the cheapest liquor and tobacco in western Europe
(£5.50 for a litre of Famous Grouse, anyone?).
After its
playful apes and stunning views, its charming harbour and friendly
café, Gibraltar’s ‘little England’ image was looking more than a bit
myopic.
Getting there Monarch offers daily flights to Gibraltar from Luton from £73.99 return (www.flymonarch.com).
Stay at Bristol Hotel, 8/10 Cathedral Square, PO Box 56 Gibraltar (00 350 76800/www.bristolhotel.gi). Doubles
from £54 per night.
More information Gibraltar Tourist Board (www.gibraltar.gov.gi).
Rob Crossan
