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The Rock

gibraltar.jpg

After driving through Andalucia through the early part of the day, I arrived at the Mediterranean coast just after noon and was struck by the massive presence of the Rock of Gibraltar ahead of me. As I approached the sea, I noticed a few signs in Spanish and Arabic indicating ferries to Tangiers. I made my way to La LĂ­nea, the town next to Gibraltar, where I parked my car and walked across the frontier. (I didn't want the hassle of taking my rental car through immigration and customs checkpoints.) Once I cleared the actual border, the first thing I saw was a red British phone booth and a sign indicating I was on Winston Churchill Avenue. I then had to walk across an airplane runway (after being held a few minutes as a newly-arrived EasyJet plane taxied to the terminal). No joke: the only way into Gibraltar via land involves driving or walking across a working airfield! Though signs are in English and the local currency is pounds sterling, this place hardly feels British. The climate is too balmy, the local voices are mostly Spanish, and the layout of the streets has more of a Continental feel to it. Still, this is a fascinating hybrid sort of place.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on December 31, 2009 3:06 PM.

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