No Pressing Engagements

Gibraltar

Given that Gibraltar is a mere 8 km square (with most of it uphill in a really steep way) and the Motleys here for an extended stay, touristico activities have just had to be metered out.  A Lent for globalistas, if you will!  Of course it’s August and the place is crowded as only a small town can be when almost daily, huge cruise liners disgorge thousands.  Those are not good days to be lining up in the heat for the one and only cable car.

Gibraltar was once a garrison town.  It is not pretty and its ramparts stocky and grey; this is no fairyland castle but real and tested fortifications.  Gibraltar has a long history as an outpost with significant strategic advantage as our visit to the Museum testified.  Rather than regale you with historic detail, Wiki has this interesting summary.  Meanwhile, political issues continue to bubble between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar.  To celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, Gibraltarians projected a large picture of the Queen on the Rock’s steep north face.  Spain took offence and protested.  Meanwhile, even eggs sold at the supermarket are individually branded British….

Royal Engineer Gates Alameda Gardens

We began our tour at Casemates Square; a large open precinct that has seen life as a barracks, an ammunition depot and a site of punishment.  The last public execution is said to have taken place in the 1860’s.  From here we did battle with ship crowds that flooded Main Street and its duty free shops.  We escaped down Irish Town, a narrower and cooler pedestrian thoroughfare eventually surfacing at the Referendum Gates (renamed in 1967).  Here, against the Garrison walls is a small but well cared for cemetery.  Some of the graves are of those who perished in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).  Nelson, also a victim of this battle, was preserved in a casket of brandy (as you may remember from our Caribbean commentary), and brought to Gibraltar before being transported to the UK for burial.  We thought you would enjoy this, cemetery visit Karen, particularly as the sentiments (the brightest ornament - see below) are so charming!

Battle of Cadiz 1810 (topped with a canon ball)

Battle of Trafalgar 1805

Nearby is a rather brittle Alameda (Botanical) Gardens (1816). Not due of course to its age, but rather that it’s the height of the Mediterranean summer.  We wandered through dry garden beds, admired turtles basking in a green, lush dell, became annoyed that soldiers were docked a day’s wages to pay for Wellington’s marble bust, sat by a tiled fountain (opened very recently by Prince Edward & Countess of Wessex) and wondered about the statue of Molly Bloom.  (She was a character featuring in James Joyce’s “Ulysses”, (1922).  Molly had come from Gibraltar.) 

Cooling off by the fountain in the Alameda Gardens

By this stage we needed a beer and retreated, with loads of other visitors, to the Angry Friar for a pint before doing battle back down to WJ3’s marina berth.  We had nothing to complain about though.  This marks our 5^th year of endless summer.