Gibraltar - the best and worst of British

Gibraltar was a really amazing experience and visit. A real Tick Box visit but one that exceeded my expectations.

The Rock is amazing. 426 m high in such a militarily strategic position looking right over the entrance to the Med. No wonder Britain has held it since 1704. The views are amazing. The ride up their is amazing. The tunnels are amazing. The monkeys are amazing.

Come down to earth after the visit up the Rock and you can see the best and the worst of British.
  • It has the feeling of a British outpost - a lot of people speak with a London or Yorkshire or some other British accent. The currency is British.
  • Work starts on the building sites at 8am or earlier - not 9am as in Spain. And the work seems to be much more efficient.
  • There are a number of reminders around of Gibraltar's military history -  statues, plaques, gun placements, military barracks, etc - the the role Gibraltar was played in British military history. War memorials in Spain seem quite rare whereas in UK they are everywhere.
  • Immigration wanted to sight our passports as we entered Gibraltar - no checks when we returned to Spain.
But we did see some of the worst features of British:
  • We had dinner out one night in the old part of town. The first restaurant we  stopped at we left after 15-20 minutes as no-one had made any appearance at all to ask us if we wanted a drink, a menu or anything. The second restaurant, we had to ask the waitress to wipe the table after she has plonked our meals down on the table. Then 4 British tourists - 4 males, late twenties, not drunk but they had "had a few" - sat beside us. They spoke and acted like British louts - loud, swearing, uncouth - while they continued to drink and sing.
  • The food - chips with everything, pies and chips, fish and chips. You could even get a bit of salad with your chips, with chips as the main course.
  • The military appeared to have built most of the town (although there was a huge amount of recent high-class redevelopment occurring) and it looked a bit like the old army base in Singapore.

Overall Gibraltar was a real highlight












 


Comments

  1. kate21 August 2018 at 01:01

    Enjoying reading your blogs. Looks like you are having a great time.

    ReplyDelete

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