A sunrise with views over the Mediterranean is a lovely thing to experience but it’s certainly not a thing we had any intention of going out of our way to experience. I mean, sure, we had gone out of our way insofar as we were actually on the Mediterranean but all that planning ahead with checking when dawn occurs in your locale and setting alarms? That’s not us. Europe and Britain’s misalignment of timezones, however, played into our hands – as did our cabin location – and thus it was that as we opened up the curtains on the morning of our docking in Gibraltar we were just in time to see the sun labouring up over the horizon and through the early morning mist beyond the British Overseas Territory and its famous, rocky landmark.
Gibraltar is a small place and it would be fair to say that it doesn’t have the hugest range of attractions to excite a visitor. Princess Cruises did have some tour options but there was nothing there that couldn’t be done on your own, for less money, and without much in the way of risk of missing out on getting back to the ship. Its biggest draws for the majority of cruisers were probably the impossible-to-miss Rock of Gibraltar and those duty free shopping prices.
On that last point it’s worth noting that we normally buy cigarettes for my sister-in-law on cruises because a) she can’t kick the filthy habit, and b) this saves her quite a lot of money compared to buying cigarettes in the UK. In the past we’ve had issues where the ship sold out of cigarettes early so we’d “been sensible” and “ordered” some on the first day aboard Emerald Princess. The nicotine cylinders of death are normally delivered on the last day along with any alcohol but we’d been surprised to find that there were no limits for their purchase and we could take them immediately. So we did. In hindsight, a poor decision that we should have been immediately suspicious of where it came to Princess’s treatment and of which we should have given more thought. To cut a boring piece of advice short: if you want to shorten your life or the lives of others around you while encased in a cloud of stench and your ship is docking in Gibraltar then don’t buy cigarettes onboard; far, far better prices in the little headland off Spain.
We weren’t interested in the duty free shopping; it was to the Rock that we wanted to go as soon as possible. Breakfast downed, we disembarked the ship and walked into the centre of Gibraltar, a simple job of following the road out of the port and going straight over three roundabouts to the walls and the Grand Casemates Gates.
This brought us into Grand Casemates Square, an attractive, open space with plenty of cafés with outdoor seating and pleasing views. A casemate, if you didn’t know – and I certainly had never heard of the word before – is a fortified gun emplacement, and with Gibraltar’s long history of being a strategic military outpost this square takes its name from the large defensive structure to the north of it. The square itself sits at the northern end of the main shopping area of Gibraltar which we fully intended to have a nose through once we’d seen what we really wanted to see in the place but for now we simply strolled straight through it.
The Rock of Gibraltar
The top of the 426 metres high, limestone Rock of Gibraltar can be reached in one of four ways.
- You can walk up if you are young and/or fit and/or tight with money. We are none of those things.
- You can take a taxi up its winding and narrow roads if you are boring. We have been accused of being boring but I’d like to think we aren’t and I can produce a Powerpoint presentation outlining evidence to support this opinion in a three hour show called Is Dullness Really In The Eye Of The Beholder? if you’re interested in knowing more.
- You can parachute in from the back of a Hercules transporter if you are James Bond and you’re filming The Living Daylights. I feel compelled to point out that neither of us is James Bond but that Timothy Dalton was for this film and he remains the best Bond ever and I will flick olives from a Vodka Martini at anyone who disagrees.
- You can take the cable car up if you are a tourist looking to do touristy things. As it turns out, we were tourists looking to do touristy things so this is what we did.
Ahead of the cruise we’d used the internet – everyone’s doing it these days – and bought tickets for the Cable Car and Nature Reserve. The benefit of buying tickets in advance is that you can skip what might be a long line waiting to buy tickets and join the long line waiting to get on one of the two cars heading up the promontory roughly every five minutes. There was no long line, however, as we’d timed our walk from the ship to perfection and arrived pretty much dead on when the first cable cars would start running. This didn’t mean we didn’t have to wait, though.
The thing you should know about Gibraltar’s cable cars is that one goes up while the other comes down, then the process is reversed. You might think that being in a queue to board a car means if you don’t get in the first one but you’re at the front of the queue then you’ll get in the next one. You might think that but you would be wrong. In addition to the queue for people who’ve just turned up or booked tickets online there is a second queue which snakes up a set of steps with No Entry signs around it and which jumps your queue. Surely not! That doesn’t sound very British! But yes. This is the queue for pre-booked groups so it might not be used normally but when a cruise ship is in and the cruise ship is arranging excursions then they get to steal half the cable cars capacity to the top of the Rock. Annoying when you’re near the front of the queue, a car is descending, you think you’re about to board, then a minibus full of passengers with their coloured stickers pulls up, debarks, and a crowd wanders past you. On the plus side the trip is a quick one so the wait isn’t too long but some people might be grateful for the very limited amount of seating in the waiting area if standing for a sustained period is an issue.
The video below (temporarily removed) contains highlights of the entire day in Gibraltar and includes some footage of the ascent to the top of the Rock in the cable car.
The views from the upper cable car station were lovely, the sea mist still clinging to the lower altitudes while the clarity of the upper reaches cast everything in a clean, crisp feel. We’d wondered whether t-shirts would be enough and whether it might be sensible to carry some layers but that sea mist is testament to the fact there was very little wind around at all and the early September temperature was near enough perfect for us.
Almost half of Gibraltar’s land area is classified as a nature reserve and it’s within that reserve on the top of the Rock that you can find much of the indigenous flora and fauna, plus those famous monkeys too. You might spot a monkey outside the nature reserve because they refuse to recognise man-made borders but if you want to guarantee a sighting then you’ll need to buy a ticket for that area. Incidentally, the Barbary Macaques on Gibraltar are monkeys and not apes as some people insist on referring to them as. It’s likely that people have looked at the absence of a tail in the past and decided that this makes them apes but people have a tendency to be wrong a lot of the time and this is one of those occasions. There is a lot more to biological classifications than physical appearance. If you’re a simian primate (site analytics indicate a strong likelihood for this) and are an orangutan, gorilla, bonobo, gibbon, or human then you’re an ape; anything else and you’re a monkey. I know you probably didn’t come to this post about Gibraltar’s tourist highlights with the expectation that you were about to get a lesson on primate definitions but that’s the kind of guy I am: I’m an annoying guy.
You’re warned before you make it into the reserve on the Rock not to carry plastic bags with you as the monkeys associate them with food. You also hear stories online about people having their sunglasses stolen or their phones swiped or being pressured into buying timeshares across the border on mainland Spain but we found the monkeys to be very well-behaved while we were there. We did talk to a couple later in the day who mentioned that while they were exploring Gibraltar’s landmark feature one of the Barbary Macaques had jumped onto the backpack that another passenger was wearing, swung upside down, unzipped a pocket, and snatched items from it but there’s no way to tell for sure whether that passenger had not previously taken those items from the monkey and it was simply retrieving its possessions. I don’t like to judge and I don’t think you should either without knowing all the facts.
We did get to see a female with child which was nice and generated a few “Aaaww!” sounds from people around.
I’m not an expert when it comes to monkey facial expressions (that’s right; I have some limits) but I’d like to think this monkey’s furrowed brow was from calculating distances to the horizon using trigonometry (an activity we decided not to do for a change on the previous day at sea) and not a sign he was getting infuriated at people pointing cameras in his general direction.
And it’s almost impossible to travel far in the western world in tourist-heavy areas without bumping into street entertainers so it wasn’t a complete surprise to discover this form of begging/non-taxable-employment had penetrated deep into the animal kingdom. We’re not huge fans of Shakespeare but it was a masterful performance of Hamlet’s soliloquy and very deserving of the cascade of fruit that came his way afterwards.
Navigating around the top of the Rock is typically just a matter of picking whether to follow the road that’s ascending or descending whenever a choice needs to be made. If you really want to get lost, though, then open up the map that is supplied with your entry ticket. Nothing is more confusing than trying to read a map of roads up and around a steep hill and trying to figure out which of the routes you’re actually on. In many ways this reminded us of our visit to Jiufen the year before where the map again appeared to be more closely an artist’s impression of the area as opposed to being of any practical use, only served to baffle us and numerous other people we bumped into with equally confused looks on their faces, and was soon ignored in favour of gut instincts and the occasional signpost. We figured we’d head roughly southwards from where the cable car deposited us and trust that we couldn’t really get too lost. Part of this walk took us along the Douglas Path, steep in places with some uneven steps to cope with but also plenty of photo opportunities to catch our breaths. The views from the batteries were spectacular even if the amount of rubbish that we kept finding in them was decidedly unattractive. Sort it out, people.
The Rock of Gibraltar effectively splits the territory into two with the overwhelming majority of businesses and residences located to the west of it. There is some inhabitation on the east side, though, and from our vantage point we could see directly down to a place called Sandy Bay at one point. How did it get that name? A mystery for the ages!
A popular tourist stop along the top of the Rock is the Skywalk, one of those glass-floored viewing platforms jutting out a little from the edge of the sheer cliff face. We arrived at it at the same time as a fair number of other people, most of whom decided not to walk out onto it after they saw one of the glass panels was taped off on account of the large cracks through it. We had no such qualms. It was okay, just not massively spectacular if I had to be honest. It could have done with more of a drop under the glass to really be effective. The nerds in us were quite pleased to see that the Skywalk had a plaque celebrating its official inauguration by Mark Hamill.
After completing the Douglas Path we started descending (which was very welcome) in the direction of St Michael’s Cave. This afforded us a lovely view to the African continent’s half of the Pillars of Hercules. It was fascinating to think that we were standing on a bit of Britain able to look north and west towards Spain and Europe while also gazing south to a completely different continent and the country of Morocco. While I’ve visited Morocco before, Africa is yet to be travelled within by my wife, something we keep saying we need to rectify but still haven’t got around to. One other thing we noticed was a warning sign about butterflies. I haven’t looked too deeply into just how dangerous the lepidoptera on Gibraltar can be but it’s worth noting.
St Michael’s Cave
Our cable car and nature reserve ticket also granted us access to St Michael’s Cave. The name of the place derives from the fact that it is a cave. No, wait, you’d guessed that bit already. The name is purported to be in reference to the Saint Michael Archangel Grotto in the Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo in Italy. While the British tried for a while to use the name St George’s Cave (because the British just love any chance for a bit of jingosim) the name wouldn’t stick with the local inhabitants and the anglicised version of the Spanish name first noted in the sixteenth century retained its dominant position and appears to be here to stay.
With Gibraltar being limestone and thus fairly susceptible to water erosion it has a vast number of caves but St Michael’s is the most-visited by tourists with over a million visitors per year. It initially opens into a large chamber with seating arranged for concerts. The views in the caves are what you’d expect – stalactites, stalagmites, almost alien-skin-like textures that you just know H.R. Giger would have liked – but the lighting was a surprise with constantly changing colours illuminating the columns and ceiling. Initially interesting, this lighting soon proved to be a pain in the arse for photography with the camera making a best estimate of exposure time for a light blue scheme only to have the surroundings plunge into deepest red and screw everything up. Phone cameras struggled as well with the naturally long exposures these devices take in low light conditions occasionally capturing two or three colour changes in one shot. It all kinda looks cool, though, even if none of it was quite what I was after.
Descent And The Windsor Suspension Bridge
There’s a good opportunity to exit through the gift shop as you leave St Michael’s Cave which we duly did, picking up a few souvenirs on the way. We weren’t the only people in there and we weren’t the only species either with monkeys occasionally running in to snatch things while the shop owner swung brooms at them. Very entertaining.
We then had the choice of either ascending a little more to try the Mediterranean Steps route (described as steep and arduous) or making our way down. This choice was more-or-less made for us as my wife had aggravated an old knee injury at some point in our exploration of Gibraltar and, while she doubtlessly would have said yes and soldiered through the discomfort had I said I was keen to try the steps, she also would have harboured a deep grudge and I would have been killed in my sleep during the week. You don’t spend half your life with someone without learning to read the signs.
And so we made our way downwards, following the narrow and winding roads, avoiding the buses and taxis, hugging shade where it offered itself, and taking photos through gaps in foliage every now and then as that’s my way.
I feel I owe a public apology right here to the group of women who we’d found ourselves bumping into in numerous places along the clifftop walk thus far and who we spotted ahead of us and descending a set of steps. We followed after them as it was heading down only to then find them at the bottom, puzzling over the next-to-useless map in their hands.
“Hi,” said one of the women. “Are you heading for the suspension bridge as well? Is it this way?”
“Er, no, we were on our way back to town actually. But I’m pretty sure I saw a sign for it at the top of the steps and pointing back that way,” I gestured.
“Oh, this stupid map! Typical! Thank you!”
And with that they turned around and headed back up the long set of steps we’d all just come down. My wife and I carried on around a corner.
“Oh. Here’s the bridge,” I said absolutely pointlessly to my wife who could clearly see the bridge right in front of us.
“Maybe that sign you saw points to another way to reach it,” she offered.
“Yeah, well let’s just get across here quickly before they spot us and realise we sent them the longest way possible.”
Over 70 metres long and with a 50 metre drop to a gorge below, the Windsor Suspension Bridge was officially opened in 2016. Neither of us suffer from vertigo so the drop and the slightly bouncing, swaying motion as we walked across its length was not a problem for us. There weren’t many padlocks on the bridge but I suspect that will change over time as tourists do like to put padlocks on things. The activity was probably started by the padlock industry to keep them in business. We also noticed a sign at the start of the bridge instructing travellers to walk around the bridge (a path circles the gap) if any monkeys were on it.
Our descent continued steadily with no further major points of interest. We stopped in a battery on the way down, albeit very briefly after discovering two topless, burly guys in there, one of whom was watching something loud in Spanish on his phone while the other just stared at us. I can’t even hazard a guess as to what was going on there. We passed close to the cable car while one was passing overhead too but generally kept an eye on the ground conditions more than anything else as the steps down at this point were very uneven indeed and it was all clearly having more and more of an impact on my wife’s ability to walk without pain. It was a relief to reach sensible-sized concrete steps as we came upon the main town.
We headed back through the town with a tiny plan formed, that being to check out the shopping options, grab some more water as we’d run out of what we’d taken, then find somewhere to have a proper drink because that’s the sort of thing we like doing when we travel. And when we don’t travel too. We like to drink is basically what I’m saying here.
The duty free prices were good but we didn’t see anything that was so amazing we absolutely had to have it. We also knew that stopping in one of the pubs or cafés along the main area of the town would mean being immersed in a sea of people and we’re not really people people. However, our research into where we could potentially get a drink in Gibraltar ahead of our visit had already given us a decent location to head for.
Ocean Village, Gibraltar
Heading back out of Grand Casemates Square and towards the port we took a right turn towards Ocean Village. This was an attractive marina area with boardwalks and plenty of eating and drinking establishments as well as a ridiculous number of fish in the water. It was also pretty much devoid of any ship passengers as near as we could tell so if you’re looking to get away from the throng on a cruise visit then this is a nice little area to hit.
We were accosted on our way in by a saleswoman pitching dolphin boat trips – the Blue Boat Dolphin Safari to be precise – and while we declined the offer this time around because of time constraints, tiredness, and aches we also explained that we would be back to Gibraltar in June (unless some sort of viral pandemic stops those plans, haha) and it’s our intention to do that boat trip that time around. We’re actually hoping we bump into her again because we spent a fair amount of time talking with her and she came across as really pleasant.
We generally like to find something local to drink when we’re travelling but when it comes to beer there simply isn’t anything available in Gibraltar. We thought we’d found some in a shop in town only to see it was brewed and bottled in the Isle of Man. The prevalence of soldiers and British tourists in particular to the territory probably explains why if you’re not interested in lager then you’re going to struggle to find something palatable but we fell back to my heritage and managed to grab a couple of pints of Kilkenny in an Irish bar in the marina. It might have been nicer, sitting out in the sunshine with a drink and views of the boats and buildings, had they decided not to start drilling and cutting up part of the bar (I guess) while we were there but it was good to get off our feet anyway. During breaks in the maintenance noise the bar’s speakers pumped out Irish tunes and I treated my wife to a singalong with Seven Drunken Nights to her shock (as she’d never heard the song before) and embarrassment (for obvious reasons).
Gibraltar Port
We left Ocean Village and walked the short distance back towards the port and Emerald Princess. On the approach to the port area we could see other passengers returning ahead of us in small groups, all of them being stopped at the gated entrance where they needed to fish out cruise cards before being allowed in. With us having eyes and seeing all this happening way ahead of us we made sure to have our cruise cards in hand long before we reached the security checkpoint and we had them showing from tens of metres away. This earned us a “Yay!” from the security guard and a high five for probably being the first people in ages she hadn’t had to stop and ask for identification and wait while they rummaged through pockets and wallets accordingly.
We had one further and brief stop before boarding the cruise ship, that being to take a look at the duty free shop set up in the building alongside it. It was here that we discovered that while Gibraltar didn’t brew its own beer it did make its own small batch gin using botanicals found only on the Rock. Well, we had to buy it. You’re not allowed to open liquor you bring on a Princess ship; they confiscate it as you pass through security and return it to you prior to disembarkation. Well, they do if they spot it and if they’re not distracted by other people as you board; we sorta forgot to turn ours in even though we were told to because a load of other people arrived at the same time and heads turned in different directions. We didn’t plan on opening it on the ship anyway.
I can confirm on tasting the gin once we got back from this cruise that the Campion Gibraltar Gin has a very distinctive taste and it’s bloody lovely so we’ll probably pick some more up next year.
In the next travelogue in this series I’ll cover our departure from Gibraltar and the evening’s entertainment including some speciality dining in a new venue for us aboard a Princess Cruises ship, the Salty Dog Gastropub.