Post by Bozur on Dec 19, 2005 4:48:33 GMT -5
Next Stop
Gibraltar: A British Outpost With a Sunny Latin Flavor
Johnny Begeja for The New York TimesThe scale of the rock is jolting when first seen.
By TIM MOHR
Published: December 18, 2005
THE rock of Gibraltar, one of the Pillars of Hercules in Greek mythology, has been instantly recognizable for thousands of years. But driving west in Andalusia along Spain's new coastal expressway, the A7, not a single road sign mentions the British territory of Gibraltar. You just have to figure out when to exit the highway (at La Línea de la Concepción, the Spanish city at the foot of the rock). By the time you see a sign for Gibraltar, you'll be within walking distance.
Johnny Begeja for The New York Times
The Barbary apes.
Johnny Begeja for The New York Times
St. Michael's cave.
Photographs cannot prepare you for the physical reality of Gibraltar. The scale of the 1,396-foot-high boulder - sheer on one side, a city of 30,000 clinging to the bottom third of the other - still causes a jolt when you come over the last ridge to find it looming in front of you.
Unlike either the leisure megadevelopments along the Costa del Sol or the fossilized hilltop villages in the mountains above the coast, Gibraltar is still a working town. This makes the rock not only the most unusual place along the entire stretch, but also the most authentic - for now.
Given a rapid normalization of relations between Spain and Gibraltar - accelerated since the Socialists won last year's Spanish elections - Gibraltar's authenticity, nurtured by forced isolation, won't last long.
In May, representatives of the port of Gibraltar and its Spanish counterpart, Algeciras, held their first meetings to begin cooperation on safety and environmental issues. In mid-October, Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, announced a deal was close to permit joint Spanish use of the Gibraltar airport. And a de facto Spanish ban on passenger and freight ships going from Spain to Gibraltar has been lifted.
One early beneficiary of ending the ban is a land reclamation project called the Island on the largely undeveloped Mediterranean side of the rock that will add luxury condos and a marina to sleepy Catalan Bay. For the first time, Spanish barges are delivering the needed rock-fill directly by sea, increasing the efficiency with which Gibraltar can bring Costa del Sol-style resort developments into its backyard.
But for now, Gibraltar is home to a best-of-both-worlds culture. Last year, Gib - as residents call it - celebrated the 300th anniversary of the British takeover. Sun-baked Spanish-style houses are adorned with Victorian cast-iron balconies from England. The labyrinthine streets and alleys of the old town, reminiscent of nearby Spanish cities like Cadiz, are dotted with iconic English phone booths, red Royal Mail boxes and bars with names like Lord Nelson and the Angry Friar.
The conversational language of the rock is a hybrid of Spanish and English - often switching back and forth within a single sentence. Among residents who can speak only one of the two, Spanish dominates. There are properly drawn pints at the pub, and plates of razor clams and octopus at the corner restaurant. And though it's still a strategically significant staging and communications post with important radar installations and a submarine station, the military presence is virtually invisible.
The traditional tourist draws of Gibraltar do not disappoint: stunning views of the entrance to the Mediterranean and the mountains of Morocco (including Jebel Musa, the other pillar of Hercules), St. Michael's cave, tunnels from the Great Siege of 1779-83, and, of course, the famous Barbary apes - Europe's only wild monkeys. All of these are included in the price of admission to the Upper Rock nature reserve (£8, about $14 at $1.77 to the Gibraltar pound).
One newly opened addition (a separate admission) warrants mention: the extensive tunnels dug during World War II and used to plan the Allied invasion of North Africa. Visitors can also arrange private tours of the caves below St. Michael's.
Long a symbol of strength and solidity, the rock is actually closer to a chunk of Swiss cheese. And these lower caverns are spectacular. Guides refer to the experience as "luxury caving" because of the lighting and safety features. But crossing bottomless chasms on flexible webbing, skirting a subterranean lake in bare feet, and shinnying up and down walls by rope certainly feels like adventure travel, if you're not accustomed to spelunking.
Below the tourist section of the rock, much of the town life revolves around Casemates Square, a broad plaza just inside the entrance to the city walls. The square is lined with former 18th-century barracks, most of which are now offices on the upper floors and restaurants and bars at ground level. Once the site of public floggings and executions, Casemates is now the perfect place to take the edge off your hunger and, at night, to hang out, hoist a pint and hear live music.
Compared with the Costa del Sol beachfront bars of Marbella and Torremolinos - which have a reputation for catering to British lager louts of the sort depicted in the film "Sexy Beast" - Gib's open-air watering holes are simultaneously more cosmopolitan and more Spanish; besides beer, a favorite drink on the rock is tinto verano, a refreshing fruit-filled red wine spritzer.
The Spanish culinary influence is most pronounced in the city's casual seafood restaurants like the Marina Inn, an unpretentious restaurant outside the city walls on the reclaimed land between Casemates and the airport. Local residents typically order raciones, plates of a single food that are larger than tapas and meant to be shared. Among the dishes you might encounter are puntillitas (delicately fried baby squids), boquerones (fresh anchovies lightly battered and fried), gambas pil-pil (spicy prawns) and montaditos (miniature sandwiches of grilled pork or veal).
Inside, the Marina Inn is agreeably boisterous. Some customers sit at tables shoved together to accommodate large groups, other patrons order additional rounds of raciones and pitchers of tinto verano. And on the patio out back, teenagers pull up on Vespas and order burgers instead of boquerones. Jumpers Wheel, on the city walls just beyond the center of town, offers a similar menu in a more dinerlike atmosphere.
The English culture that is on display in Gibraltar tends to be from a quaint bygone era: On Sunday, Café Solo, on Casemates, offers traditional English roasts - with a side of Yorkshire pudding - alongside its other fare.
Breakfasts can also recall a mythic Britain, with fry-ups on the menu in many pubs and cafes. Star Bar, the Angry Friar and Sacarello's all make good full English breakfasts, hangover-friendly plates of sausages, rashers, beans, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Most of the establishments in Casemates function primarily as open-air cafes during the day and clubs at night. On a recent Saturday night, All's Well hosted an Alanis Morrisette-like singer-songwriter. Nearby, chart-techno pulsed in the Tunnel, and a classic rock cover band had the crowd demanding an encore at 2 a.m. in Lord Nelson.
For a peek at the true salty dog character of Gibraltar - it is a busy bunkering port, handling 9,000 ships a year, the government says - duck out of Casemates' old gate and into the Market Tavern, nestled in the city walls just outside the gate. As a working town, Gibraltar doesn't offer sunrise raves for 24-hour party people, making this small joint the end-of-the-night destination for locals, tourists and Ukrainian deckhands alike. By 3 a.m., young women dance on the tables, hip-hop and R & B blasts from the sound system, and you've entered a deliciously seedy netherworld: the last place open in a centuries-old port city.
•
The country code to call Gibraltar is 350. Tourism information is offered at www.gibraltar.gov.uk, and at the tourism offices on Casemates Square, telephone 74982, and Cathedral Square, 74950.
GETTING THERE
There are no nonstop flights to Gibraltar or Málaga, 75 miles west, from the United States, but many airlines go there through major European cities. In early December, round trips from the United States in mid January began around $460. The only airlines that fly into Gibraltar are British Airways (www.ba.com) and Monarch Airlines (www.flymonarch.com). Many European discount airlines, including easyJet, fly to Málaga.
WHERE TO STAY
The Eliott Hotel, Governor's Parade, telephone 70500, www.gib.gi/eliotthotel, is a modern building right in the middle of town with 120 contemporary rooms. They start at £185 ($327.50 at $1.77 to the Gibraltar pound), but discounts are common.
The Caleta Hotel, Catalan Bay, 76501, www.caletahotel.gi, is the lone hotel on the Mediterranean side of the rock, set on a promontory above a beach. The 160 rooms, all with balconies, are £110 to £140.
Bristol Hotel, 10 Cathedral Square, 76800, www.bristolhotel.gi , is a basic place with a pool and garden in the old town. Its 60 rooms go for £57 to £93.
WHERE TO EAT
Café Solo, 3 Casemates, 44449, faces Casemates Square and has outdoor seating. On Sunday, a traditional roast is served for £6.5.
Jumpers Wheel, Jumpers Bastion Rosia Road, 40052, serves single plates (raciones) of shellfish like gambas pil-pil (spicy prawns) on unadorned tables for £5.
Marina Inn, Tower Marina Bay, 79241, and its sister on the Mediterranean side, Village Inn, 72-74 Catalan Bay, 75158, are hits with Gibraltarians seeking to wash down the day's catch - raciones are £4 to £6 - with plenty of wine and conversation.
Sacarello's, 57 Irish Town, (350) 70625, is a local favorite on a side street lined with bars. Besides serving a full English breakfast (£4.25), it roasts its own coffees and offers baked goods and pasta dishes.
Star Bar, 12 Parliament Lane, 75924, reputed to be town's oldest tavern, is known for its full English breakfast (£4.75).
Gibraltar: A British Outpost With a Sunny Latin Flavor
Johnny Begeja for The New York TimesThe scale of the rock is jolting when first seen.
By TIM MOHR
Published: December 18, 2005
THE rock of Gibraltar, one of the Pillars of Hercules in Greek mythology, has been instantly recognizable for thousands of years. But driving west in Andalusia along Spain's new coastal expressway, the A7, not a single road sign mentions the British territory of Gibraltar. You just have to figure out when to exit the highway (at La Línea de la Concepción, the Spanish city at the foot of the rock). By the time you see a sign for Gibraltar, you'll be within walking distance.
Johnny Begeja for The New York Times
The Barbary apes.
Johnny Begeja for The New York Times
St. Michael's cave.
Photographs cannot prepare you for the physical reality of Gibraltar. The scale of the 1,396-foot-high boulder - sheer on one side, a city of 30,000 clinging to the bottom third of the other - still causes a jolt when you come over the last ridge to find it looming in front of you.
Unlike either the leisure megadevelopments along the Costa del Sol or the fossilized hilltop villages in the mountains above the coast, Gibraltar is still a working town. This makes the rock not only the most unusual place along the entire stretch, but also the most authentic - for now.
Given a rapid normalization of relations between Spain and Gibraltar - accelerated since the Socialists won last year's Spanish elections - Gibraltar's authenticity, nurtured by forced isolation, won't last long.
In May, representatives of the port of Gibraltar and its Spanish counterpart, Algeciras, held their first meetings to begin cooperation on safety and environmental issues. In mid-October, Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana, announced a deal was close to permit joint Spanish use of the Gibraltar airport. And a de facto Spanish ban on passenger and freight ships going from Spain to Gibraltar has been lifted.
One early beneficiary of ending the ban is a land reclamation project called the Island on the largely undeveloped Mediterranean side of the rock that will add luxury condos and a marina to sleepy Catalan Bay. For the first time, Spanish barges are delivering the needed rock-fill directly by sea, increasing the efficiency with which Gibraltar can bring Costa del Sol-style resort developments into its backyard.
But for now, Gibraltar is home to a best-of-both-worlds culture. Last year, Gib - as residents call it - celebrated the 300th anniversary of the British takeover. Sun-baked Spanish-style houses are adorned with Victorian cast-iron balconies from England. The labyrinthine streets and alleys of the old town, reminiscent of nearby Spanish cities like Cadiz, are dotted with iconic English phone booths, red Royal Mail boxes and bars with names like Lord Nelson and the Angry Friar.
The conversational language of the rock is a hybrid of Spanish and English - often switching back and forth within a single sentence. Among residents who can speak only one of the two, Spanish dominates. There are properly drawn pints at the pub, and plates of razor clams and octopus at the corner restaurant. And though it's still a strategically significant staging and communications post with important radar installations and a submarine station, the military presence is virtually invisible.
The traditional tourist draws of Gibraltar do not disappoint: stunning views of the entrance to the Mediterranean and the mountains of Morocco (including Jebel Musa, the other pillar of Hercules), St. Michael's cave, tunnels from the Great Siege of 1779-83, and, of course, the famous Barbary apes - Europe's only wild monkeys. All of these are included in the price of admission to the Upper Rock nature reserve (£8, about $14 at $1.77 to the Gibraltar pound).
One newly opened addition (a separate admission) warrants mention: the extensive tunnels dug during World War II and used to plan the Allied invasion of North Africa. Visitors can also arrange private tours of the caves below St. Michael's.
Long a symbol of strength and solidity, the rock is actually closer to a chunk of Swiss cheese. And these lower caverns are spectacular. Guides refer to the experience as "luxury caving" because of the lighting and safety features. But crossing bottomless chasms on flexible webbing, skirting a subterranean lake in bare feet, and shinnying up and down walls by rope certainly feels like adventure travel, if you're not accustomed to spelunking.
Below the tourist section of the rock, much of the town life revolves around Casemates Square, a broad plaza just inside the entrance to the city walls. The square is lined with former 18th-century barracks, most of which are now offices on the upper floors and restaurants and bars at ground level. Once the site of public floggings and executions, Casemates is now the perfect place to take the edge off your hunger and, at night, to hang out, hoist a pint and hear live music.
Compared with the Costa del Sol beachfront bars of Marbella and Torremolinos - which have a reputation for catering to British lager louts of the sort depicted in the film "Sexy Beast" - Gib's open-air watering holes are simultaneously more cosmopolitan and more Spanish; besides beer, a favorite drink on the rock is tinto verano, a refreshing fruit-filled red wine spritzer.
The Spanish culinary influence is most pronounced in the city's casual seafood restaurants like the Marina Inn, an unpretentious restaurant outside the city walls on the reclaimed land between Casemates and the airport. Local residents typically order raciones, plates of a single food that are larger than tapas and meant to be shared. Among the dishes you might encounter are puntillitas (delicately fried baby squids), boquerones (fresh anchovies lightly battered and fried), gambas pil-pil (spicy prawns) and montaditos (miniature sandwiches of grilled pork or veal).
Inside, the Marina Inn is agreeably boisterous. Some customers sit at tables shoved together to accommodate large groups, other patrons order additional rounds of raciones and pitchers of tinto verano. And on the patio out back, teenagers pull up on Vespas and order burgers instead of boquerones. Jumpers Wheel, on the city walls just beyond the center of town, offers a similar menu in a more dinerlike atmosphere.
The English culture that is on display in Gibraltar tends to be from a quaint bygone era: On Sunday, Café Solo, on Casemates, offers traditional English roasts - with a side of Yorkshire pudding - alongside its other fare.
Breakfasts can also recall a mythic Britain, with fry-ups on the menu in many pubs and cafes. Star Bar, the Angry Friar and Sacarello's all make good full English breakfasts, hangover-friendly plates of sausages, rashers, beans, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Most of the establishments in Casemates function primarily as open-air cafes during the day and clubs at night. On a recent Saturday night, All's Well hosted an Alanis Morrisette-like singer-songwriter. Nearby, chart-techno pulsed in the Tunnel, and a classic rock cover band had the crowd demanding an encore at 2 a.m. in Lord Nelson.
For a peek at the true salty dog character of Gibraltar - it is a busy bunkering port, handling 9,000 ships a year, the government says - duck out of Casemates' old gate and into the Market Tavern, nestled in the city walls just outside the gate. As a working town, Gibraltar doesn't offer sunrise raves for 24-hour party people, making this small joint the end-of-the-night destination for locals, tourists and Ukrainian deckhands alike. By 3 a.m., young women dance on the tables, hip-hop and R & B blasts from the sound system, and you've entered a deliciously seedy netherworld: the last place open in a centuries-old port city.
•
The country code to call Gibraltar is 350. Tourism information is offered at www.gibraltar.gov.uk, and at the tourism offices on Casemates Square, telephone 74982, and Cathedral Square, 74950.
GETTING THERE
There are no nonstop flights to Gibraltar or Málaga, 75 miles west, from the United States, but many airlines go there through major European cities. In early December, round trips from the United States in mid January began around $460. The only airlines that fly into Gibraltar are British Airways (www.ba.com) and Monarch Airlines (www.flymonarch.com). Many European discount airlines, including easyJet, fly to Málaga.
WHERE TO STAY
The Eliott Hotel, Governor's Parade, telephone 70500, www.gib.gi/eliotthotel, is a modern building right in the middle of town with 120 contemporary rooms. They start at £185 ($327.50 at $1.77 to the Gibraltar pound), but discounts are common.
The Caleta Hotel, Catalan Bay, 76501, www.caletahotel.gi, is the lone hotel on the Mediterranean side of the rock, set on a promontory above a beach. The 160 rooms, all with balconies, are £110 to £140.
Bristol Hotel, 10 Cathedral Square, 76800, www.bristolhotel.gi , is a basic place with a pool and garden in the old town. Its 60 rooms go for £57 to £93.
WHERE TO EAT
Café Solo, 3 Casemates, 44449, faces Casemates Square and has outdoor seating. On Sunday, a traditional roast is served for £6.5.
Jumpers Wheel, Jumpers Bastion Rosia Road, 40052, serves single plates (raciones) of shellfish like gambas pil-pil (spicy prawns) on unadorned tables for £5.
Marina Inn, Tower Marina Bay, 79241, and its sister on the Mediterranean side, Village Inn, 72-74 Catalan Bay, 75158, are hits with Gibraltarians seeking to wash down the day's catch - raciones are £4 to £6 - with plenty of wine and conversation.
Sacarello's, 57 Irish Town, (350) 70625, is a local favorite on a side street lined with bars. Besides serving a full English breakfast (£4.25), it roasts its own coffees and offers baked goods and pasta dishes.
Star Bar, 12 Parliament Lane, 75924, reputed to be town's oldest tavern, is known for its full English breakfast (£4.75).