Gibraltar

It is a big rock. Really, this town? This city? This country? is a series of of streets at the bottom of a big hunk of limestone. It is kinda pretty look at and apparently there are tourist biting monkeys on the rock. I don't know since it was pretty foggy and I couldn't be bothered to pay 9 pounds to see the apes in the midst. The appeal of this place is location. On a clear day one can see Morocco. As military strategic positions go, this is money.

Walking the streets this place seems like what I imagine England looks like. The walk from the Spanish border crosses the airport runway. And then it looks like you are in the middle of the projects. Much of the housing here seems government subsidized, if you ignore the high rise condominiums blocking the old machine gun ramparts. Lots of these new properties popping up and some of them even have space for my 50 foot catamaran. I have been wondering where I was going to dock that.

In the five minute walk from De Linea da Conception where I was staying you go from Spanish town to Brits. Plenty of pubs with the Manchester United game on the tube, high fashion stores and funny accents. But if you listen closely some of the word are Spanish. And there is the air of Africa that permeates deeper then the women in burquas who can be seen on the side streets. Money here is in financial services, ship repair, on line gambling and the smuggling of cheap cigarettes and booze. Talk about a place full of contradictions. There all these tweaked out little rides bumping broken beat on the street. How can a place only about 8 square kilometers have a car culture?