Back in the U.K. (technically)

I am back in the U.K.!

Well I am in Gilbraltar which is a U.K. town at the bottom of this huge rock. I got here yesterday - it is my first visit to the South Coast of Spain and of course this place is English. I had heard that Spain was full of fish and chip shops etc. but that is definitely not true of Barcelona, Madrid or Granada. I saw zero fish and chip shops there.

Gilbraltar does have fish and chip shops, police dressed as bobbies and the back machines only dispense British Pounds (though I keep getting Gilbraltar pounds as change - so they must be coming from somewhere). According to my guidebook about 80 percent of the population was born here. Based on my experience, Spanish is definately the first language, but everyone seems to know English as well.

Gilbraltar is an interesting visit. I thought the city was going to be at the top of the rock. But it is actually crammed into all of the available flat land at the base of the rock. On the rock there is a wildlife refuge which is full of birds and monkeys. Apparently this is the only place for wild monkeys in Europe. The customs back and forth between here and Spain is very lax. They seem to be mostly concerned about cigarettes going into Spain as everything in Gilbraltar is duty free. The monkeys were not as exciting as I had hoped. I actually did not want them to be anywhere near me because they smelled funny. They were jumping on lots of people though and could be coaxed onto your shoulders (for a peanut).

Gilbraltar is also very green. Most Spanish hills and mountains (including what I saw of the Sierra Nevadas) is very brown and dusty. However, being on the coast and having the rock as a cloud magnet keeps everything much more lush than elsewhere in the south.

It is pretty small and self contained too. The airport landing strip crosses the roadway into the city... So what they do is close the road for the 3 flights a day that land and take off here. It is pretty strange to cross customs, then walk across an airport runway to get to the city.

After Gilbraltar I am thinking of visiting Tarifa (windsurf capital of Europe) or seeing if I have time to go up to Lisbon before heading down to Morrocco.