home thoughts from abroad

Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.

When my daughter and I had a week’s break in Algeciras shortly before her first child was born, we took the opportunity to catch a bus to Gibraltar for a couple of euros. The Rock of Gibraltar is an unusual place and not without controversy being under British rule though situated at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. The main street is a mini English High Street with all the well-known stores, though the prices are a little better without the added taxes. And the runway crosses the main road into town, so you are held up whilst planes take off and land.

People are crammed into ugly flats at the base of the rock with very little space and what was noticeable then were the different national flags being flown from almost every balcony! There are several natural places to visit and of course up on the rock itself you find the Barbary Apes and great views across the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa. I later discovered that Gibraltar boasts the only known street that has an example of a letter box from each British Monarch since they were first introduced in 1852 during the reign of Queen Victoria.

So maybe it is time for another visit.

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Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

26 thoughts on “home thoughts from abroad”

  1. Unusual shot but instantly recognisable. This one clutches at my heartstrings because of Kate. I can never think of Gibraltar without thinking of her and I will never go back for the same reason. 🙂

    1. Did you ever meet Kate? She was a lovely person from what I could gather from her comments and posts. I had forgotten that she came from around here.

    2. Exactly what I thought. There was a tentative idea that on our next trip to Portugal we might try to meet, maybe at their property in Spain.
      Castles made of sand ….
      It’s over a year already. Says something that one can miss a person yet never having met them.

        1. I occasionally wonder as well. From Kate’s writing he struck me as an outdoorsy sort of bloke but with little time for Laptops etc. so I doubt any more news will be forthcoming.
          C’est la vie. Can’t be having with too much of this maudlin. Not good for one’s constitution.
          Still miss her, though!
          We move on …

  3. Unmistakably Gibraltar of course. I have never been, and never really wanted to.
    I also think it’s high time we grew up, and gave it back to Spain. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete. x

  4. I guess I’ve never really thought about what Gibraltor might look like so your photo rather surprised me. Surrounded by ‘civilization’ wasn’t what I would have expected – not to mention the air strip cutting across the main street. Nothing bad can possibly happen from a location like that – nothing at all.

    1. It is a British Overseas Territory and city and the Rock of Gibraltar dominates the headland. All the same name I believe.

  8. A friend recently flew into Gibraltar. Clueless me didn’t know it had an airport and for some reason I always thought it was separated by the sea!

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