Travel We encountered our first surprise while getting here from the Spanish town of La Linea. Traffic lights stop vehicles and pedestrians following the 1.5-kilometre-long isthmus south from Spain after border passport formalities. Why? Crossing barriers are the only obstacles to collisions between cars and flights using the Gibraltar International Airport runway that intersects Winston Churchill Avenue. After each plane lands or takes off, the safety arms lift and traffic resumes. Flying time from London, Manchester and other U.K. cities to Gibraltar is about 2.5 hours. Most visitors, however, arrive by cruise ship, car or coach tours fromMarbella, Malaga and other Spanish Costa del Sol cities. Surprise #2: Gibraltar has only 50 kilometres of roads. Parking is scarce, so most visitors leave their cars in the large lot by La Linea’s marina and walk for about 15minutes (or take a bus) to Gibraltar’s town centre. Another surprise – locals drive on the right, even though Gibraltar is British. It’s easy to see the compact town on foot but, to view the attractions on the Rock, Gibraltar’s scenic landmark, you should take a minibus tour or ride the Cable Car as we did. As high as New York’s Empire State Building, the 426metre natural fortress juts out of the Strait of Gibraltar like an imposing fist of limestone. Dwarfing everyone and everything around it, the Rock was one of the two legendary Pillars of Hercules. (The other promontory is in North Africa.) When the ancient hero pushed them apart, the waters of the Atlantic Ocean rushed through the gap to form the Mediterranean Sea, separating the African and European continents. Story and photos by Barb & Ron Kroll Surprising Gibraltar Howmany surprises can you cram into a British Overseas Territory that is barely twice the size of New York City’s Central Park? There is no place on earth like Gibraltar. It’s a little piece of Britain linked to southern Spain by a narrow isthmus. Gibraltar is strategically located on one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, the Strait of Gibraltar, at the junction of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco beckons across the strait only 12 kilometres to the south. Planes have the right of way Six-minute ride on the Cable Car to Top Station Winston Churchill Avenue intersects Gibraltar’s airport runway 16 | www.snowbirds.org
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