On the Rock

We took a weekend break over the Thanksgiving weekend by flying to Gibraltar, site of the famous "Rock" and gateway to (and from) the Mediterannean. It's been a British territory for over 300 years and the source of recent tensions between the UK and Spain (who would like the British to leave).

We all know the rock from the famous Prudential Insurance ads and it has long been an important fortress and naval base. Chuck paid a number of port calls there during his sea-going days and was looking forward to seeing it again. But, as is the case in so many places, the changes since the late 1960s have been enormous.

The Rock, itself, is honeycombed with tunnels for fortifications and gun emplacements dating back to the "great seige" when the British garrison was beseiged by a combined French and Spanish force for 3 years, starting in 1779. It's not hard to understand, when looking up at the numerous gun ports why the attacks never worked. More recently, during World War II, the rock was the site of additional tunneling, producing the much larger tunnels that served as the place where Eisenhower and his staff planned the invasion of North Africa and which also served as a bomb-proof logistics base.

There is only a small amount of relatively level land at the foot of the rock on which to build -- and recent growth has taken the form of additional land-fill. Because of the scarcity of land, Gibraltar is now the site of numerous high-rise apartment buildings (which were the chief surprise to Chuck, who remembered "the Rock" before all this growth). The population is, by blood, largely Spanish, but there is a major community of British-descended Gibraltarians as well. Because of all the battles, seiges and military and naval campaigns in which the Rock figured prominently the entire area is heavily populated with walls, revetments and casemates as well as countless monuments.

Being located on the Straits of Gibraltar, the Rock is only 9 miles from Africa -- the shores of Morocco to be specific. While there we took a day-trip to the Moroccan city of Tangier, which included a short bus trip to a second Moroccan city, Tetuan, where we lunched. While in Tangier we visited the legendary souk, or market, with an incredible array of items for sale and got an interesting introduction to the making of fine rugs. Our Moroccan guide tried very hard to convince us that religious tolerance prevails in this constitutional monarchy, though it is difficult to tell since over 98% of the population is Islamic and Jews and Christians are extremely small minorities.

To see some photos from our visits to Gibraltar and to Morocco, click here:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1006754