Several planes, no sleep, one jog thru an airport and a 2 hour bus ride and I made it to Gibraltar. Well, I made it to La Linea de La Concepcion, the Spanish town across the border from Gib, and that was yesterday.

Today I’m sightseeing Gibraltar! It was only a 15 minute walk from my pension to the crossing, flashed my passport, walked across the active runway(!) and I’m in Britain!

I arrived about 9:30am, a wide-eyed tourist bumbling along in the stream of workers pouring in to start their shifts in the Main Street shops. It’s an attractive pedestrian road full of luxury goods, touristy stuff, pleasant cafes, etc. As I’m over here to walk another Camino my luggage is confined to a backpack so no shopping for me.

My main intent today was to conquer The Rock! The Rock of Gibraltar that is. Only having a single day I opted to take the cable car to the top, enjoy the amazing, if hazy views, then walk my way down past the sights back to town.

I walked along the ridge at the top to view some of the defensive batteries built over the 100’s of years of occupation; survived the disappointing “Skywalk”, a cantilevered, no-longer see-through short walkway hanging a few feet over the cliff. Then headed down a paved path to visit St. Michael’s Cave.

The cavern has been known of since Roman times and once thought bottomless, it’s now a popular tourist site with a sound and light show illuminating and accenting the stalagmites and stalactites. This is suggested to look like St. Michael….

I continued down, zigging back across the Rock, the road lined with old olive trees and low, lush vegetation, with shining dark green unknown plants and some early Spring bloomers.

The long zig brought me to The Great Siege Tunnels, created in the early 1780’s when Spain spent almost 4 years trying to blast & starve the English out of Gibraltar. The Brits needed a better defense on the Northern side of the Rock so by hand and gunpowder created these tunnels, eventually totally 30 miles within the Rock.

Then zagging further down I visited the Moorish Castle, then stumbled down the 348 stairs of the Castle Steps to land once again on Main Street. By this time I was starting to drag a bit so I began a search for food and a chair to rest in. Castmates Square had a plethora of both but just not in a combination that appealed to me. I eventually stumbled into a chic bistro with a casual To Go section in front with a cafe table calling my name. Chicken Tikka Wrap with a Perrier fit the bill.

And that was my visit to Gibraltar! I finished the day with a few errands in La Linea, then a picnic dinner at my pension and an early turn-in. Although I wasn’t tracking my watch said I walked 11.8 miles!