“Sit down,” Brian Gomila says, and I sit down, even though that’s the last thing I want to do. We are surrounded by Barbary macaques – on the forest floor around us, in the trees above our heads. A female with a child shuffles past, followed by a number of servile males – you can tell she is in charge here. Now that I’m sitting, she seems to tower over me, and suddenly I feel very vulnerable, but as Brian says, that’s not important. Making sure they feel safe with us – that is the most important thing.
Brian Gomila is a primatologist, born and raised here in Gibraltar, and he took me to the Rock to see how Gibraltar’s monkeys behave when there are no buses full of tourists. Of course, I’m a tourist too, but Brian takes you off the beaten path and he only takes a few people, so his tours are much more intimate than the photo opportunities you see at the top. Here you can observe the power struggles within the troop as these monkeys compete for social status. As Brian guides me through their routines and rituals, you realize that they are not so different from you and me.
This was my second trip to Gibraltar and it felt very different from my first fleeting visit a few years ago. At the time, I thought I had seen most of what this compact peninsula had to offer. This time I realized I had barely scratched the surface. In just a few square kilometers you will find an abundance of nature, culture and, above all, history. You could easily spend a week here and not run out of things to see and do.
Although I heard about Gibraltar at school and was intrigued by its rich history, I didn’t get around to going there until much later in life. I didn’t realize what I had missed. Gibraltar is a world away from the old colonial stereotype. The Gibraltarians are British to the core, and English is the lingua franca, but the people are an exotic mix of British, Spanish, Italian, Maltese and Portuguese. Most of them are Roman Catholic, but there are also thriving Anglican, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities. A contemporary commercial center with an ancient core, it is a vibrant multicultural place.
If you’ve never been there before, the first thing you’ll notice when you arrive is the Rock itself. It is incredibly dramatic, a huge shard of white limestone towering 440 meters above the city. Wherever you are on the peninsula, it is a constant presence, one of the natural wonders of the Western world. At night, illuminated by the lights below, it looks almost supernatural. You can see why the ancients considered it one of the two Pillars of Hercules, a mountain created by an angry god.
The second thing you notice is Gibraltar’s spectacular location. You immediately understand why it has always been so strategically important, for war and trade – the crossroads between Europe and Africa, the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. Morocco is only fifteen kilometers away, and the narrow straits between them are busy with international shipping: container ships bound for Panama, ferries to Tangier…
Gibraltar is small, only three miles long and less than a mile wide. The total circumference is approximately eight kilometers. You could walk all the way around it in an afternoon. In any other place this small you would quickly go crazy. What makes it so fascinating is its colorful and violent past.
The best place to start is at the National Museum of Gibraltar. The permanent exhibition gives you an excellent overview of Gibraltar’s complex heritage. There is fascinating information about the Neanderthal remains discovered here, in caves in the Rock, before the discoveries in Germany’s Neander Valley (he should really be called Gibraltar Man). There are also remains from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, and Phoenician and Roman finds, but the most beautiful exhibit is the Moorish bathhouse, in the cellar below the museum. The Moors were here for 700 years, from the 8the Century to the 15e Century, when they were expelled by the Spanish, who ruled Gibraltar until 1704, when it was captured by the Royal Marines. As every schoolboy (and schoolgirl) knew, it’s been British ever since.
I suppose you can still have a good time in Gibraltar without knowing anything about the past, but the more you learn about what happened here, the more fun it becomes. The history of the place is all around you, in the sturdy walls the British built to repel the Spanish, and in the cavernous gun emplacements they dug into the Rock itself. Gibraltar is a crucial base in every conflict, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Falklands War. It is a gigantic fortress, decorated with cannons on every corner.
However, there are plenty of other things to keep you entertained even if you’re not completely obsessed with men in uniform. The National Art Gallery features some charming Impressionist landscapes, and there are some beautiful modern paintings in the John Mackintosh Hall. The old town is enchanting, a cozy cluster of elegant Georgian villas and mansions, built mainly for the military but now requisitioned for more convivial uses. The King’s Bastion, once the core of Gibraltar’s battlements, now houses a bowling alley. My favorite place is the Garrison Library, an officers’ club for two centuries, now open to the public. A haven of peace and tranquility in the center of the city, the wood-panelled rooms and walled gardens are extremely peaceful.
With a population of just 33,000, the population of a small town in Britain, you’d think Gibraltar would be a bit provincial. Not at all. Since the military presence was reduced in the 1980s, it has become a dynamic financial center, and its inner-city business district feels like a little slice of London’s Docklands. Fifteen thousand Spaniards cross the border every day to work here.
And yet it’s small, which is a great plus if you’re only here for a long weekend. You don’t waste time getting around, everything is just a few minutes drive away, and as long as you are reasonably fit you can reach most places on foot. There’s a cable car to the top of the Rock, or if you’re feeling adventurous you can climb the Mediterranean Steps, a vertiginous footpath that winds along the south side of the cliff and gives you dizzying views of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. It is completely safe, but you should only do it in good weather – and if you are not afraid of heights.
There is a decent range of restaurants. Yes, you can get a good Sunday Roast or Fish & Chips, or Apple Crumble or Eton Mess, but the Mediterranean dishes are just as good. There’s accommodation to suit every budget, but if you fancy staying somewhere chic, try the Sunborn, an ultra-modern five-star hotel housed in a cruise ship in port.
I ended my trip at the Rock Hotel, a beautiful Art Deco piece next to the botanical gardens. Ernest Hemingway stayed here, as did Alec Guinness. I can imagine them having cocktails together in the sunlit bar, the opening scene in an Agatha Christie Whodunnit or a Graham Greene Film Noir. I had a delicious lunch – ravioli, sea bream and a glass of sauvignon blanc to wash it down – but the best part was the view. I saw the boats behind the window crisscrossing the blue water, so many boats that I couldn’t count them.
Discussions have taken place between the EU and Britain in recent months over the management of Gibraltar’s border now that Brexit has been completed. Conservative MPs warn of a ‘sell-out’. But Gibraltar will always remain British as long as the Gibraltarians have anything to do with it. But despite the Home Counties’ picturesque customs, it is also cosmopolitan, and that is its main attraction for tourists. “There are certain places on the earth that have more magic than others,” wrote Paul Bowles. He wrote about Marrakech, but he could also have written about a place the Moors called Jabal Tariz, or, as we call it, Gibraltar.
William Cook traveled to Gibraltar as a guest of the Gibraltar Tourist Board (www.visitgibraltar.gi).