Wed 28th Jan: Gibraltar

Today a visit to one of the last outposts of Empire: Gibraltar. Nice quirky touch: having passed customs, you walk, or drive, across the airport runway to enter the colony. It’s nearly, but not quite, a patch of England, despite sterling currency, M&S and the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society etc.


Where Gib does score is its’ sense of history. Look at the tombstone of the sailor who died from wounds received at Trafalgar. The other photo is of the 100-ton gun commissioned in 1883 to guard the harbour. There were two originally, sited together, but the other’s barrel split due to practicing at too high a firing rate. The gun was soon outmoded and never fired a shot in anger. Coincidentally, the gun is located at the point where Nelson’s body was brought ashore temporarily after Trafalgar (preserved in a cask of brandy) while the Victory was being patched up.


Finally, to impress you with the efficiency of the dockyards, see if you can make out what the painter on the mobile platform is using to paint the lower hull of the ship. Yes- and we verified this with binoculars- it really is a four inch BRUSH!