© Richard Randall

We visited Gibraltar quite recently, and loved it. We had been on a little driving trip from our home in France, we travelled down through Spain and Portugal and then to Gibraltar. We had intended to stay for just one night to catch up on some sleep before we drove back home, but we liked the place so we ended up staying for two nights. I think we stayed the extra night because although we had eaten some lovely food on this trip the last couple of meals had not been so great. The food here made it well worth staying for another night, we had enjoyed a lovely meal in one of the many pub/restaurants on our first evening and felt that we owed it to ourselves to repeat the taste experience! We hadn't been to Gibraltar before and didn't know that much about it other than it was very popular for tax free shopping and monkeys. The Upper Rock Nature Reserve is where you can see the famous Barbary Apes, Macaques and the Barbary Partridges, Gibraltar is also a great area for Dolphins. During the summer months especially, the border over to the Rock can be seriously busy and take hours clear, but as it was December we drove straight over without incident. There have been many occasions when the border has been closed for long periods at a time, thankfully there were no shananigans for us. Once on the Rock we drove around until we found a hotel that we liked the look of. We decided on the Bristol Hotel as it was very centrally located (we had done a lot of driving by this stage and it would be nice to be a pedestrian for a little while), just a quick walk from the main shopping street and it had lots of safe parking too; in fact we were lucky enough to park directly outside the reception which was great. Aside from the shops the Bristol Hotel was very close to a couple of interesting attractions; the museum and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The hotel also had a lovely swimming pool (nice in the warmer weather), and a secluded walled garden. The room was very large if a bit out dated, and the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful. For such a small place there are a surprising amount of things to keep most people occupied. As well as the famous Barbary Apes there is a cable car for those with a head for heights, a casino with an excellent a la carte restaurant, and great views along Spain and as far as Africa on a clear night. Ths cafe at the museum apparently serves really good food too. Then there is the Moorish Castle which has a very interesting history and the 100 Ton gun. The gun is one of only twelve made by Sir W C Armstrong in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1870. We were mainly interested in the shopping that Gibraltar has to offer. Having been away from the English language and shops, we were pleased to see that there was a Tesco supermarket and a branch of Marks & Spencer. We didn't actually buy that much as the boot of our car was already pretty full with goodies from Spain and Portugal. But we did buy some delicious christmas puddings in Marks & Spencer though, and we stocked up on some more mundane basics in Tesco. Our hotel was just around the corner from the shops; Main Street which was one long road full of shops that had ajoining lanes housing more shops. You could buy almost everything along this road including glassware, porcelaine, pottery, leather goods, perfume & aftershave, spirits/alcohol, cigarettes, jewellery, silk goods cashmere and electrical goods. This area is known as the Shopping Centre of the Western Meditteranean. Apart from our Marks/Tesco bits, we bought some perfumes and aftershaves and magazines and that was about all. It was a very pleasant stop off on our route home, the sun was shining, everything was open all day/night, most people were speaking English (it had been so long we had trouble understanding them)! Basically we spent the whole time sitting outside a couple of the many, many, many pubs relaxing in the sun whilst enjoying a nice cool drink, (and smoking very cheap cigarettes - Richard not me)! It was quite busy whilst we were there with lots of families and young children, mainly English but also some Spanish. All of the people there were just sitting chatting, relaxing, drinking and eating, outside and inside the large pubs in the main square. Gibraltar was very nice, friendly and relaxed and we would like to go there again, but then again as we have family in the U.K. we would probably drive in the opposite direction, then we wouldn't just have a small branch of Marks & Spencer, Tesco and zillions of pubs to get us excited we would have the whole of London. I can hear Bond Street and Sloane Street calling me now! We are both very happy living in France, but where we live is very remote, and after being able to walk from home in London to all of those fantastic shops in the capital it's understandable that occasionally we yearn for a bit of luxury!

Caribbean

Sundries

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