Life on the Rock - Part 1 (#12)

After a challenging passage, we arrived in Gibraltar after sunset. When we finished cleaning the boat and had dinner we went to bed early for a well deserved nights sleep. It wasn’t until the next morning that we noticed we were in another time zone, which explained why it took so long for the sun to rise that morning… lol.

Exploring the city centre …

Our first job was to find a mobile phone shop to buy a new sim card because our mobile Internet wasn’t working so it was impossible to get any work done. On our way to the city centre, we stopped by s/v Anahata. We met Peter and Carlos earlier in Les Sables d’Olonne where they were also picking up their new Lagoon 46. They told us that we had to change some settings on our phones to get the Internet to work in Gibraltar. Thanks for the great advice guys! Even though our Internet problem was fixed we decided to continue our walk to the city centre. I didn’t do a lot of research on Gibraltar so I was surprised to learn that Gibraltar was a lot smaller than I imagined, we could easily go everywhere on foot. And it was nice to see how strong the British influence was. It really felt like walking through a British city rather than through a Spanish city where they speak English as I thought it would be. Especially on the cold first day we were there we imagined ourselves in the UK. Liam and Sky were delighted; they have wanted to go to the UK ever since they started going to a British school in Spain almost four years ago. Liam couldn’t wait to try fish and chips and to visit a bookshop. The fish and chips were delicious and I loved drinking a Guinness beer, which in Gibraltar you can find in almost every bar.

Finding a bookshop turned out to be more challenging. Although the traditional British phone boots, signposts and buildings make you feel like you are somewhere in Britain… the many jewellers, liquor stores and perfumeries give you the feeling you are at the tax-free shopping area on the airport. Not really what we were looking for but it made our next day in Gibraltar a fun black Friday shopping day. And in the evening we got to savour the Indian cuisine in one of the best Indian restaurants in Gibraltar: Curry and Sushi. The food was great and so were the people. And we were lucky to meet Michael there, a true Gibraltarian who we could ask for anything we needed to know about Gibraltar and would even be so kind to take us on a private tour around the rock.

A private tour of Gibraltar ...

Michael came to pick us up with his car in the morning and drove us all the way up and around the rock while showing us the most important landmarks and telling us all about the history, geography and demographics of this since 1713 British overseas territory.

When we drove to the Rock's upper area which is covered by a nature reserve we entered the home of the nearly 230 Barbary macaques, the famous "apes" of Gibraltar. We got to see them very up close. When we stopped to watch a group of young apes, the little ones climbed all over the car and played on the front window and roof. Liam and Sky loved watching the little apes from the safe environment of the car, they weren't very excited about the idea of getting out of the car at first.

It was fascinating to learn about Gibraltar from someone who has lived there his entire life. Thanks a lot, Michael! We had a lot of fun and it was very educational.

Christmas shopping ...

Liam and Sky didn’t feel like going along to another chandlery to buy more boat supplies so we decided they could stay on the boat. We briefed them on what to do in case there was a problem and we could count on our boat neighbours to keep an eye on things. I have to admit it was nice to be without the kids for a little while, after a few months of being together 24/7. We love spending time together but to be honest I often miss some quiet time.

It’s nice to see how the kids have grown and changed since we live on the boat, they developed a sense of responsibility and became a lot more independent. Like Sven and I enjoyed our time alone, so did they enjoy a moment without us. They behaved very well while we were gone so we decided to do some more shopping in the afternoon while they stayed at home. We bought a small Christmas tree and a lot of lights to get Nohma ready for Christmas and it was the perfect moment to buy some surprise Christmas gifts for the kids.

Homeschooling ...

While we were out shopping we also found some schoolbooks. So far the kids have been learning most of the subjects on IXL, an online curriculum-based learning platform. But with the prospect of crossing the Atlantic, we had wanted to switch to actual books for a while. We just didn’t know which ones to get, so we bought some of these ‘DK’ practice books to give them a try. We had worked with books before when we started homeschooling but the ones we had then didn’t work for us. The kids were excited to start working with their new books the next day. I’ve noticed that changing the routine every now and then works motivating so the new books were a welcome change. And it turns out they loved them! Later we bought all the subjects we could find in this series. They are still happy to work with them today.

Visiting Spain ...

To get to the border from Gibraltar to Spain you have to walk (or drive) across the runway, we definitely wanted to do that. So we decided to visit La Línea de Concepción, the Spanish border town. The fun thing about Gibraltar is that you can do everything on foot; the frontier was only 15 minutes walking from the city centre. And it’s the easiest way to cross the border. Over 10 thousand people cross it daily just to get from their homes in Spain to jobs in Gibraltar. But if you’re there on foot during the day there is hardly any kind of queue or delay. As Gibraltar is not part of the Schengen Area, there are still passport controls. So we had to show our passport as we walked across the border and with the Covid travel restrictions we had to explain where we came from and what our purpose was. We were only allowed to visit La Línea and couldn’t go anywhere else in Spain. La Línea is not really a touristic town and the atmosphere there is totally different from the one in Gibraltar. But as we feel at home in Spain we had a fun day out there; we strolled around the city, had some foods and drinks and did a bit of shopping. Re-entering Gibraltar was even easier than leaving, only a quick passport check and we were back on the runway with the impressive rock in the background.

As we were in Gibraltar for over a month, not every day involved an excursion. A lot of the days were just ordinary school/workdays. In the morning the kids and I did school work while Sven got some work done on his computer. When we finished there was time for grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry and… boat works!

We got a lot done while we were in Gibraltar, but I’ll tell you all about that in our next blog post (Life on the Rock - part 2). And you’ll also be able to read about our Christmas party, sailing around the rock and our departure…

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