Christmas Day in Gibraltar

Although I've been to Gibraltar in the motorhome before, I've never taken it through immigration and on to the rock. This time, I thought I'd give it a go, especially as I had an invitation from a customer to give him a call when we got to Gib. GiGi is a Gibraltarian who lives in England but whose son lives in Gibraltar and who owns the first service station on the right as you drive in to Gib. With diesel at £0.56 per liter, that's got to be worth a visit. He and his son kindly helped us find a place to park the motorhome, in a parking area just beneath the walls of the old fortress.

GiGi used a Camos GPS system to help him navigate from his home in England's west country to Gibraltar via Bilbao. The Camos system comes with mapping of the whole of Europe, including Gibraltar and in his strong Gibraltarian accent GiGi proclaimed that he was totally satisfied with its performance as he drove through Spain. The 7" screen was especially appreciated: "No problem to see where you're going".

The streets of Gibraltar are not designed for large vehicles but, if you're careful and sensible, there are places where a 21 ft motorhome can safely and comfortably park up. We didn't see any with GB plates but there were several from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. We spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day there and, on the following day, moved over to the other side of the rock where we perched a hundred or so feet above the crashing waves on what seemed to be an old gun emplacement. The gulls shrieked and the wind rocked the van but the view across the Mediterranean towards Africa, with a line of brightly illuminated ships at anchor in the foreground was a wonderful backdrop for dinner.