UPDATE December 2018
Almost 12 years since first travelling to the British Territory of Gibraltar,
I visited again, just prior to Christmas 2018. The Rock itself and the Barberry Apes will not change and remain icons, but the place itself has grown noticeably in the space of time with every
available place of land looking like it has had a tower block placed on it with more – a lot more – on the way, all building on (no pun) the success of the territory as an insurance and finance base having moved away from being largely a British
military base. As well as reclaimed land, a lot of what were the naval areas are what has been built on, including where we stayed, Ocean Village, to the north west of the territory an area
made up of countless apartment blocks, along with restaurants and bars, casino and a purpose-built super yacht hotel and casino. It all makes for an impressive sight. There is plenty to do and see for the tourist in the territory too, it makes for a good long weekend destination from the UK, and you don’t even have to sort out any Euros either.
What will happen in the next 12 years for Gibraltar remains to be see. Whilst it might fly the Union Flag with apparent pride and is very keen on its own history,
it is not “Britain in the Sun”. It is hardly Whitby. There are pubs and bobbies on the beat and the red phone boxes preserved. But driving on the right and the locals and/or natives speaking in pidgin Spanish. It certainly makes for a unique place and leaving the EU alongside its mother country (against its will, it should probably never have joined as the Channel Islands and Isle of Man did not, but thats another story) will mean that
it will have some extra challenges ahead. What I found on this visit is a place that is very British yes, deliberately so and also unmistakenly Mediterranean along with certain elements
of Hong Kong (island) and Monaco thrown in.
UPDATE December 2016
It wasn’t a long term planned visit, but I returned to Malta for a long
weekend in December 2016 and to Melliha at that, too. In classic
fashion, I found that lots had changed since the previous in the Spring of 2005 but also that nothing had changed too. On that first visit the small island country had only recently joined the European Union.
They still had their own currency (it has now long been the Euro) and very little change, or benefit had come from it. This has been the big change.
The roads are still in the main bumpy and busy but there were two big road projects that had gone in via grants from Brussels. A St Pauls Bay by-pass and a by-pass around the tight streets of Mellliha, which makes the journey from the Airport and/or Valletta
to Gozo a lot easier.
The hotel where we stayed was not there in 2005 either, it was wasteland just behind the Melliha Bay beach, which is the largest and sandiest on the main island. The Melliha Bay hotel is large and impressive and I was mistaken thinking it would be quiet out of season, just before Christmas. Not a bit of it, whilst not as busy as it would be in the summer months it had a lot of people in residence from all over Europe and,
notably, Malta too. Well, I guess we go away to other parts of the UK for a long weekend, don’t we?
The roads may be tight, busy and still in the same place as they were several hundreds of years ago but Malta is easy to navigate.
The bus services are cheap and plentiful. We
had two days’ trips on the weekend, one to Bugibba which is a resort style town on St Pauls Bay. For us this
included a visit to the very quaint Classic Car Museum which houses all manner of cars from across the years in a basement and a couple of hours spent in the relatively new and impressive National Aquarium (again funded by EU grant) which sits grandly at the
end of the Promenade with great views across the bay. Then the next day to a very Christmas Valletta, the walled
capital city that sits grandly above the Harbour. The main Street, Republic Street cuts straight through the centre
and features a mix of shops including many familiar to the British High Street. Even a BHS! The red Phone boxes and pillar boxes are still there and festive music was being piped through the speakers in the street. I do have to admit that there is something a little strange, walking through the ancient streets of Mediterranean capital city with ‘Shakin Stevens’
singing proudly about snow falling….
All in all, a great place to visit for a long weekend at any time of the year.
The weather in December was very favourable, not beach weather by any stretch but still pleasant enough to walk around in short sleeves. In the summer temperatures, can climb up into the late 30’s. English is the main language of the island – the locals/natives speak their own mother tongue – but just about all speak and understand the colonial one and if you want a Sunday Roast or a fry up, it didn’t look
like you needed to go far for one. It is cheaper than Spain too…(even taking into account the fall in the
value of the Pound)