crossing from spain to gibraltar

Old Oct 18th, 2012, 01:46 PM
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crossing from spain to gibraltar

would it be preferable to leave the car in spain for the weekend and just walk across the border to gibraltar and take a taxi to our hotel? i understand that delays at the border crossing can be as long as 6 hrs!
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 01:52 PM
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perhaps can be because Spain is always trying to cause problems crossing the frontier due to their claims on Gilbraltar as rightful Spanish territory and Britain as the country who snatched it away with military might - eons ago. So there often are problems I understand at the border but pedestrians seem to be able to go thru as long as airplanes are not using the runway to Gilbraltar's airport.

Yes to cross the border you must traipse across the tarmac of an active and busy airport - buses I believe do not cross the border for the same reason you gave.

Best to hoof it the relatively short distance as i recall - I also recall Gibraltar being one of the oddest weirdest backwater's I've ever been to. Not much to see and do except ogle the tail-less apes and peer miles over the sea to Morocco.
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 01:53 PM
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PS - once you get across the tarmac hotels cannot be very far as the town is small and compact - may not need a taxi if traveling somewhat light.
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 01:54 PM
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Forget Gib. I just read that the wait time is the same on foot.
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 01:59 PM
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Sounds like the Spaniards are tightening the noose! And IMO for good reason.
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 02:22 PM
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IMHO Gibraltar is not worth it. Yes, there is a big rock and from the top you can see North Africa on a clear day (woo hoo!)

And take a chance of being bitten by a nasty monkey.

And visit a bunch of tacky souvenir shops and have a bad lunch.

We went a couple of years ago and it took us 2 hours to get back into Spain. Two middle aged American tourists in an upscale rental car who had been there only about 3 hours. They pulled the whole car apart, including taking out the back seat and using a mirror on a giant stick to search the undercarriage.

With all the other things to do in this part of Spain - give Gibraltar a miss.

And the reason that is isn't given back to Spain is???
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 02:58 PM
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The reason is that the people of Gib do NOT want to be Spanish citizens. Period.
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 09:39 PM
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thanks for all your honest answers. we have to be in gibraltar that weekend for family reasons. but i must say, the cross over to and from spain is def looking worse all the time!
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Old Oct 18th, 2012, 11:40 PM
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debbspero - Don't worry, things are going back to normal now at the border. They only flared up to 6/7 hours because the Chief Minister of the Government of Gibraltar was addressing the UN, and Spain doens't like this. Cars were being stopped for many minutes but the Spanish guards not even looking at them.

The reopening of the Gibraltar-Spain border was made a precondition for Spain to be allowed entry to the EU. It had previously been closed for 16 years by Spain's facist dictator General Franco.

PalenQ - What do you mean 'rightly Spanish territory'?

nytraveler - What do you mean "And the reason that is isn't given back to Spain is???"

Spain signed away 'in perpetuity' the soveriengty of Gibraltar under the Treaty of Utrecht. And indeed she gained things in return.

We are talking about events 300 years ago. (And Gibraltar was only Spanish for 200 years, before then the Moors from North Africa).

Anyway, 300 years of separate history gives you your own identity. You don't redraw borders AGAINST the wishes of people in modern 21st centry Europe.

Spain seeks to deny the right of the people of Gibraltar to decide their own future. Why? Becuase she likes to have a local punchbag to hit and kick each time things go badly in Spain. Spain is having economic problems, Madrid things what can we do to distract attention? Kick Gibraltar.

Spain has room in her foreign office who's task it is to make up lies about Gibraltar. And they are lies. She has brain washed her own populaiton to the extent that at a kids football (soccer) tournament, a Spanish offical ran up and grabbed/ripped a Gibraltar flag (all children had their flags, teams, towns, cities, countries) from than hands of 7 and 11 year olds.

debbspero - To answer your question: Once in Gibraltar you would probably not need or want your car. (It is compact, but more importantly, because it is compact the road system is complex unless familiar).

However depending upon which hotel you are in you may, or may not, want to drive there and park there. (Also how much stuff you will have to transport).
Even if you bring the car in, I'd uses Taxis/busses if you don't know how to drive where you want. (Or at least get some good, and clear advice before you setoff - if there is a traffic accident etc, lots of roads can be reversed, etc, to route the flow around it)
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 12:24 AM
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Ah the rights of the democratic process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibralt...ferendum,_2002

Turnout just under 90%
To stay british 98%
To go Spanish 1%

This was despite the Labour party in the UK trying to "give" the island back to Spain as a sop to the ever more confused idiots in Brussels (and Strasbourg 1 month in 6 or when the mood takes them)
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 06:15 AM
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Perhaps the US would like to show us how it should be done by returning Guantanamo Bay to Cuba?
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 06:37 AM
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Or, and more to the point, Spain returning Ceuta, Melilla, and the off-shore islands to Morocco.
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 09:23 AM
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say if during British colonial days Britain legally bought say Manhattan from New York Colony - bought it in perpetuity - would the USA stand for that, even though it were a proper legal contract?

A British island inside the USA - no we would have militarily if necessary kicked the Brits out and took over the colony. Spain was traditionally too weak to do the same to the Brits - but just think if Gibraltar were in the USA would we allow that even if it were legally done a long time ago under a different governmental system?
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 10:01 AM
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Well it looks like Spain to me. And being from a country that was once claimed as the territory of another - I get why people like control of their own land. (And it seems that moving in a lot of people from somewhere else who then say it's theirs - doesn;t really work.)
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 10:36 AM
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(And it seems that moving in a lot of people from somewhere else who then say it's theirs - doesn;t really work.>

yup that's what happened in Northern Ireland as well - when English landlords sent peasants packing from Scotland when they turned most lands into sheep pastures - so-called Shanty Irish -and sent them to Northern Ireland to gain a Prod majority there - still there and IMO Northern Ireland rightfully belongs to Ireland - regardless of what locals may want - the land was stolen and should be returned - Ireland is an island and should be an island nation - a whole island nation.
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 11:11 AM
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Yeah, work locally - give Michigan back to the Potawatomi !
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 04:05 PM
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Well the OP says they have to go for a family reason so probably not all that interested in the politics. I was there in March 2011 and it took about five minutes to cross the border on foot. I did it three times. The line of cars at 'rush hour' looked to be about half an hour long, in the middle of the day it looked to be about ten minutes long. The airport has only a limited number of flights a day, and they are grouped together so the ability to cross the runway (either on foot or in a car) is restricted for a fairly short time, two or three times a day.

If you are going for a family event you may not be interested in what there is to do, but I actually enjoyed myself for the day and a half that I was there - I thought the monkeys were cute, the cave was pretty interesting and the views from the top of the rock were lovely. I would not go to Gibraltar if it meant taking time from a trip to that region of Spain, but if you have to go anyway, or have an extra day or two, it was kind of fun.
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Old Oct 19th, 2012, 04:43 PM
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If you're lucky with the timing, you can get an amusing photo of cars held up as a plane lands and crosses just in front of them. I did but it was years ago, on film, but I may try to dig the slide out of the archives and scan it so I can post it.
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