Heading to the rock

We drive from the hill top city of Arcos de la Frontera across the landscape of southern Andalusia. It is an easy drive since it doesn’t seem to be many people visiting this part of Spain way out of season. After a bit of a drive we can see our target in the distance – there it is a big rock. The Rock of Gibraltar. The Rock here is one of those landmarks around the world you can just see for miles away because it stands out in a flat landscape.

The rock makes navigation pretty easy – just head towards the rock and we are on the right track. We get to La Linea de la Concepción which is a Spanish town just across from Gibraltar. It isn’t Gibraltar – but the prices of the hotels here is somewhere between a third and half of what you would pay a few hundred meters across the border so we decided to save money on our trip to Gibraltar and stay in Spain.

The GPS tells us we are at our hotel – but we see only a building which seems to be pretty run down and no longer functioning at its original purpose. So we continue searching for the hotel – and after asking for directions it turns out the GPS was right in the first place – the hotel was there but it was designed to have some shops all around the hotel facing the street. But when the hotel was just built nobody wanted to rent the space and the shopping area has remained empty – after a while the management of the hotel decided no longer to have the empty shopping windows around the hotel so they put up some bricks instead of windows – which give the hotel a somewhat out of business feel. When we do go in the door there is a reception and a hotel with all you need for a hotel.

It has become a bit late in the afternoon and we will need time to go and explore the rock of Gibraltar so we decide not to cross the border tonight – I think Spanish food is pretty superior to the British stuff you can get across the border anyways.

There are a bit to explore in the town so we have a look at the town around the hotel – there are some nice small street. But there are also a beach and a restaurant down at the beach which do serve drinks outdoor in the sun with a view of the water and a partial view of the rock. So instead of exploring the not so famous destination we just head down to the water and have some sangria and a bite to eat.

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