Gibraltar is different, that’s for sure. Is it a country? Well, no, Gibraltar is a little slice of Britain on the Mediterranean, a British Overseas Territory on the very edge of the Iberian Peninsula. Is it a city? You could say that Gibraltar Town dominates the territory, but a population of 32,000 doesn’t exactly suggest a metropolis. But its 6.7km2 is dominated by architecture, residential buildings old and new and the leftovers of what was once an important garrison town. Well, we say dominated by architecture, that is only really true if you ignore the massive rock in the middle of it all. If anything dominates Gibraltar, it is The Rock.

Undoubtedly its iconic image, the Rock of Gibraltar is a piece of natural beauty that has played its part in the most human conflicts of the 20th century, with an intricate network of tunnels bored through its heart. Oh, there are monkeys too, lots and lots of monkeys. Barbary macaques to be exact, Europe’s only native monkeys, to be absolutely correct. They spend most of their time on the Rock, but don’t be surprised to see them wander into the town to look for food, or maybe stop for a pint at The Clipper.

So what exactly is Gibraltar? This is Europe’s most unusual spot, a 1980s English seaside town transported to the Mediterranean and left to get on with it, creating an atmosphere that definitely isn’t Spanish, is somewhat English, but is absolutely Gibraltarian.