In 1997, Europe's southernmost mosque, the Ibrahim al-Ibrahim Mosque, opened at the foot of Gibraltar's Monkey Rock. It is a gift from the Saudi Arabian King Fahd and is located at the so-called Point Europa of Gibraltar. It is also home to Gibraltar's southernmost lighthouse. Looking east from here you can see the Mediterranean Sea, while to the west is the Bay of Algeciras. To the south you can see across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlas Mountains in Africa. You can reach Point Europa and these two structures by car, for example, via a sometimes quite narrow road that leads around Gibraltar.
You travel to Gibralter via the airport - but not necessarily by plane. Probably as a further unpleasant result of Brexit, border controls between the United Kingdom and Spain had to be introduced here in a very small area and the runway of the airport offered itself. If you have successfully passed the border controls and the traffic lights at the border show green, you can now sprint on foot, by scooter or car over the skid marks of the planes to get to the highlights of Gibraltar.
And immediately it becomes British, mailboxes, telephone boxes and last but not least a Scottish parade leave no doubt as to which territory you are now in. And somehow it was also quite nice to be able to converse in a Germanic language like English again - after our Romance excursions into French, Spanish and Portuguese.
We bought a little something at M&S - had to be, even if we're not the shopping masters.
