Last Updated on August 6, 2025
I climbed Gibraltar by accident. And yes, you read that correctly.
You can read about my misadventure in the article “My Accidental Climb Up Gibraltar.” This video shows what I saw on my unintentional walk as well as during my entire two days on “The Rock.”
Although it’s name is the “Rock of Gibraltar” (a 1,396-foot (426-meters) high limestone ridge), only part of it is actually the Rock. The rest of Gibraltar is the City/town of Gibraltar on the west side. You’ll find a few popular beaches, and some historical places on the east. Its population is about 34,000, not including the 250 Barbary macaques, the only wild primates in Europe. Four-fifths of the people are Gibraltarians, residents born in Gibraltar before 1925, and their descendants.
You’ll want to go up to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, which you’ll see on this video. It’s incredibly interesting and you can walk up or take the funicular. The attached video will give you a sense of what to see during a two-day visit.
If you have access to a car – either a rental or the one you’ve driven down in, it’s worth a half-day’s drive about the monolith to get the full impact of the place.
A word of warning: do not attempt to drive through Gibraltar town’s warren of streets since you’ll get impossibly lost. Keep the car at your hotel until you’re ready for your island foray or your return to Spain.
There’s an error in your article regarding Gibraltar’s air links: there are only 4 places in the world with flights to/from Gibraltar, and they are all in UK.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention Owen, since I mis-spoke. Although ostensibly one can fly from Madrid to Gibraltar on British Airways (and BA sells the flight as Madrid-Gibraltar), you must first fly to the UK (Heathrow, for example) and connect to your Gibraltar flight.
Jim
Jim, just a note that the link on this page (and the one in this week’s newsletter) that are supposed to take you to the written story about your climb up the Mount take you right back to this (video) page, not to the story you wrote about the climb. I found that story by searching, but the links that purportedly take you to the story do not. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the story once I found it, and hope to visit Gibraltar one day soon! Thanks for the work you do!
Kevin — hank you for alerting me about this, although it’s too lay=te for me to make a correction in the newsletter. I’ll look into it and try to get everything right! I really enjoyed Gibraltar and think you would also. It’s a unique place that’s worth a stop for 2 days or so.
Jim, we are 2 elderly Australian women who have travelled far and wide around this world. We are intending to fly to Toronto later this year to see the Canadian countryside from there to its east coast. We would particularly like to view some forests in Autumn colours – can you suggest the best time for us to do this?
Hi Barbara, September and October are the best times to see spectacular autumn colors in Eastern Canada (and also the Northeastern U.S.) It’s a spectacular show!
Jim