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Coming out of the tunnel the very first thing I saw was the lighthouse which for me (as well as being yet another fabulous place to visit) holds an almost iconic status. As with all mariners, seafarers and sailors lighthouses are key to keeping safe particularly when traversing dark and stormy seas and I know only too well from experience how terrifying some voyages can be. While on patrol during the Icelandic Cod War (1973) the weather was so bad I was absolutely convinced I was a gonner so much so I was praying it would be quick.
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Recently on Remembrance Sunday I was standing with other ex-forces colleagues at Cardigan Cenotaph when a local man sang the Naval Prayer and even all these years after leaving the RN it still brought the hairs up on the back of my neck.
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Looking around Europa Point reinforced my belief that Gibraltar was made up of dozens and dozens of mini communities and after walking out of the tunnel I had the feeling that I’d just arrived at yet another. My memories of Europa are very sketchy (as I don’t think we visited often); as well as thinking it was quite bleak I also had a vague recollection that the road continued right around the Rock (past Catalan Bay). How wrong was I? The road didn’t continue on around the Rock and bleak it was not a word I would use to describe it.
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Although the lighthouse was very much the focal point and star prize for me (for reasons already explained) the whole area had been much developed since my last visit forty years ago. Clearly some things were still there from years gone by (for example the gun) but there were also some other really nice recent developments including a cafe, children’s playground and – Gibraltar University (and wow I didn’t expect that). It’s testimony to the fact I didn’t go there that often (when I lived in Gibraltar) that I had no idea there was such a fabulous mosque there – unless that too had been built since 1978?
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I don’t know how long I spent at Europa Point but what I do know is I probably walked every square yard including right down to the University door and several lengths of the lighthouse promenade. I was lost in a moment that I didn’t want to end but knew it had to because I still needed to visit the Alameda Gardens one last time too; to miss that was unthinkable. And just at the point I was ready to go a bus turned up and I thought ‘Why not?’.
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