A day trip to Tarifa and Gibraltar (and one of the coolest airports)

A day trip to Tarifa and Gibraltar (and one of the coolest airports)

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As I mentioned earlier I’m in Southern Spain this week, staying at the moment in Estepona. Yesterday we took a day trip to Gibraltar and Tarifa, the Southern-most point in Europe, only eight miles from Africa. I’ll have a more detailed report later, but just figured I’d share some highlights.

Tarifa was beautiful though cold as heck thanks to the wind. I now understand why it’s the surfing capital of Spain. It was pretty cool to see Africa so close, and ferries constantly going between the two continents.

But the highlight of the day was our trip to Gibraltar, which is a British territory not far from Tarifa and Malaga. It’s not too tough to find thanks to massive Rock of Gibraltar.

But then I remembered the reason I wanted to visit Gibraltar the most. It has one of the coolest airports in the world. The territory is only 2.6 square miles, though despite that has its own airport. They have to get creative given how limited space is, so the main street of the territory actually crosses the runway.

The funny thing is that I didn’t actually connect the dots between Gibraltar and that cool looking airport I had seen so many pictures of until we crossed the runway. As we were crossing it I was rather confused and said “hah, that’s funny, that street almost looks like a runway,” though it didn’t occur to me until I turned my head and saw a 737 that we actually were crossing a runway.

We then took a bus tour up to the Rock of Gibraltar (the cable car was already closed for the day). Now, it’s not often that I post pictures of myself on the blog, though in this instance I couldn’t help but have my picture taken given how beautiful the sunset was.

That being said, when I got back on the bus, the unthinkable happened. The two other people on the tour took the seats with more legroom, leaving me all the way in the back with virtually no legroom. I was sure to express my displeasure with the purser, though it didn’t get me very far, sadly. My friend did snap a picture of my reaction, though:

More to come about Gibraltar in a few weeks with the report!

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  1. LufthansaFlyer New Member

    I remember Gibraltar's airport featured on a documentary as one of the world's most dangerous. Great to see real life photos!!!

  2. Larry Guest

    We're thinking about trip to Southern Spain with a day trip to Gibralter. Look forward to your report.

    Did you drive into Gib and park, or did you park in La Linea and then take a cab?

  3. phraktur Guest

    A great sense of humor as always!! Thank you for a good belly laugh today.

  4. Julianne Guest

    Lucky seems to be getting more attractive as he ages. LOL.

  5. Aaron New Member

    I hade a great time in Gibraltar as well. A strange little place. Great views from up there, and those apes are fun to watch!

  6. Rebecca New Member

    I was there this summer and was lucky enough to experience a ground level view of an Easy Jet taking off! We were about halfway across the runway when the bells and whistles started going off and we had to hi-tail it to the other side! Did you go into St. Michael's Cave? That was unbelievable!

  7. steve64 Guest

    Lookin' good as always :)

    Good that you were able to mark this runway crossing off of your bucket list. They are building a bypass (tunnel ??) roadway. I beleive the existing crossing will remain, but not normally used.

  8. Teabagpartier Guest

    Is that your "Diet-coke-with-no-lime" face?

  9. Mike Guest

    Tarifa is a wonderful little town, we once spent a week there with our teenagers . There are Roman ruins just 15 minutes east of town, as well as amazing sand dunes. From there we jumped of to Gib and Morocco. All of us would return in a heartbeat.

  10. Kiwiroo Guest

    I love Gibraltar! Perfect for the quick hop down from London whenever the weather in Britain is getting me down (apart from the not-so-great schedules of BA).

  11. Ian New Member

    I drove across that runway myself a couple years ago...definitely a cool experience.

  12. deedee Guest

    great wait to start a snowy morning in CT! thanks!

  13. Duncan Alexander Guest

    sounds like you had a Guiness or two or was it a pitcher of Sangria.

  14. Ted Guest

    you should definitely post pictures of you more often!

  15. Joshua Pickles Guest

    The runway at the Port Blair airport in the Andaman Islands is the only other runway with a major road crossing.

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The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

LufthansaFlyer New Member

I remember Gibraltar's airport featured on a documentary as one of the world's most dangerous. Great to see real life photos!!!

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Larry Guest

We're thinking about trip to Southern Spain with a day trip to Gibralter. Look forward to your report. Did you drive into Gib and park, or did you park in La Linea and then take a cab?

0
phraktur Guest

A great sense of humor as always!! Thank you for a good belly laugh today.

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