Legend has it that if apes ever leave Gibraltar, so too will the British…

Ignacio Lopez de Ayala wrote about them in 1782 “ Neither the incursions of Moor, the Spaniards nor the English, nor cannon nor bomb of either have been able to dislodge them» .The territory remains safely under British rule since 1704 and in addition  couples looking to wed- right- now ’ flocks to this tiny territory at the tip of Spain.

Do you wish to tie the knot with the minimal bureaucracy involved?  Same sex, mixed religion, whatever your situation here is the place for you to exchange vows..

Gibraltar –same as Denmark- became a wedding hot spot, where you can get married with 24 hours notice, there are no residency restrictions and the marriage certificate provided is recognized worldwide… Do you need more? From the lovely Registry Office to a luxurious yacht, there are plenty of venues internal or external to choose where the ceremony of your dreams could take place…

With no high expectations of the place and being myself a firm advocate of the sooner & simpler the better, the ‘Gibraltar way’ provided a possibility even to a non keen fan of wedding ceremonies, dresses etc etc.

John and Yoko got married there in 1969 . “We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British and friendly. We tried everywhere else first. I set out to get married on the car ferry and we would have arrived in France married, but they wouldn’t do it. We were no more successful with cruise ships. We tried embassies, but three weeks residence in Germany or two weeks in France were required.”

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-reason-why-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-got-married-in-gibraltar/

So, here we are in the mighty Rock, open eyed to the view of the 1,397-foot limestone Rock of Gibraltar looking both more like ‘spectators’ rather than the ‘key players’ in that scenery . Actually, the fact that the future bridegroom has been robbed some days earlier in Spain, with an emergency passport in the luggage and the birth certificate still on the way from NYC to the registry office… our scheduled wedding wasn’t meant to be an easy undertaking..

Anyway, since that was just  a part of the project ‘holidays in South Spain’ (a touch of Morocco included) …let’s go with the flow, folks !!

This tiny little place stands amphitheatrical with an excellent view of the bay but as soon as you try to get to the seafront the access to it tends towards complexity…

Contemporary  urban landscapes are mixed with Andalusian style townhouses, iconic red telephone boxes and british style street signs.

On the busy and lively Main Street Gibraltar’s central shopping district full of duty free goods, kids are walking in school uniforms, seniors leisurely enjoy their breakfast at the cafes chatting away happily in a language that I hardly perceive as a ‘kind of Spanish’’ . Later on I read about Gibraltar’s language: ‘Llanito,’ that  is a curious blend of Andalusian Spanish and English, with some Portuguese and Maltese words, as well as terms from Genoese medieval dialect and even some from Hebrew provenance«.

How did the British manage to snuggle in this part of Iberia?

It was during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704, when the Anglo-Dutch armies conquered Gibraltar from Spain on behalf of the Habsburg claim to the crown of Spain. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gave the area to Great Britain in perpetuity.

Since then the status of Gibraltar remained for centuries a source of friction between the Spanish and British governments.

Although Gibraltar is considered a British overseas territory, features its own national anthem, a National Day and a parliament. In a nonbinding referendum in 2002, 99 percent of Gibraltar’s voters rejected joint British-Spanish sovereignty. Gibraltar subsequently was allowed by both governments to represent itself in negotiations on its future.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Gibraltar/Government

I ponder on the legend connecting the monkeys fate to the British. Well, the story goes like this, during the Great Siege -1779 to 1788-  a combined effort between Spain and France was undertaken to siege control of the Rock – during a surprise attack one evening, the monkeys were disturbed , the result being that the British were alerted and the attack was abolished. It is from that legend that the saying was given rise, that so long as the monkeys lice on the Rock, so too will the British have control.

Today they are the top tourist attraction, with droves of people flocking up the rock to get an up close look. Famous as they might be they  hold the well kept secrets of the land. The only monkey found in Europe –perhaps from Morocco- is still debatable when and how they arrived but they were already here when the British stepped on  Gibraltar.

Between two continents – Africa and Europe- and seas – the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, has always been a natural port of considerable importance for global trade and  also a vital repair and assembly point for Allied convoys during the World Wars.

 The flow of people amongst Gibraltar and its Spanish neighbourhoods has always been fluid. Here is the place where tourists, British retiree, adventurers, couples in love, people of different ethnic groups who cross daily the borders to work, mingle with locals creating a sense of ephemeral and passing like travelling on a boat till the next port. This place looks more like a sailing boat than a land…

A Moorish Castle, Prince Philip’s Arch and Queen’s Gate, St Michael’s Cave, tunnels twice the length of its entire road network, barbary macaques … a well refined ‘copy- paste’ scenery, almost all available as a background to you wedding picts.

For our last moment re- arranged wed the Registry Office with the portrait of her majesty the Queen (a couple of days before she passed away) was enough, the ceremony brief and simple, cosy and funny thanks to the officer and our two lovely witnesses… Minutes later we were changing the outfit in the hotel’s luggage storage heading to our next generation … And the trip goes on…