Jimmie76

I've still got my GIB pound coin as a souvenir of my trip.

Analise

David-A,

I am studying the aerial view photo and map you provided. From the photo, it looks like there are 2 peaks — one by the runway and one closer to the tip of the peninsula. Which one does the cable car scale? From your map, it looks like the cable car goes to the middle and that one can walk to the other peak by the sea via either the route past the suspension bridge or the route past the Glass Sky Walk (has it opened yet?. Is the walk back to the cable car very much uphill?

My concern is clearly walking uphill. If I wanted to see the Great Siege Tunnels or WWII tunnels (you prefer the latter to the former?), would the walk back to the cable car also be very much uphill?

I'm guessing that by 5 October, the winter cable car schedule won't have started and the middle cable car stop won't be open yet. Is that the case? If I could walk down to the middle cable car stop, it would probably solve my uphill concerns.

David-A

Hi sorry for the delay replying - I'm just going into a meeting now, will reply in a few hours.

Analise

I appreciate your time whenever you have it.

I've been studying your map quite a bit. I can't print it but I have it on my iPad so when I'm on wifi at my hotel, I'll open the screen and leave it there. I also printed this entire thread which is nearly 30 pages!

It seems like if I want to see the siege or WWII tunnels, I will have to walk down to them and then have to walk back up. If I had to walk up to them initially from the cable car, that wouldn't bother me because I would have gotten the uphill walk done early. If I have to do it AFTER in order to return to the cable car, I will forgo it. I'm traveling alone and I'd rather not walk down the Rock alone in its entirety which is why I'm planning to buy a roundtrip cable car ticket. I don't want to go on a tour bus/tour cab because I want to go to the top of the Rock which the tour vehicles don't go.

David-A

A 2D map really doesn't do the upper rock justice.

Made this - which should origientate you a bit:
http://sendvid.com/bopevbcw

- Sorry it is a bit of a ramble, as I hadn't really planned it much (also I've got a cough currently which appears periodically)

Analise

Wow. I really appreciate the 3-dimensional topographical map you created plus your commentary and advice. I will review this several times more and in particular the evening before I go about my one day in Gibraltar. From your description, it sounds like the paths are essentially roads so pedestrians will be sharing the way with vehicles. I'm now considering just buying a one-way ticket up the Rock and then walking toward the Siege tunnels assuming the up and down paths aren't too steep walking up.

If I can then walk down toward the Old City catch a bus to Europa Point from the Siege Tunnels, that would would be ideal. I won't return to the Rock Hotel until after dinner. So my idea is to go up the Cable Car in the morning, make my way to the Siege Tunnels, walk down to the bus to Europa Point, tour Europa Point including the mosque and the Europa Batteries, take the bus back into town, walk around the Old Town and the newer reclaimed area, have dinner and then take a bus to the Rock Hotel. It will be an early evening.

Analise

David-A, I just wanted to thank you for all of the time and information you provided on this thread. I had a wonderful trip and spent a significant time walking around the Rock and Europa Point.

I did not bring ANY food whatsoever to the Rock and still I had macaques jump o my shoulder to get at my green tote bag. That scared me a lot! I never saw them coming. One of them opened up a side zippered pocked and pulled out a ziplock bag with my chargers and cords. People nearby helped me and distracted them enough to release it. There were macaque babies everywhere and I didn't want them choking on the plastic. The other time a macaque jumped on my shoulder, he got nothing. Still, without seeing them coming, it was frightening to me.

The levant cloud was thick but it rose enough for me to see the view of the rock facing the north. I didn't walk around the area too much because I was afraid of the macaques landing on my back without people nearby. I didn't expect that but I am still VERY happy that I took the cable to cable car up there and back.

When I flew in, I picked a window seat on the right side of the plane and we flew in from the east and went around the peninsula. It was incredible seeing the levant cloud from the plane. I chose a window seat on the other side of the plane returning to LHR and got a superb view without the levant.

The Rock Hotel was lovely and arranged for a Blands coach to pick me up at GIB and took me to the hotel for £7. We stopped at the Sunborn first. I didn't take it back to GIB as I wanted to get to GIB directly. Taking a cab was just £10 including a £2 tip. The driver was great. The hotel gave me a suite which was quite an upgrade from what I had reserved back in April. Just lovely!

I enjoyed taking the bus to Europa Point and then back into town. I saw 3 packed Blands tours vans arrive at Europa Point just as I was leaving. I'm glad I didn't choose that route. I prefer being on my own. I went to the Cafeteria at Europa Point and bought a liter of water for £0.50. That was a bargain.

The maps and info you provided were extremely helpful and, again, thank you very much.

:D!

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that HSBC would be my first choice if trying to change Gibraltar banknotes into Bank of England notes. This is no longer the case.


Indeed, I have previously deposited Gibraltar banknotes into my HSBC UK account at a counter or using a machine once every few years or so over the past decade(s), without any trouble.

Most recently in July 2017 I deposited a bundle of Sterling notes via machine. Unfortunately I didn't really pay attention to whether any Gibraltar notes were present. There was at least one but it was quite dirty so I thought that was why the machine rejected it. Therefore I can't be sure whether it accepted any Gib notes at that time. (I brought the dirty note to Gibraltar and spent it, so don't know whether the human cashier would have accepted it either.)


In November 2017 I attempted to deposit £60 of Gibraltar notes and the HSBC machine rejected them. I then went to the cashier where to my surprise they were rejected. I then repeated the above points made by David-A regarding the fact that it is the same currency and that "GIP" doesn't exist.

This was to no avail and the cashier then tried to prove me wrong by showing me that his computer was offering a rate for exchanging GIP to GBP. The rate offered was 89p for £1!

I went to another branch and had the same discussion. This time the cashier tried to prove me wrong by showing me the banknote bags which are used to send off their excess cash. The bags listed Scottish, NI, Jersey, Guernsey and IOM notes as acceptable contents, but not Gibraltar. So I was unable to convince her to accept them at their true value, and she would only take them as a "foreign currency" with the aforementioned 11% margin.


I then went to Barclays where they were also rejected. I think I wrote about this on FT before, but my friend has made a habit of doing the following so I decided to try too: I made a complaint and have just been credited £72.50 for "the inconvenience" and "goodwill" (I don't know how they worked this out). They still didn't accept the Gib notes, so I will spend them on my next trip there.