May 2nd

Today we travel to Sevilla and the way to go to Gilbraltar.

Gilbraltar is a tax haven for 30000 companies. England took over Gibraltar in 1704. The average income is 62000 euro after tax and this is only 6% unemployment. There is lot of building going on here. It is only 23kms to the African coast. Ten thousand people come from Spain everyday to work in Gilbraltar. There are 267 cruise ships a year stopping here which makes the tourist attrations and the town centre very crowded. The island is 6.50 sq kilometres big. Out from Euopa Point is where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic oceans meet. They get their power from 30000lb diesel per day. There are 55 kilometres of tunnels and only 30 kilometres of roads in Gibraltar. Apart from Gibraltar being a tax haven tourism is big, tobacco smuggling and is head office for many on line gambling companies. It also has a very busy port. The big ships like to refuel, change their staff and replenish supplies here as it more reliable than alternative ports in the region.

We had to change to a smaller bus as we were once again going on a narrow windy road up the side showed off quite a lot. Our bus driver had an interesting background. He was Polish who had worked in Ireland, five years driving London buses and now in Gibraltar but he lives in Spain. There are 300 apes on the Rock and they are fed twice a day. I’ve never seen Ken move so quick as when he thought one of them was going to join him in the bus. It is not sure how they came to the Rock initially.

We then drove on to Seville. It has a population of 100000 and 10000 orange trees that are mainly for decoration and shade in the summer. The oranges are a form of bitter orange that you can’t eat, rather they are sent to England for marmalade and France to make Contreau, cosmetics and perfumes. The river does go right to the ocean.

We went for a walk to an amazing square. It was fortunately the week they were celebrating Real de la Feria which is like our Royal Shows on party steroids. It started out as a big cattle sale and it turned in a weeklong festival of people having a lot of fun. The women dress in traditional dress and the men also dress nicely in suits. They have horse drawn and mule drawn carriages to take you to la Feria. The more horses the flasher, the people and the carriage. The cheap ones use mules or donkeys; they are the ones with the big ears. There was 450000 sq metres of area dedicated to tents (Casetas) that are decorated with lights, have music and food for private patrons and there is the occasional one that the public can go into. There are over 1000 Casetas of which there are only seven public Casetas. I tried to find a Rotary one but gave up. The music they play and dance to is Savillanas, a local genre of music. They dance a form of flamenco without the stomping. Louise danced with one of the men on our trip and then Louise and I danced an amazing Cha Cha Cha. Well it was amazing in my mind although I think the locals weren’t impressed.