La Línea de La Concepción

Mileage: 162756

Although the name of the city seemed a bit awkward, it was the destination of our day.

Our journey began with a proper uphill stretch; in the span of eight kilometers, Gary would ascend nearly 300 meters in elevation. We had already learned in the northern part of the country that he was not particularly fond of such climbs, but unfortunately, there was no alternative route with fewer mountains. So we sluggishly made our way up the hills at a nice leisurely pace. When we reached the viewpoint Mirador del Estrecho, the engine temperature was in the dark yellow zone, and the oil pressure light began to flicker, but we were not overheating. We took a break because the view up here was simply stunning, snapping plenty of photos of the Strait of Gibraltar. Since our breakfast that morning had been quite small, we ordered a Bocadillo—which is a filled baguette—and a coffee at the local cafeteria, sat down on the terrace, and gave Gary a few more minutes to cool down.

Then we continued, mostly downhill, towards La Línea de La Concepción. The city practically stretched along the 1.2 border kilometers of Gibraltar, having been established as a border town only in the 18th century.

Throughout our drive, we had a constant view of the impressive, cloud-covered Rock of Gibraltar with the Levante cloud. This typical cloud formation arose from moist air masses from the Mediterranean, which were pushed up by the Levante (East) wind and forced into higher layers of air by the mountain. The lower temperature at that elevation fell below the dew point of the air mass, leading to the condensation of moisture into cloud droplets. (100% Physics)

We had selected a very small and cozy campsite for today. When we arrived, everything was indeed very well maintained, though the surrounding area appeared rather run-down in comparison.

We took a siesta before packing our things in the afternoon to go swimming at the sea. This would be at the Mediterranean, of course.

In the evening, we made plans to test whether it was true that you didn't need a passport to enter the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and could simply enter with an ID card.

For dinner, we intended to go out; we found two restaurants with the help of a large search engine that were not directly in the city center and sounded like they offered local cuisine. Our route took us through dark alleys and later along the country road. When the first one was closed and the second one didn’t exist at all anymore, we took a taxi back to the campsite and prepared a cold dinner of canned fish, olives, cheese, salami, and Iberian ham. Very, very delicious!