NARRATIVE

Strait of Gibraltar

Soon after leaving Tanger we are heading northeast and crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, lying between southernmost Spain and northwesternmost Africa. It is 36 miles (58 km) long and narrows to 8 miles (13 km) in width between Point Marroquí (Spain) and Point Cires (Morocco).

The Pillars of Hercules (which have been identified as the Rock of Gibraltar) marked the western end of the classical world. Of great strategic and economic importance, the strait was used by many early Atlantic voyagers and has continued to be vital to southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia as a shipping route. Much of the area's history involved rivalry over control of the Rock of Gibraltar.

Gibraltar

British colony occupying a narrow peninsula of Spain's southern Mediterranean coast, just northeast of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is 3 miles (5 km) long and 3/4 mile wide and is connected to Spain by a low, sandy isthmus that is one mile long. Its name is derived from the Arabic Jabal Tariq (Mount Tarik), honouring Tariq ibn Ziyad, who captured the peninsula in AD 711. The colony's total area is 2.25 square miles (5.8 square km). Gibraltar is a heavily fortified British air and naval base that guards the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the only entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. The peninsula consists of a limestone and shale ridge known as the Rock. It rises abruptly from the isthmus to 1,380 feet (421 m) at Rock Gun, which is its northernmost summit. Its greatest height, 1,396 feet (426 m), is attained near its southern end.
   

Barbary ape (Macaca Sylvana)

There are more than 500 species of small flowering plants on Gibraltar, and the Gibraltar candytuft is a flower native only to the Rock. Wild olive and pine trees grow on the Upper Rock. Mammals include rabbit, fox, and Barbary ape. The only wild monkeys in Europe, the Barbary apes have roamed the Rock for hundreds of years and were long a symbol of the British presence in Gibraltar. Although free to wander at will, they are generally to be seen on the Upper Rock. Migratory birds are common, and Gibraltar is the home of the only specimens of Barbary partridge in Europe.

Seville

The Cathedral's Gothic Buttresses  and the Giralda

One of the mosque's few surviving portions, its minaret, called the Giralda, was incorporated into the cathedral as its bell tower. The minaret has surfaces almost entirely covered with beautiful yellow brick and stone paneling of Moorish design.  One can climb the 36 ramps (built wide enough for the King's horse to carry him up) to gain a wonderful vista of Sevilla. The main portion of the Cathedral of Santa Maria is built in the Late Gothic style of France, but its various parts display building styles ranging from the Moorish through the Gothic to the Plateresque and the Baroque—it is claimed to be the third largest cathedral in Europe. The interior contains paintings by Murillo and Zurbarán, among others, as well as a "burial place" for Columbus.

The finest survival from the Moorish period is the Alcázar Palace, which lies near the cathedral. The Alcázar was begun in 1181 under the Almohads but was continued under the Christians, so that, like the cathedral, it exhibits both Moorish and Gothic stylistic features. A decagonal brick tower, the Torre del Oro, once part of the Alcázar's outer fortifications, remains a striking feature of the riverbank. Other examples of Moorish building are the tower of the Church of San Marcos (once the minaret of a mosque) and two sides of the cathedral's Patio de Naranjos. Seville has many other churches built in the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo styles.

Alcázar Palace

Sevilla is the cultural center of Andalusia.  It is famous for its passionate flamenco subculture—located in the working class bars across the river.  And the Maestranza is the classic venue for Spanish bullfights in all their artistry.  As Hemingway said, many cities have ambience but Sevilla is ambience.

Lisbon

Vasco da Gama Bridge

Opened in 1966 as the Ponte Salazar, this bridge was renamed after the 1974 Portuguese Revolution to commemorate the day of the Revolution itself, 25th April and to remove any reference to the former dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. This suspension bridge is very similar in appearance to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and, indeed, it was constructed under North American management, beginning in 1962. It is 2.278km long and leaves Lisbon at high level above Alcântara and makes landfall at Almada on the southern bank of the river. Its centre span, at 1,013m. was the longest central span of any European suspension bridge when built. However, both the more recent Humber Bridge (UK) and Bosphorus Bridge are now longer. The bridge crosses the Tagus at a height of 70m. and its foundations, at 79m. deep into basalt rock, were also a world record at the time of their sinking. By 1996 the bridge was absorbing, with increasing difficulty, 137,000 vehicles a day, carrying 50,134,000 passengers per annum. It is a toll bridge and, at peak times, queues can be enormous. The bridge is not directly accessible at Alcântara, as it crosses the area on tall concrete pillars. Road vehicles must head to the north west of the city to gain access to the high-level road across the bridge. The bridge itself provides good views over Lisbon and of the Cristo Rei (Christ the King) monument at Almada, which commemorates Portugal's survival of World War II without direct involvement.

Tower of Belem

A few miles along the river from downtown Lisbon you find Belem. This area with the nearby Monument to the Discoveries, Jeronimos Monastry and several museums is true Tourist Town.

Tomb of Vasco da Gama

The Mosteiro dos Jeronimos contains the tomb of Vasco da Gama. It was from Lisbon that an expedition - commanded by the fiery aristocrat Vasco da Gama - set sail July 8, 1497. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope in November 1497, da Gama sailed up the east coast until he reached a series of Arab trading centers north of the Zambezi River. At Malindi he was able to secure a local pilot to guide him eastward to India, landing at Calicut on May 18, 1498. Vasco da Gama had become the first European to reach India by sea.

King Manuel I built a new cathedral as a thanksgiving for da Gama's success, and struck new coins commemorating the voyage. Although the African continent itself was still relatively unknown, the first steps had been taken toward a greater European "understanding" of Africa.

There is also one very special elevator in Lisbon, the Santa Justa Lift. Created by French engineer Gustave Eiffel in 1901, it is a free-standing, 100-foot-high passenger lift wedged between buildings near the heart of Lisbon’s downtown shopping district, called the Baixa. The gray steel structure, whose cabin was originally raised and lowered by steam power, is now quaintly incongruous. But step inside, please. The cabin is polished wood and brass, with windows all around. As the car starts smoothly upward, the surrounding buildings give way to light, and Lisbon unfolds below you. The price of this panorama is 22.50 escudos - less than 14 cents. At the top, step out onto the viewing platform. To the east, the sun-washed houses of Lisbon’s oldest quarter, the Alfama, climb steeply from the Tagus River to the Moorish castle that dominates the skyline. To the north, the city’s main boulevard, the tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade, spills into the square called the Rossio before giving way to narrow streets that lead to the Baixa. Just to the west are the streets that make up the Chiado, Lisbon’s fashionable shopping district, where a fire gutted four blocks of the city’s most picturesque buildings in August 1988.

[Again, you might want to consider Toni Agramont's Portugal2000 (portugal.zip 6M) for his rendition of Portugal and his Spain2001 (span2k.zip 10M) as well as his more recent updates.  

If you use both the R.Taburet Mesh Scenery and the T.Agramont Spain2001—which we do recommend—you will get two versions of the Rock of Gibraltar, one on top of the other looking like an ungainly stack of flapjacks.  To fix this, insert the following "flatten" statement in your Scenery.cfg file where you point toward the Mesh Terrain Scenery that you've added.

Flatten.0=0,N36 9.41,W5 19.99,N36 6.06,W5 20.05,N36 6.06,W5 21.32,N36 9.19,W5 21.57

This will "flatten" the mesh terrain and leave Toni Agramont's beautiful rendition of "the rock."  Take care, though, as it will "pop up" or "disappear" at 10 nm distance.]

Flight Plan & Narrative:
Jozef Kusters
(RTW Pilot #038)