Day 0: Vancouver – Munich – Madrid – Algeciras

I’m not sure how such trips were planned pre-internet – although I did enough of them, so I guess I’ve forgotten – but here we are in Algericas ready to commence the Camino del Estrecho. Long flights, an overnight in Madrid, then an early morning train from Madrid to Algericas (pronounced something along the lines of Al-her-theras. A minor detail except when you are trying to decipher the train announcements.) The first train segment was on a fast train – ,TGV fast – then the local train which hugged the side of a crazy canyon at one stage. I think the canyon is a section of the route of the Camino via Serrana from Gibraltar to Seville. It looks like hard yards from the train!

Algericas is across the bay from Gibraltar, that surviving bastion of the British empire. Between us and ‘the rock’ is a major container terminal, so it’s less than photogenic, and the weather pattern is such that Gibraltar was shrouded in cloud, not unlike a Pacific island. The Camino officially starts in front of the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Palma in Plaza Alta (see pic above). There is even a Camino sign with the traditional yellow shell symbol, but I think these signs or even yellow arrows will be few and far between. The square also has a nice fountain, but some of its finer features are obscured by the pigeons! The local kids had great fun trying to run down pigeons on the scooters, but we didn’t witness any fatalities, despite them pre-laying food in the target zone.