The perpetual photography thread

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Some random photos from my trip to the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar in 2009:

Monarch Airlines plane taxiing on Gibraltar Airport's runway. This runway also occupies the main road from the border and into the main part of Gibraltar:



Scooters abound in Gibraltar. This is a photo taken near West Side Road, very near the territory's only major supermarket - an offshoot of the British supermarket chain Morrisons.



A Gibraltar pub in Irish Town:



Morrisons Gibraltar store is busier and more profitable than any of their UK stores for a number of different reasons: lack of competition (and the nature of the frontier being a hassle for Gibraltarians wanting to shop in Spain), the effect of British expats living in Spain wanting to shop there, plus their very high prices. A loaf of value bread in Morrisons costs three-and-a-half times the price of the same loaf in a UK store, for instance, and none of the special offers available in UK stores apply in Gibraltar.

The only Morrisons outside the UK to my knowledge. It's over 1400 miles from the nearest UK store. Almost everything gets trucked into Gibraltar on lorries. There aren't many special offers here and if yu want truly fresh British food you'll be out of luck but it is a tiny, packed, hot place (much like those in the UK as a matter of fact). It is literally a British supermarket plonked in the middle of a British Mediterranean town. It is a surreal experience and probably one I will remember for some time yet.

Morrisons is the only supermarket in Gibraltar as there isn't the space for a second one. It is frenetically busy inside - it's a small store but you cannot move for people going here and there. Pissed-off British tourists down from the Costas, locals, Spaniards - I think I spotted the odd Moroccan in there too. People come from miles around to shop in this store. Everything is British, from the currency you pay in and the signs that demand that you're over 25 to buy booze (though the drinking age in Gibraltar is set at 16) and the food being served up in the rather expensive but heaving café. But this has its pitfalls: when they run out of something, they truly do run out due to the lack of ability to call on reinforcements from the UK. This is most obvious at the café: I had three meal choices rejected before I was sent packing with the lasagne.



They sell British beers there too although they are much more limited than what you'd expect from a comparable store in the UK. Spirits are cheaper, the ciders are at full whack (so £1.20 each for a can of Strongbow!) and of course the cigarettes are a big draw for many. Very little apart from the fruit and veg actually seems to come from Spain - it is British through and through, right down to the salt and pepper pots.



The Rock Hotel on the Europa Road:



The territory's fire station on Red Sands Road:

i want lasagne and garlic bread.

where is my appetite

The garlic bread was very tasteless and, as I say, the customer service was indifferent at best.

OK, some photos from the last time out.

The view of the street from my hotel room window:



The view in the distance from my hotel:



Hotel water fountain:



Clock in the San Anton gardens:



Valletta skyline:



Linguine at the local café near where we were staying:



Photo of Ħamrun:

Those photographs say a lot about you, they're really nice. It'd be great to love everything i see enough to be taking photographs of everything. I don't think i've ever been able to get a feel for someone by how they take photographs before. Do you take photographs professionally?

OK, a few more shots from Malta:

It was a bit of a wet day when we arrived in Attard and a Sunday to boot. Malta is a very Catholic country (though the church doesn't have quite as big a hold on the population as it did in the past) so everything is shut. We managed to find a small shop that had a very cool and welcoming bottle of Blue Label and then we went about our business. We didn't do much at all that day.



Taken in a tiny bar-cum-corner shop run by two delightful old ladies. The oddest bar I've ever been in. Beer was good and well deserved and cheap too at €1.10 per 250ml bottle (so around £2.35 a pint, the cheapest I had it for in Malta).

Farsons Blue Label is the best beer on the islands - a lovely light mild in the old British tradition and it is actually a beer brewed for the Royal Navy when Malta was British - the beer dates from 1926. Yum. I still have two bottles left that I brought back.

Oh, and if you're going to buy this beer, get it in bottle. It's much better than the canned version which is over-carbonated, spoiling the taste.

3.3%.



The cannons at the Grand Harbour in Valletta:



Outdoor swimming pool at our hotel:



The crest of the San Gejtanu Band Club in Ħamrun. The Maltese have a huge sense of pride in their brass band clubs. They perform in the village festa, accompanying the statue of the parish's titular saint with celebratory music. Their music is very similar to their Sicilian and Southern Italian counterparts.



The table at the local (and very nice) café across the road.



View taken from Rabat:

Just one photo I took today - a local park in the centre of my small town:

My photography really is nothing more than snapshots of what I see - so, yes, you're right. I generally don't go in for the 'arty' stuff anyway.