After all, in the eyes of most people, Gibraltar has everything going for it.

A tourist paradise! Glorious weather. A place steeped in centuries of history. A shopper’s heaven. Classic architecture perfect for those ‘selfies’ to show the folks back home and make them green with envy.

Then we got feedback!

There were few, if any, of the Phileas Foggs in our crowd who had a good word to say about Gibraltar.

They saw it as uninviting, bleak, dirty and unattractive. Somewhere you want to pass through quickly.

But what about the Barbary apes that live on ‘The Rock’?

They will come down and sit on your shoulders. Perfect for more selfies.

Again they are dirty and unattractive.

Indeed, our friends were right on almost all counts.

The only truly interesting feature is the airport.

Winston Churchill Avenue, the main road from the centre of Gibraltar to the border with Spain intersects the airport runway.

So every time a plane lands or departs the road has to be closed.

No wonder it is regarded as the most dangerous airport in Europe.

On the cruise ships that anchor at Gilbraltar, the tourists are disturbed every quarter of an hour or so by passenger jets flying low from the airport over their vessels.

And that’s they way most tourists visit the British enclave, ferried in by their thousands from the sea.

Of course, you must have a look at the 300 or so Barbary apes from five different families – although to be correct, they are actually monkeys.

They live in the nature reserve at the top of ‘The Rock’.

When we walked from the shipping terminal into town – just to stretch our legs and buy some souvenirs for friends in Australia, we found a real gem.

It was the Gibraltar Crystal shop and glass-blowing factory in Casemates Square, the city’s main plaza.

The Rock had never been known as a glass-blowing location until an entrepreneurial family set up the factory two and a half decades ago.

The gifts are all hand-made. From the trinkets, wine glasses, beer steins and ornate plates... that way they can fulfill specific orders.

Indeed Gibraltar Crystal severed their contact with the big stores in London and Paris because they did not want their creativity compromised.

By the way, check out the tiny glass piglets each with a mint five pence coin jingling around inside. Superb!

Legend has it that Britain will lose Gibraltar back to the Spanish once the Barbary apes die out.

Indeed, during World War II when their numbers dropped to just seven, Winston Churchill instigated a special breeding program.

Now, with much Spanish sabre-rattling after Brexit, the locals are again making sure the apes are well looked-after.