Modern Algeciras is the main city on the Bay of Gibraltar and one of the busiest commercial ports in Europe. It’s pretty old, too, having been founded by Berber-Arab invaders all the way back in 711. “Algeciras” is a European corruption of the city’s original name, al-Jazirah al-Khadra (“the green island”). And, if we’re being totally comprehensive, those Muslims only rebuilt a city that had previously been a major Roman port before it was destroyed by Germanic invaders. Today we’ll be discussing that key port city’s conquest by the forces of the Kingdom of Castile.
This is just a placeholder. If you’d like to read the rest please check out my new home, Foreign Exchanges!
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 
Memories… Once I hopped a freighter from Algeciras back to Tangier, just to get away from the routine, and was treated to the most peculiar little waves dancing in the sunset. Of course it turned out to be a pod of dolphins, the last thing I was expecting. That was about the time that I started thinking seriously about the relationship between the Øresund at the choke point between the Baltic and the North Sea and the Straits at the choke point between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. A body of water can just as easily serve as a highway as a barrier.