TransAtlantic Cruise – Gibraltar

August 21, 2007

Obviously this blog hasn’t been as live as I had hoped, I’m having a harder time than I had though finding time to write and wireless internet access is not always available. The wireless internet access throughout the ship is new to DCL and it’s still pretty hit or miss. It is a great service though and nice to be able to use your laptop in your stateroom instead of having to use the internet café.

You may also notice that I’m skipping Monday our first day at sea. I had that report all typed up and lost it when I failed to save it. We spent most of that day by the Quite Cove pool. Quite Cove is the adult only pool and is our usual hangout; I’ll have more on it on a later sea day.

I also went to the spa and had a seaweed mud wrap and massage. I think it was the deepest deep tissue massage I’ve ever had. If you find yourself in need of a massage on the Disney Magic ask for Ben. This was also our night to have dinner with Vickie & Mike at Palo’s. I’ll talk a little bit more about Palo’s later on, Paul & I will be having dinner there again on the 30th.

This night we went early to have a drink at the bar before dinner. Our friends Shelly, Scott, and Dylan are on a RCCL Mediterranean cruise this week and we had set up this time to have a virtual drink with them. So “Cheers” guys we miss you this trip.

One other Palo’s note PJ the head waiter at Palo’s (I think that’s his position) will be moving to one of the new DCL ships. He told us the Palo’s on the new ships will hold 200 people and there will also be a smaller Victoria & Albert’s style restaurant.

So that’s yesterday in a nutshell, let’s get on to today.

We woke up very early this morning to the sound of the ships foghorn. We are pulling into Gibraltar and it’s so foggy you can’t see the rock. Gibraltar is located on a narrow peninsular of Spain’s Southern coast and has been a British colony since 1713. Most people know the rock of Gibraltar as a symbol of strength and solidity, it’s actually fairly hollow with 140 and miles of tunnels in most of it’s two mile area.

We started our tour today with a short bus ride to the cable car that will take us to the top of the rock. At the top there is a station with a small gift shop and snack bar, up here there are great views of Catalan Bay and the rest of the island. From here we start our walk down the mountain to St Michael’s Cave, stopping along the way at different overlooks and occasionally to let a taxi pass us on the very small road. Whenever one came into view we all had to line up single file along the mountain side of the road to give it enough room to pass.

We also passed remains of fortifications, and many iron rings in the rock that cannons had been attached to. St Michael’s cave has miles of cave and tunnel and we only saw a small part of it but the part we saw was spectacular, most amazing is a concert hall inside. I wish I could have gotten a good picture of the concert hall but one little camera flash just won’t illuminate it, I had to buy a post card to get a good photo.

After St Michael’s cave we boarded our bus and started down the mountain, on tiny roads not meant for tour buses. In the states these roads would have been single lane; here they were two way with cars parked along the side.

We stopped at one overlook where a family of Barbary apes lives. Here they believe that if the Barbary apes ever leave Gibraltar it will cease to be British. We had been told to beware of pickpocket apes and not to wear flashy jewelry and to put our sunglasses in our pockets. However we were there pretty early and they weren’t very active, which was great for photography and I took lots of pictures, especially of the babies. My favorite was a little family of three, the mother was lying on her side asleep with the tiny baby cradled in her arms while the father sat next to her with a protective hand resting on her side.

Our next stop was the Great Siege Tunnels. I remember that the tunnels were dug through solid rock by hand but I can’t find any dates in any of my notes or information. The ceilings were very low and Paul who is 6’2′ had to watch his head. There are some cannons remaining and a few ‘scenes’ set up. This was the last stop on our tour and we headed back down the mountain.

Some of our drive took us through residential areas and again through very narrow streets. On the way down we passed the remains of a Moorish castle that is now the local prison. We also passed the governors house which is called the convent because it was once a convent. It was a nice red brick building right on the street with an armed guard out front. The bus dropped those of us wanting to shop off at Main Street with directions on how to get ourselves back to the port.

I had asked our tour guide about the Clipper, the pub that Passporter recommended, she said “That’s in Irish town”. I assumed that meant it was not close to Main St, turns out it’s just one block away, but we figured that out after we had already had fish & chips in another restaurant in the Main St square. We went in and had a drink anyway, and found Vickie & Mike there having lunch.

We walked around the Main St area but I was pretty disappointed in the shopping in Gibraltar I had hoped to find a pint glass for my nephew Terry with a local pub or ale logo on it, it seems the only one’s were the one’s they were serving ale in. Guess I should have asked if I could buy one of those since I never found one for sale. Most of the things for sale I could buy back home. The only local craft was Gibraltar Crystal, which is still hand-blown on site. The artist had two assistants and they do every piece themselves. It was interesting to watch but too expensive to buy.

Back onboard out departure from Gibraltar was a little more exciting than our departure from Barcelona, the Captain turned the ship around in the harbor and everyone had a full view, then as we sailed out we were followed by several private yachts, guess it was a little more exciting for them as this in only the second time the Magic as been to Gibraltar. Two interesting sites as we left were a cargo ship that had been hit by another ship was half sunken right off the point of the lighthouse and you could see Morocco sticking up through the marine layer. Pretty exciting to know we were that close to Africa.

Lynn

Trending Now

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *