At sea again :-)

Day #9

Cruise Day #5 - At Sea

Sleep in day for us...... it was nice. We had coffee delivered to the stateroom and enjoyed it on our balcony. We lazed away the morning (got the blog updated) then went up to the specialty restaurant Giovanni's for our Indian Curry Cooking show. It was excellent as the chef explained the ingredients and how to prepare all the lunch courses served today. We had a healthy sample of each before being served several different deserts.

Next up was the Blackjack tournament at 3:00 pm.  I bought in for $20 and managed to get the last seat at the final table! Whoot! Anyway the tournament raged on and I was lucky enough to come in second place and won 65 real bucks! I'll try my luck again on the next sea day when it is scheduled. Always fun and entertaining.

We attempted to sit up on deck but a rain shower drifted over and ended that thought. We stopped for a beverage and a little shopping then took in the 50's & 60's music trivia contest... we failed again but had fun failing! We did get Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis!

Off to see our dinner friends where our head waitress Andre served us a special Prime Rib dinner that she had promised the night before.  She must have special pull with the chef because everyone else had something different for tonight's dinner.

After dinner we headed down to the Lyric Theater for the main show. It was Ben Mills from the British X-Factor show. He was excellent but I think the older crowd may have been left behind a little!

Couple of interesting things on this cruise originating in Southampton... the ship is not full but close to it with 3200 passengers. 2500 British, 344 Americans, 89 Canadians and a smattering of other nationalities. The average age is 66.  So we are still pretty young!! LOL

With the British contingent not big on tipping, the cruise line modifies the bills so that the tip is included already in the cost of the drink. There is a space to add extra if the service is outstanding. Our previous cruises all showed the drink cost, the additional 15% gratuity and a space for additional tip if you so choose. It is the same in the end only the optics are different.

Some showers today although warm and humid at 27C. This is the Parc Natural del Montgo' and the Montgo' Massif from our balcony. It is along the Spanish coastline as we cruise towards Barcelona.

More details on the Montgo' Massif here.

Lots of British folks so the pub is always packed :-) and the telly in the sports bar has football 24/7 it seems :-)


Tomorrow it's Barcelona and the Las Ramblas where it's highly recommended to eat Iberico Ham, cheese, bread and some red wine of course!!  That is the plan via the HOHO Bus... hop on, hop off.

Gibraltar

Day #8

Cruise Day #4 - Gibraltar

We awoke to a spectacle of ships dotting the horizon. The view from our balcony was amazing as we saw Sagres, Portugal and other communities along the shoreline. Many wind farms were also plainly visible through the binoculars :-) We were just north of Casablanca, Morocco and south of the border of Portugal and Spain as we neared the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar . The shipping traffic was crazy but in an organized way.

We had our usual laps around the deck and coffee before heading up to watch the ship navigate through the channel that separates Spain and Morocco.

Off our starboard side is the coastline of Morocco as we pass through the Strait of Gibraltar

We rounded the corner and headed towards the Rock. It was plainly visible as we approached the harbor and the deck railings of the ship were crowded with cruisers trying to get that perfect picture.... here is mine... :-)

The Rock

As a bonus and perhaps a greeting to the ship, we were treated to a great display of dolphins playing in our wake. They were obviously enjoying the "push" of the waves.  

A quick breakfast and we headed to our excursion rendezvous point in the Lyric Lounge. On previous trips we all met outside on the dock but this made for possible delays as people failed to show up for their particular excursion (slept in, got lost, or just decided to not go at the last minute). To streamline this we assembled in the lounge and once off the ship in our group, we quickly left the dock area in our transport.

Out tour took us through the city to the base of the tram and most conveniently, to our first geocache of the day!  Bonus! The tram takes you up to the top of the Rock to the old gun emplacements that used to protect the colony. The view was spectacular and we took many pictures. One of the highlights/dangers of this place are the Barbary Macaques that live in the upper reaches. There is along story of their existence but I don't have the time to go into detail :-) You can read about them here   

The main danger is that they will go into your bags, backpacks & especially plastic bags looking for food. They will take whatever they want and leave so we were warned ahead of time not to entice them. We played the game and had no issues but also witnessed people being robbed of a bag of crisps... clearly oblivious to the warnings. These people were almost as fun to watch as the monkeys themselves.... I somehow saw the evolutionary connection :-)

Mother and baby watching the humans.

View from the top. Spain in the background.

The North peak with the Spanish town of La Linea De La Concepcion behind it.

Our return down the mountain took us about half way as we rejoined our transport for a trip to the historic Siege Tunnels. The Rock was tunneled out extensively during WWII and was able to support 17,000 men. The history of this fortress during this period is covered here

A panoramic view from mid mountain.

It is truly mind boggling to think that a city the size of the town actually exists within the rock... but it does. Next up we traveled over to the Siege Tunnels to explore the earlier tunnels that allowed the rock itself to be come a fortress. We entered the tunnel an walked down through the maze looking at gun emplacements and powder rooms. The highlight was when we cam to the "Notch" that housed the main gun emplacements. Lots of info here

The Notch.. remember this is all carved out!

Imagine the sound!

 The entrance to the tunnels also gave us a good vantage point overlooking over the airfield. You can see that the highway actually goes over the runway! On arrival of flights, this is closed and planes have the right of way. The town of La Linea De La Concepcion lies just past the terminal building. There is lots of history regarding this border and it's complete closure (between 1969 and 1985) in the past has caused long lasting resentment amongst older locals. Read the history and see more pictures here

Airport and highway to Spain. You can also see gun emplacements on the hillside.

Off we went with a quick stop at the local Museum to view some of the city's historic collections then traveled down to the most southern tip of Gibraltar and saw the Mosque of Two Holy Custodians, the Trinity Lighthouse and the restored Harding's Battery (details here)

Harding's Battery at Europa Point

Trinity Lighthouse.

We headed back towards the ship around the east side of Gibraltor and got dropped off at the town center. A quick pint and then a short 10 minute walk back to the ship.

Dinner and a great show followed then it was the 70's Dance Party on the Promenade.  As much as this is a repeat from other Royal Caribbean Cruises, the place was jam packed and everyone enjoyed the entertainment.

Off to bed with a big sleep in planned... another Sea Day tomorrow with Indian cooking on tap... :-)

FYI For complete wiki info on Gibraltar go here