World Cruise - Day 38 and 39 - Sea Day and Gibraltar

Day 38 was a typical Sea Day, nothing special – just a welcomed day of relaxation.

The next day, we visited Gibraltar, a rock that is nearly 1400ft above sea level, a British territory, and was used from 1782 through WW II as a strategic military point.

We took a cable car to the top of the rock.

Once we exited the cable car, we immediately saw the infamous Rock Apes (a breed of tail-less monkeys that roam free on the rocky slopes). We were warned to watch our belongings and carry no food because they attack people often. Right off the bat, one attacked a woman in front of me. It jumped on her backpack and tried to grab a plastic bag sticking out of it. I had to walk right by the monkey up a narrow staircase, which made me more than a little nervous after seeing that.

Up the staircase, was a great view of the Rock. It was quite impressive to see the town below, the ships and water, and the Rock.

After passing by more monkeys, we headed to a sky walk, which allows you to stand on a glass floor, looking down at the shore and ocean.

We headed to St. Michael’s Cave where they have concerts and there are stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. It is said that this bottomless cave is linked to Africa by a 15-mile long passage under the Straits.

When we exited the cave, we saw 2 mothers (monkeys, of course) each carrying a baby monkey that were born a week prior. Pretty cool.

We then hopped on a bus that took us to The Great Siege Tunnels, excavated during the Great Siege of 1779-1783. They allowed the mounting of gun emplacement along the north face of the Rock toward enemy positions. The tunnels lead to St. George’s Hall, where they initially placed the first cannon.

On the bus ride down the Rock, there was a Moorish castle (first pic).

At the end of our tour, we had the option of staying in town, which we decided to do, since we had a few hours before all-aboard time. We had some good old-fashioned fish and chips (since Gibraltar is a British territory), and it was delicious, along with an ice-cold beer.

After lunch, we walked down main street to an old church, and stopped at an Irish Pub for another drink. The pub had wi-fi, so we called Sue and Mike, and Kathy and Jim. It was a little early (Sue and Mike were already up), but Kathy and Jim didn’t mind us waking them up. It was nice to experience a little bit of home.

It was a 15-minute walk back to the ship. We walked past the airport runway, which is notorious for being very short.

I also took some pictures during the sail away. I didn’t get a good picture of the US Nuclear submarine that was in port (Leslie probably did), but I did manage to get a picture of our view of Africa (last pic), which is our next stop.

Up next...Marrakech, Morocco.