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Published: April 29th 2009
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Gibraltar
Our ship is in center with 2 small liners next to it. This is a day behind so forgive.
Tuesday is my birthday and we are going to see the Rock of Gibraltar. Out our deck we see lots of ships in the bay and we can see Aljazeera, Spain. Gibraltar is on the other side of the ship. After we got dressed we stepped out on the deck and found a huge oil tanker RIGHT alongside us. It was going to refuel us with thousands of gallons of marine diesel fuel. As we left the ship at 9:30 AM, they had just started refueling. When we left the cabin there were 3 balloons with Happy Birthday on them glued to the side of our door and a birthday card from Princess Cruises. Nice things for the price of this cruise - just kidding.
We took a minibus to the base of the cable car that takes you to the top of the Rock. We waited about 30-40 minutes to take the cable car up - not like Aspen, there was only one car going up as the other was coming down.
The view was great: we could see North Africa, Spain and Gibraltar. There is an airport and the runway is what
Gibraltar
Ken and one of the apes I won’t even do the “guess which
” separates Gibraltar from Spain. The Winston Churchill Highway runs across the runway so they have to stop traffic when a plane is coming in; guess they are building a tunnel for the road. We could see the many cargo ships and tankers in the bay and 2 small cruise ships in dock. It was very windy and chilly up on top.
Up on the rock there are tailless apes, the Barbary apes which are indigenous to this small area. They are very curious and you aren’t supposed to take any plastic bags or food outside around them. I saw one steal a small package of Kleenex from one woman’s purse. We had such fun watching them and taking pictures of them. I was watching Ken snap pictures and suddenly heard something running toward me; one of the apes was charging down the sidewalk towards me. I stepped aside and he ran on down the hill past Ken. He was nearly as big as Katie - JD and Jolene’s big Springer Spaniel. It really startled me as we had been told that if we pestered them, they would bite. We saw some of them use a small tree as a springboard,
Leaving Gibraltar
Sail away from Gibraltar swinging back and forth until they could jump up on a wall.
We took the cable car down and then we walked back to the ship - quite a distance. According to the map the ship gave us, we were supposed to find some shops, but all we found was a supermarket. So we just went back to the ship for a late lunch. As I write this, we are watching “Mike and Mike in the Morning” and it is 3:20 PM our time, 8:20 AM NE time. The oil tanker is just now pulling away, so it takes a lot longer than gassing up your car.
Ken has made reservations at Sabatini’s for dinner; that is the specialty restaurant at the top of the ship. We haven’t ever eaten there so I am looking forward to it.
The weather for the sail away party from Gibraltar was so much nicer than from Cadiz, of course it was at 5 PM instead of 10 PM. It was sunny and about 65 with 20 mph winds. It was a British party, since Gibraltar is part of the British Empire, so they played “God Save the Queen”, “Rule Britannia”, “Pomp and Circumstance”,
etc. Several people had Union Jack flags so it was a very colorful sight.
My birthday dinner at Sabatini’s was spectacular. First the view - the very end of the ship on the 16th deck, we sat by the window with a fountain outside the window and could see the sunset. The food - it was a 15 course Italian dinner with 6 cold antipasti, 4 hot antipasti, soup, 2 kinds of pastas, main course and dessert. Each of the courses was so well portioned and so well timed that we didn’t feel stuffed.
We went to the Explorer’s Lounge to hear the pianist/vocalist do a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Weber. He played and sang music from “Jesus Christ, Superstar”, “Cats”, “Phantom”, etc. A very nice way to end another amazing day. We have already figured out when the Ruby Princess will be making the return trip in Sept/Oct of 2009 and the same voyage we are currently on in 2010. Go, Stock Market!
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