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FARFRUMWURKEN
It was a late day for our arrival into Gibraltar today. We pulled alongside the pier in the heart of the city just before 1:00 p.m. and based on HAL's requirements we "gotta be back on board" by 10:00 p.m.
We had decided that thisport-of-call (Deb was the port expert here) was going to be a self- guided walking tour. The strategy was to get a shuttle taxi (2E each) to get us into the main square (Casements Square) as quickly as possible and then get ourselves over to the cable car to take us up to the "top of the rock" before all the other cruisers made it there. No real lineup so we made it to the top in quick order. As soon we got out of the cable car we were confronted with a "herd of apes". So cute, but yet so conniving - if you don't watch what you own - it's gone in a flash. I'm sure that they must have a little shop somewhere in town
where they sell all the sunglasses, cameras and handbags that they scurry off with once they're finished with these unsuspecting tourists. And the scary part is they will climb
you like a tree - sitting on your shoulder and start grooming your hair before
you know it. On a positive note, we did make it through without any losses.
We started our trek on the top of the "rock" by heading south towards to St. Michael's Cave. This is a huge cave complete with stalagmites and stalactites that apparently has taken centuries upon centuriesto develop to the point that they are now. They have very sophisticated light show throughout the caves, which highlighted the regal beauty of these years upon years of dripping water. In the main cavern there were few hundred seats laid out in preparation for an upcoming concert to be held inside. I can't imaging what the acoustics would be like inside. My pictures are amazingly beautiful - thanks to my Nikon D7000 it brings light to the darkness. The cost here was 26Euros per person and that included entry into some of the sites up on the rock.
From there we started walking north towards the Siege Tunnels, which was on the other side of the "rock" (We walked a total of 12.71 kilometers today and we're honestly pooped).
One of the truly weird things about Gibraltar is that they have only ONE - yes ONE runway at their airport. That's not really the weird part - what is weird though is that the runway crosses the one major road that runs from Gibraltar to the Spanish border just to the north. Whenever a plane lands, these railway crossing guards come down - lights and sirens go off - the plane lands on the runway and proceeds to cross the main road and then continues onto the other
side of the runway. What would Homeland Security ever think about this ?
Back to the tunnels - these tunnels date back to the 1730's with over a hundred miles of tunnels that honeycomb throughout this huge mountain, tunnels that used to accommodate as
many as 16,000 men at one time. Given that we were on the far side of the "rock" and quite a distance from the cable car - the group decision was that we'd walk it down. Not quite sure who suggested this idea, but it was a long, long, long way down to get back to Main Street. I stopped counting the stairs we had come down mainly because I can't count that high. It was like Rome revisited. On the way down we stopped to go through an old Moorish castle from the 1500's.
Once we hit the main street Tom and I knew that we deserved a few beers just to get rehydrated, so we stopped at a local bar that apparently was the oldest bar in Gibraltar. They had some excellent wi-fi and the beer was good too, so we got updated on our emails and bank balances just in case and quenched one hell of a thirst pretty quickly.
We grabbed a cab in Casements Square back to the ship (2Euro's) to save the 20-minute walk and got prepped for dinner. Because of the planned 11:00 p.m. departure from Gibraltar HAL had decided to close the dining room and have a party at the pool deck with a Moroccan theme - all the stewards were dressed the part - they put out umbrellas, tables and even had a section where you could smoke hookah pipes - hopefully all legal. One has to sit back and be thankful, here we both sat, the sun going down on the small stretch of ocean that separates Africa with Spain. I guess we can cross this off the list.
Overall we enjoyed Gibraltar - I know that we could come back here.
The climate, the language and what a view. Tomorrow is an early day - we arrive in Cadiz, Spain at about 07:00 and we don't have any arrangements for tours. Our tour was cancelled by HAL so we're again on our own. Our plan is to get off about 07:30 and make our way to the train station. We want to get into Seville. Everything we've heard about Seville
has been positive so we can't miss it when we're this close. Stay tuned and again to everyone - thanks so much for following our adventures - I've had some 500 hits on this
blog according to the stats - so THANKS! One last thing for those who have been following
us for the past 6 days - I'm sad to report at the time of writing that the
tulips have just recently passed away. There was a sad but brief service in T&J's cabin. Donations can be made to the "Save the Tulip Fund".
We had decided that thisport-of-call (Deb was the port expert here) was going to be a self- guided walking tour. The strategy was to get a shuttle taxi (2E each) to get us into the main square (Casements Square) as quickly as possible and then get ourselves over to the cable car to take us up to the "top of the rock" before all the other cruisers made it there. No real lineup so we made it to the top in quick order. As soon we got out of the cable car we were confronted with a "herd of apes". So cute, but yet so conniving - if you don't watch what you own - it's gone in a flash. I'm sure that they must have a little shop somewhere in town
where they sell all the sunglasses, cameras and handbags that they scurry off with once they're finished with these unsuspecting tourists. And the scary part is they will climb
you like a tree - sitting on your shoulder and start grooming your hair before
you know it. On a positive note, we did make it through without any losses.
We started our trek on the top of the "rock" by heading south towards to St. Michael's Cave. This is a huge cave complete with stalagmites and stalactites that apparently has taken centuries upon centuriesto develop to the point that they are now. They have very sophisticated light show throughout the caves, which highlighted the regal beauty of these years upon years of dripping water. In the main cavern there were few hundred seats laid out in preparation for an upcoming concert to be held inside. I can't imaging what the acoustics would be like inside. My pictures are amazingly beautiful - thanks to my Nikon D7000 it brings light to the darkness. The cost here was 26Euros per person and that included entry into some of the sites up on the rock.
From there we started walking north towards the Siege Tunnels, which was on the other side of the "rock" (We walked a total of 12.71 kilometers today and we're honestly pooped).
One of the truly weird things about Gibraltar is that they have only ONE - yes ONE runway at their airport. That's not really the weird part - what is weird though is that the runway crosses the one major road that runs from Gibraltar to the Spanish border just to the north. Whenever a plane lands, these railway crossing guards come down - lights and sirens go off - the plane lands on the runway and proceeds to cross the main road and then continues onto the other
side of the runway. What would Homeland Security ever think about this ?
Back to the tunnels - these tunnels date back to the 1730's with over a hundred miles of tunnels that honeycomb throughout this huge mountain, tunnels that used to accommodate as
many as 16,000 men at one time. Given that we were on the far side of the "rock" and quite a distance from the cable car - the group decision was that we'd walk it down. Not quite sure who suggested this idea, but it was a long, long, long way down to get back to Main Street. I stopped counting the stairs we had come down mainly because I can't count that high. It was like Rome revisited. On the way down we stopped to go through an old Moorish castle from the 1500's.
Once we hit the main street Tom and I knew that we deserved a few beers just to get rehydrated, so we stopped at a local bar that apparently was the oldest bar in Gibraltar. They had some excellent wi-fi and the beer was good too, so we got updated on our emails and bank balances just in case and quenched one hell of a thirst pretty quickly.
We grabbed a cab in Casements Square back to the ship (2Euro's) to save the 20-minute walk and got prepped for dinner. Because of the planned 11:00 p.m. departure from Gibraltar HAL had decided to close the dining room and have a party at the pool deck with a Moroccan theme - all the stewards were dressed the part - they put out umbrellas, tables and even had a section where you could smoke hookah pipes - hopefully all legal. One has to sit back and be thankful, here we both sat, the sun going down on the small stretch of ocean that separates Africa with Spain. I guess we can cross this off the list.
Overall we enjoyed Gibraltar - I know that we could come back here.
The climate, the language and what a view. Tomorrow is an early day - we arrive in Cadiz, Spain at about 07:00 and we don't have any arrangements for tours. Our tour was cancelled by HAL so we're again on our own. Our plan is to get off about 07:30 and make our way to the train station. We want to get into Seville. Everything we've heard about Seville
has been positive so we can't miss it when we're this close. Stay tuned and again to everyone - thanks so much for following our adventures - I've had some 500 hits on this
blog according to the stats - so THANKS! One last thing for those who have been following
us for the past 6 days - I'm sad to report at the time of writing that the
tulips have just recently passed away. There was a sad but brief service in T&J's cabin. Donations can be made to the "Save the Tulip Fund".
- comments
Les Very interesting , maybe the monkeys were into that hookah! Have fun. Les
susan Great picture of school kids...where are the rest?
Candice There so cute! Love the class size!
Candice They're so cute!