May 28, Gibraltar, UK Territory

We arrived at sunrise and what a beautiful sunrise it was. We booked a taxi tour from the ship, We had the best tour guide/driver. He was born there and really gave us a history lesson as well current facts and even some information about upcoming events. There were 6 of us in a mini van type taxi, us and 2 couples from California. Really nice people and they got in the back & middle seats, David got a middle seat and I got to sit in the front with the driver, great place for pictures.

Lots of traffic and construction there. It is only about 2 1/2 square miles (from memory so I should look it up). They used to have free busses but only the tourists used them so they started charging. The locals only like to drive cars & motor bikes and electric scooters. Silly as they could be happier without all that traffic but their choice….. We went through town, around to a Lighthouse and then up very narrow roads to the cave near the top. It was huge, beautiful and every so often a 7 minute light show would start. I understand they have concerts, and events in one section of it. Lots of stairs up and down with paths and with high ceilings and lighting and rails, pretty easy to walk through.

They we went a bit farther up to see the monkeys. The driver said to put backpacks on your front, don’t let them see plastic as they think everything holds food. Guess not everyone got the message, one lady had a bag sitting next to her and a monkey grabbed a muffin out and was eating it and she moved away. Sadly funny. Another lady had a monkey jump on her backpack and she screamed until a man got the monkey off her, not so funny. And that was only during the time we were there. The government feeds the moneys fresh fruits and vegetables twice a day so they aren’t hungry but who wouldn’t want to take a muffin, unwrap it and then eat it! We climbed the stairs to a glass deck to see amazing views. We could see to Morocco in Africa and of course across the harbor to Spain. We also stopped the car several times to see the great views.

The roads were 1 lane and all the taxis stopped at each stop and had to wait for the some taxi to get their people back in before the rest could go at times. There were places to go around but I’m glad I wasn’t driving through all that. We heard there used to be a tram up to the top but it is not working now and that in about 3 years the new one will be built.

The driver dropped us all off in town, we walked around the pretty town and then as we were in England, we had to have fish and chips. They looked like the kind in England but we didn’t order mushy peas… Of course David wanted ice cream for desert. I wanted to go to the one next door to Baskin & Robbin’s as it was a Crepary and I wanted to get a crepe. It was very good and you can’t get them. Everywhere.

Cute town with narrow streets for pedestrians only. We went to place where you got a shuttle back to the ship if you didn’t want walk the 15 or 20 minutes. It was also where the local buses came to pick up and drop off people for the main shopping area. We were surprised to have a cab come and take the next 7 people in line for 5 Euros each. We assumed a bus would come and charge us the 5 Euros…. It was an older mini van type, the oldest car we had seen on the trip, driven by a nice older women.

Swimming again but by now the pool is cooler than ever and we were starting to realize it wasn’t heated. Sad as it was uncomfortable cold and our last day in it. The hot tub was much cooler too so that didn’t help.

We ate at Bamboo, a speciality restaurant. We didn’t like it. The food was like a Chinese restaurant but not the same spices. Oh well, at least we tried it. You can’t like everything. It took so long that we missed the 7:00pm show and frankly we were going to bed by the 9:00pm show. We are tired as we go hard each day with so much to see.

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