Italy and Med Cruise Day 11-Gibraltar, UK

Gibraltar is a small island bordered by Spain and across a channel from Morocco (Africa) that is owned by the UK. The airstrip separates them from Spain and it was a very interesting spot. Home of the Rock of Gibraltar which stood over our ship imposingly as we came into port on a slightly stormy morning. We had changed our tour to afternoon so we could get a little more rest in the morning and it was a good thing we did. This strange dark cloud hung over the coastline most of the day. Our tour driver called it a Lavante (sp?) and said it was partially caused by the location of the rock on the coast and that the cloud could hang out there for a couple weeks even.

I skipped breakfast and Mom and Dad walked into town for a bit and then we all had an early lunch before meeting up with our ship's sponsored tour. We were in a small van (which looked like it would hold about 12 people) and there were 19 of us! Tight fit. They drove us out to see the lighthouse where normally you can see Africa but it was too cloudy. Then we drove to the peak of St. Michaels' Cave and spent some time in the cave and hanging out with the monkeys. The monkeys are everywhere and are known for stealing people's things. They only pulled my hair so I was lucky but we heard tales back on the ship of people losing purses, jewelry and even glasses to the monkeys.

Then they drove us to the uphill path to the Siege Tunnels. We walked up and entered and learned how they had created the tunnels by hand and dynamite back in the 1800s. They had lots of holes to shoot canon out of. They were used all the way through WWII but only for observation of ships and enemy movements then. We had gone quite a ways down into the tunnels and then realized we had to walk back up. We got our steps in that day for sure, and actually most other days as well!

Back to the ship right at sail-away and some nice views of dolphins swimming along with us as we left port.

Another night with pretty much the same story-food, drink, casino ;) I'm a creature of habit.