Gibraltar
The Gibraltar Museum

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    • Day 78

      The Rock!

      November 16, 2015 in Gibraltar ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      When the steward turns down our bed at night he leaves El Diario, the schedule for the next day, in our cabin. In last night's edition we were informed we'd be arriving in Gibraltar early in the morning and would be able to go ashore at 8:00 AM. We'd once again set sail at 2:00 PM so we were asked to return to the ship by 1:30. There was also a note that we should set our clocks back one hour for the time zone change.

      Brenda and I slept in, had breakfast and didn't go ashore until almost 9:00. Given the short time we were in port, we didn't go up to the park at the top of the rock where there are apparently monkeys everywhere. Next time. We explored the town within the fortification walls which is now primarily geared toward the tourist trade. Of course, this was not always the case. Due to it's location and natural defenses, military minds said whoever controls Gibraltar controls the Mediterranean. It was first occupied by the Phoenicians in 950 BC and was later taken over by the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors, the Christians, the Moors (again) and then Spain who eventually lost it to the British. They're still arguing over possession to this day.

      I have to admit, I expected the rock to be more impressive. You know, like your first glimpse of the rockies or the Empire State Building. It's iconic. Everyone's heard of it. I guess it's one of those cases where all the hype set me up for disappointment. Still, it was very cool to see it and photograph Roch and the rock, but my initial reaction was, "That's it?!?"

      After walking through the old town for a while we decided we'd had enough and set out to return to the ship. It was only about 11:45 and it took about thirty minutes to cover the distance into town so we'll be back on board well ahead of the 1:30 cut off.

      Strangely, as we approached the dock at around 12:15, the Sovereign's whistle sounded. "That can't be the call to boarding, there's still more than an hour to go" I said. We then noticed we weren't the only ones who cut short our stay in Gibraltar. I figured we weren't the only ones who found the place a little dull.

      By the time we set foot on deck it was 12:30 so we went up to Deck 11 for lunch. We had just had time to finish eating when I thought I felt the ship move. It can't be, I thought. It was barely after 1:00.

      That's when it hit me: we should have waited until tonight to set our clocks back!

      It's a good thing we found Gibraltar so boring since, if we'd have been enjoying ourselves, we might have missed our ride to Las Palmas.

      Somebody up there was looking out for us.
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