Day 12: Rough and ready in Gibraltar

During our morning sea voyage, many passengers watched pods of dolphins swimming around the ship. No voyage is complete without this wonderful site. Unfortunately I missed it all, and had to be content with listening to enthusiastic accounts of how you just had to be there. 

At the time of the dolphins, I was actually sitting on a good seat in the, by now familiar, Britannia Lounge, waiting to listen to a very interesting lecture on Spanish cuisine by celebrity cook, Jennipher Marshall-Jenkins, no less. Later that morning, as our ship was being moored in the Port of Gibraltar, we were sat on the Veranda sundeck, admiring the famous rock and enjoying a barbeque of tasty chorizo sausages that we had just learnt about in the lecture.  Life is tough!

                                                                                                                              

Gibraltar is to be our last port of call on this trip before starting the home leg to Southampton. Although the rock has been British since 1713, part of the peace treaty after the War of Spanish Succession, the name  actually originates from the Arabic (Jabal Tariq "Mountain of Tariq") and reflects the Moorish history of the region.   

As this was actually my second time to Gibraltar, I decided to avoid the Barbary apes most tourists see and simply wander around the shops during the day. Most of the other cruise-ship passengers had the same idea and were content to shop for duty-free perfumes and alcohol.  

Admittedly Gibraltar is not my favourite place to visit. If you take away the sunshine, all that remains is a fairly typical British high street with the usual tat. There is also a real rough and ready military feel to Gibraltar, which was reinforced, when I was there, by a redcoat re-enactment group parading through the high street.  

In the evening the Saga cruise company drove us to St Michael’s Cave on top of the famous rock to be able to listen to a concert given by the Gibraltar National Choir. Describing themselves as a national choir was an interesting choice of words in my opinion, when you consider that Gibraltar is actually a territory and not a nation.  Perhaps this is just something they say to rile their Spanish neighbours.  

Anyway, the concert itself was a magnificent success enjoyed by everyone who attended. Then as darkness filled the sky, we were driven back to our ship. Finally, with three final blasts of the ship’s horn, we eased our way between the pillars of Hercules and out of the Mediterranean.