TRAVEL DIARY || GIBRALTAR [CRUISE 2018]

My family and I went on a Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas for my 30th birthday. It was a big birthday and my brother wanted to do something special. We love cruising. We love cruising with Royal Caribbean. We're loyal to Royal. We have Emerald standing with the Crown & Anchor Society which is Royal Caribbean's loyalty club. On this cruise, we took in a number of locations that we haven't been to before, one of them being Gibraltar. In this blog post, I'll be sharing with you my favourite photographs from our trip.

 

Before going to Gibraltar, I always believed that Gibraltar was an island. The Rock of Gibraltar. That always made me think that it was an island. Hey, it was never mentioned in any Geography class that I had ever had in school and I never had cause to look it up on a globe until this cruise. It's a peninsula. I never would have figured that considering that it is part of the United Kingdom. How would it being a peninsula factor into my thinking? 

So, today's lesson; Gibraltar is a peninsula.

Bonus fact: there is a Morrison's supermarket there. 

Another fun fact is that the monkies that roam freely around Gibraltar are actually apes. They roam around freely, they are fed daily by the government and so locals and tourists are kindly asked not to feed them. Some people disobey this rule to show off. I was good and I didn't feed them. I didn't have any food on me anyway. Though, they are sneaky little buggers and will try to steal your purse. One had crept up on my mother.

Before going to Gibraltar, we had heard horror stories about tourists being scratched by the apes and how they ended up in sickbay upon returning to the ship. To be fair, when I first heard about the apes of Gibraltar, I had envisioned big, big apes roaming around like Mighty Joe Young. Stupid of me, I know. They are, in reality, quite small and utterly adorable and remarkably tame. Just don't annoy the Mama Apes by getting too close to their babies. 

The apes were so sweet and adorable. I made sure not to antagonise them in any way and in return, they posed so graciously for me. They loved the attention that the tourists were giving them. They loved having their photographs taken and if they got bored, they simply moved along. Just look at these adorable creatures. 

Saint Michael's Cave was something to behold. It was spectacular and what was even more mind-blowing was that concerts were held inside it. Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable man and a very proud Gibraltarian. I could have listened to him for days. I cannot remember a single thing that he told us, though. I was too memorised by this cave to take everything in. 

The last part of our tour was to the fortress. It was fascinating and a marvel of engineering. I couldn't believe that I was inside the Rock of Gibraltar and looking out of the bars at Spain and Gibraltar. It was certainly a workout for the thighs walking down the tunnel and even more of a workout to walk up the steep incline. Again, our tour guide brought the whole place to life. I could see everything happening within it as he spoke. I cannot remember a thing but I will do my own research soon to jog the old brain.

 

If you have never been to Gibraltar, I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful place. A baffling place because of how much it is like home but still only a few miles wide and in the Mediterranean. It's a small place, the people are delightful, fiercely proud to be British and I would love to go back for a long weekend.