Day Fourteen – Gibraltar and Homeward Bound.

Since leaving Venice on Wednesday afternoon, we have had three days at sea, and for many cabin-fever takes hold. This coupled with our arrival in Gibraltar at 10.30am, a time that even on this ship most people are up, lead to massive queues leaving the ship when we docked. This was the first time on this trip that we had experienced queuing to leave the ship even when being tendered and it certainly brings out the worse in people.

Sylvia and I waited patiently in line and as we slowly progressed down the stairs to the exit, a lift arrived with the occupants going ahead of us in the queue. The fact that several of these passengers were in wheelchairs and at least one was blind did nothing to prevent a certain section of the assembled crowd venting their anger at this situation. In fact there was only a minor delay in getting off the ship but this will not prevent “official” complaints being made. Life is far too short for such aggravations after all we are on holiday!!!! Think of Gibraltar and probably two things spring to mind, The Rock and The Apes, and no visit would be complete without seeing both. Therefore we made our way from the ship, along the main street to the base of the cable car, a walk of around two miles. Despite the ranting of the local taxi drivers trying to convince us that the wait would be several hours[in order to sell their taxi trips],within 20 minutes we were in the car travelling to the top of the rock.

The apes were every where and did appear to pose for photographs like the one above. I will resist the temptation to tell you that Sylvia is on the left!! We were warned that they could be dangerous and one did jump on a fellow tourist looking for food as we exited the cable car. I must admit I didn’t enjoy the experience but then I’m not really that keen on animals generally.

We slowly walked back to the ship in the ever hotter afternoon sunshine, it had turned out to be yet another glorious day, looking at the duty free stores as we went. We had been joined in the harbour by Queen Victoria, the ship not the monarch and this was the view from our balcony on our return.

In many people’s opinion cruising is analogous to Butlins onboard ship and although I would disagree with that description most of the time, tonight’s sail away probably fitted quite well. After handing out union flags to the assembled passengers, the entertainment team treated us to a series of patriotic songs from the Home Countries [although they did get confused between the Republic and Northern Ireland] as the ship left the harbour. The passengers on the Queen Victoria must have wondered what was happening………actually it was GREAT FUN!!!!!!!

Tonight we decided to try out The Glass House, Olly Smith’s on-board wine bar. To drink I tried out The French Classics wine flight.

This consisted of a glass each of Chateau Latour a Pomerol 2004,Dezat Sancerre 2008 and Bourgogne Blanc Les Setilles, Olivier Leflaive 2008, accompanied by tasting notes to fully enjoy the experience. to eat we choose the 3 small dishes for £4.95 option. Sylvia choose [from left to right], Tempura King Prawns, Salmon Fishcakes & Hummus. While I went for Rillette of Ham, Chorizo Sausage and Bean Cassoulet and Portobello Mushroom with Waldorf Salad.

For sweets we went for Rice Pudding Tart [Sylvia] and Banoffe Cheesecake [me].

With a cup of coffee finishing yet another superb meal it was a perfect ending to a lovely day. Well worth the small extra supplements.

I mentioned in an earlier post the Enomatic serving system that preserves the integrity of the bottle of wine even after opening utilising inert gases. Shown below for all the geek followers is a photo of said device.Two more days and then we’re home, I’ll try over the remaining time to talk about areas of the ship that I have not yet mentioned and sum up our overall views of the ship.