If I had a nickel for each email I received this morning, commenting on what a hot mess last night’s post was when I originally published it…well, I’d have 45 cents. ;-) Add 25 cents for each joking suggestion that perhaps I had taken up drinking again and I’d have $1.25. It’s absolutely true. I kept falling sleep, mid-paragraph, mid-sentence and, finally, mid-word last night. I don’t think I’ve ever had to spend as much time straightening out errant autocorrections as I did this morning.
It is just minutes before midnight now, and G and I are still sitting in the International Café having a cappuccino. If I tried to write a post tonight, I fear I’d have much the same outcome. So I will post this as a placeholder and write about our day in Gibraltar, tonight’s folkloric show and the Backbeat Beatles party on deck…tomorrow morning.
More later!
Ok, it is just after 9am now, and we have just started to stir (and, in fact, we moved clocks an hour back last night, so I had a wonderful night’s rest). The sun is shining brightly and, for the first time this cruise, we have the balcony door open for a few minutes to let in some fresh air. It’s finally warm enough to do that; what a beautiful morning!
The weather yesterday in Gibraltar was just as nice. Though it started out chilly, it warmed to around 80F by the afternoon. We didn’t arrive in Gibraltar until noon yesterday, and, though the ship was in port until 10pm, we knew we wanted to be on board for last night’s dinner (surf and turf for G and pad Thai for me). so we spent part of the morning trying to figure out what to do with only a few hours in port. You might remember that we were just in Gibraltar less than two years ago, and we really saw the city that day, doing all the typical first time things (click on the Gibraltar label on my blog, or search on Gibraltar to find that post). Although G would have been happy to see the monkeys on top of the Rock again, we didn’t think it was worth about $25pp to do so.
Instead, we walked to the bus terminal just outside of Casemates Square and caught a #5 bus to the Gibraltar airport which is right on the border with Spain. The airport runway is one which is crossed by a road connecting Gibraltar and a small border town in Spain, and it’s rather unique to just drive right across an active runway. Barriers similar to those at a railroad crossing are lowered when an aircraft takes off or lands. Once on the other side of the runway, we disembarked the bus and walked through immigration into Spain. Actually, I should say we walked through a small immigration building in Gibraltar, then another in Spain and we were there. These were not manned, and no one checked our passports. It was definitely an open border!
We walked down the road a bit until we came to a restaurant with outdoor seating and had a light lunch. Then we backtracked and walked through Spain immigration on the other side of the road (unmanned) and through Gibraltar immigration where we finally saw an immigration officer and were asked to show our passports. We still didn’t receive a passport stamp, though. We’ve used these (relatively) new passports to visit 10 countries so far and have yet to receive the first stamp (though they do have two visas for countries we’ll visit this trip). I miss passport stamps!
The Rock of Gibraltar
Moorish Castle
We crossed the runway on foot this time, and, as it was around 4pm by then, we saw a line of construction workers who live in Spain but who are working on the many building projects in Gibraltar walking across the runway on their way home. Only about 30,000 people actually live in Gibraltar, and it’s obvious that many of its workers come across that border twice a day for their jobs. Once on the other side, we boarded a public bus that traveled south down to Europa Point, home to Harding’s Battery, where we had spent some time on our last visit. Gibraltar is only 2.5 square miles; none of these sites is very far apart from any other. And then we returned to the port, stopping in a small drug store to pick up an item we needed along the way.
So the day wasn’t very taxing, which is good, because, as I mentioned at the start of this post yesterday, we had a late night planned. We had just enough time to do a quick clean up for dinner and went to the International Dining Room, which was half empty because of our late stay in port. And, with a few minutes to spare, we sat in loungers on the Promenade Deck watching the beautiful lights of Gibraltar reflected in the water. At 8pm, there was a special folkloric show in the Princess Theater performed by a local Flamenco dance group called Contre Amigos (among friends) and they were just spectacular. Three women, a man, a singer/percussionist and a guitarist...their staccato precision steps kept us mesmerized for nearly an hour. I am so glad Princess brings that kind of cultural entertainment on board during our late night stays, and it led me to wonder if we’ll see the great show we saw two years ago when we overnight in Venice. I hope so!
Gibraltar after dark
Flamenco dancer
The band Backbeat Beatles was performing around the Neptune (outdoor, mid-ship) pool for sail away at 10pm, and, though it was a bit nippy by then, it wasn’t too cold if one was covered with a blanket or up dancing, so we chose to dance, and they performed for over an hour. It was basically a huge sing along, as they performed one after another of the Beatles best songs. The ship’s horn sounded and the Sapphire Princess slowly left Gibraltar behind and sailed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Once that party was over, G was convinced he was still hungry, so we went to the International Cafe and enjoyed coffees (decaf, of course!). And G ate a piece of pineapple upside down cake (one of his favorites) and a ham and cheese croissant and we chatted with a fellow guest who lives in London until after midnight. It had been a wonderful day, and a relaxing one, too.
Today is our last day at sea until we are on the Norwegian Spirit, next Friday. And that will be our last day at sea for ten more days. The pace is picking up; we’re up for the challenge, though my blog posts might get shorter and more delayed as we go along.