We had an enjoyable and relaxing day in Gibraltar. One surprise was to have the Crown Princess docked next to us which we not only sailed on in 2010 but will be cruising again in a mere 135 days. This picture shows the relative size of our small ship vs the size of the Crown.
We had a very chatty tour guide who took us up the cable car to the top of Gibraltar, then to the Siege tunnels before wrapping up at a museum. Gibraltar is famous for their monkeys and we saw several of them today, including two mothers with nursing babies. Mary captured this beautiful shot of a mother and her baby. With all the great monkey pictures she took it was hard to single out just one so her's a second!
I found the siege caves very interesting based on their WWII significance, but they really go back to Revolutionary War times. With the British navy pre-occupied with the American Revolution, Spain decided to re-take Gibraltar and started a siege. After two years of no progress, the French navy, always looking for a way to mess with Britain, joined the fight and constructed siege boats for an innovative attack. But by then the British had hand dug these tunnels to obtain superior firing position on them and prevailed. After his surrender at Yorktown, Admiral Cornwallis crossed the Atlantic to end the siege.
We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool and relaxing before watching the Crown Princess depart, followed by our sail-away at 5:00 pm.
Africa is only 14 miles away and on a clear day you can see it from the top of the cable car run. Unfortunately it was overcast while we were up there in the morning, but we did see Africa from the ship after we departed Gibraltar.
Here's one final look at "The Rock" as we have our last day at sea tomorrow and head to Barcelona.
4 comments:
Wow...looked like the mom and baby when I was was looking at the picture of the ships, as well as the picture of the monkeys! I knew you were on a smaller ship but I didn't realize how much smaller. Can't wait to see all the pictures!!! Sylvia
I didn't realize your ship was so much smaller than the Crown! Great shot of the two together.
Are the monkeys wild around Gibraltar? Very cool pictures of them!
Great photos Bill . Hey , are you cruising again in 135days , Mary may have told me but I forget . You love cruising !
Enjoy your holiday
Pat
Another reason I like to read your blogs Bill is for the neat history lessons...I learn things that I never remember reading in history books. Thanks for sharing 'your' knowledge!
Love the pics of the monkeys!
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