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Thursday 18th November 2021
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Our day in Gibraltar coincided with a
change in the weather. Warm and sunny gave way to dark
clouds, interspersed with heavy rain and accompanied by
a strong, chilly wind. We were back on British soil!
We decided to go on the morning tour to
get a sense of where we were, but left the group once
we had completed the panoramic drive and after the rain
had stopped. In the afternoon we walked back into the
main shopping area. The whole experience left us feeling
somewhat underwhelmed.
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The roads here preclude the use of large
coaches, so we were split into smaller groups and escorted
onto minibuses, which felt a little claustrophobic. The
driver did a good job of navigating the twists and turns,
but the guide's chat was rather irritating.
First, we drove across the airport runway
towards the border with Spain.
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We then drove to Europa point, where we
were meant to get out and admire the views, but it was
raining so hard that nobody wanted to get out of the minibus.
The next stop was a point near "Apes'
Den", overlooking the harbour. By then it had stopped
raining and we were able to get out.
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Our ship
in clear view, thanks to a good zoom lens! |
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There
were no Barbary Macaques to be seen at Apes' Den when we visited. |
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The airport
and the border with Spain not far beyond it. |
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This
is as far as we got with the group tour. We decided to make our
own way back to the ship. |
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There
were a lot of steps, but our route into town was well sign-posted. |
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The main
shopping area of Gibraltar |
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We walked
back to the ship for lunch and then returned later to do a little
duty-free shopping. |
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Walking back to the
ship took us along the side of the airport runway. We stopped
when we saw that the road across the runway had been closed
and the landing lights were switched on. A plane appeared
as a speck in the sky and twice approached, but couldn't
land because of the strong winds. We later discovered that
it had had to divert to Malaga. |
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There
was time for a little more duty-free shopping as we re-boarded our
ship. |
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Baked
Alaska for dessert. Very nice. |
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The Captain delayed
our departure until after dinner. We were warned that we
were heading into very strong winds and advised to go to
bed early! |
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We noted that the pilot
who guided us out of the port got back into the pilot vessel
before we had actually left the protection of the harbour.
He must have known a thing or two. We were soon to find
out! |
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It turned out to be
very rough night and we didn't get much sleep. We heard
in the morning that the wind had been even stronger than
forecast. |
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