Day 48 Gibraltar and sea day 47

They are behind the railing, very cute

Pulling Katie's hair

5 seconds later he was more upside down with butt in my face!

Our ship dwarfed by NCL Independence of Seas

Neat

For Meg and family :)

Our not so healthy lunch

Another cannon, I should have done this in every port

Botanic Gardens

Cotton top tamarin

2 terrapins looking up at Katie

Yesterday was a sea day, did the usual morning and arvo quiz, then tried
to sort some packing out.......threw a bit of paper in the bin and
shoved a few things into a vacuum bag which out lovely steward Robert
sucked all the air out of today while we were traipsing around
Gibraltar. We then went off to the MDR as we hadn't been for a few days
and as always we had a lovely time, made even more so when we found out
that Sue and Colin had got engaged. After dinner Katie went up to play
cards and I thought I'd sit out on the balcony for a little bit as even
though it was 10pm it was still lightish but misty and the sea was like
a plate glass, beautiful! As I was sitting there I thought wouldn't it
be nice to see some dolphins cause they would be really visible, and lo
and behold about 6 turned up to ride the bow wave (the only ripple
around), as well as jumping they did flips in the air so I could see the
bellies.......pure magic.
As you can see from the photos above it is another lovely place, we were
originally supposed to go to Morocco but more than happy with today. We
docked around 7am but Katie and I didn't rush and we ambled off the boat
and made our way to the cable car queue.........as we were were standing
in what we thought was a small line a couple came past and said they had
been waiting half an hour and now that the tour buses were coming in it
was going to be a long wait and they had given up. So we decided to join
a mini bus with 6 others and be driven up the rock to see the apes and
to go to the caves. It was a good choice as our driver was funny and
interesting and we wouldn't have had the monkey sit on us without him
there. The guides are the only people who can feed the monkeys and he
put peanuts on our shoulders :)
The caves were nice and cool and after reaching the top of the rock for
some photos we drove back down and had a little history lesson of some
sites, time and money well spent. We were dropped back in town and spent
the next hour browsing shops with all the other cruise ship people
before going for a walk along the waterfront and then searching for
some-where with vego food for Katie, not an easy task for some reason.
After consuming tons of fat and calories Katie said she wanted to go to
the Botanical Gardens, so off we trudged again........and of course when
we got there there were lots of steps (although normal size ones not
roman ones only fit for giants) and an uphill walk.
But there were signs pointing to a wildlife park so we kept on the
uphill trek, when we finally arrived we found it was 2 pound entry so I
handed over a 5 and donated the 1.......It was only a little park in the
gardens but it was lovely. We were the only ones there and they had
turtles, and cotton top tamarins, peacocks wandering about, pot bellied
pigs and some donated female macaques who can't be released back to a
pack. And more turtles, some parrots and otters and lizards, it was a
nice park and as we were leaving I found out that Katie knew it was
there from seeing it on the map earlier........I did think it was odd
that she wanted to visit the Botanical Gardens!
We then wandered back downhill to town and meandered our way back to the
ship via a supermarket to pick up some beer. Came back and Katie went
for a spa and I went and cancelled our Paris tour, I have decided as it
is our last day and we need to pack and it is a 3 hour drive there and
then 3 hours back, I will skip the tour. I don't think I can be a sheep
again, well not on the last day of the cruise on a bus for 6 hours for
just a fleeting glimpse of Paris. We will wander around Le Harve
instead, Katie has quite a few days in Paris when she has her 3 months
backpacking, so she can enjoy it a more leisurely pace.
After all our walking today we joined Dale, Margaret and Dan for pizza
and the maitre d' said he had missed us, oops, shows how much we have
eaten there recently :)
Tomorrow is Lisbon, we get in at 12pm , so a sleep in and clocks back an
hour tonight, double yay. We are doing the go cars for 2 hours and it
should be a lot of fun, Katie wants to drive but her not knowing her
left from her right will make it all the more interesting, not to
mention driving on the right side of the road!!
I have been happy to blog, I may even continue when in London
maybe.................well maybe once or twice for the family. If any of
the cruisers who are getting on in Dover are reading this, have a lovely
time as we have kept the boat warmed up for you.