When we got up this morning at eight o’clock, we found that the Queen Victoria was already docked in Gibraltar. We had been to this British overseas territory twice before, in 1995 and 1999 so we looked forward to renewing our acquantance of this little piece of Britain abroad. We didn’t have an excursion booked today; after all, you can walk straight off the ship and into the town centre, so there was really no need.
After a leisurely breakfast in the Lido restaurant, we went outside onto the pool deck and wandered around the ship for a while, taking in our surroundings. The sun shone down from among the fluffy white clouds and it looked as if it was going to be a very pleasant day. 🙂
Disembarking the Queen Victoria, we walked along the dock side where we were able to get some great bow photos of her.
As we walked out of the port area, we looked around in vain for something familiar. On our visit here in 1995 we remembered passing the water company “GIBWATER” which, at the time, was owned by the same French company (Lyonnaise des Eaux) as our own local water company, Northumbrian Water. We couldn’t see it anywhere, however, and instead we noticed all the high-rise buildings, shopping centres and large office blocks that had sprung up since our last visit 23 years ago.
Walking past some industrial premises, we were intrigued by a space-saving car park they had, a sort of parking “lift” was worked on a similar principle as a carousel. The vehicle drove slowly onto the bottom platform which was then elevated, revealing another platform at the bottom for the next vehicle. Interesting, but what if you arrived back and your car was at the top? The operator would have to ensure it was lowered again so that you could drive-away. Interesting though.
As the town was so built-up now, we had to walk for quite a way before we were able to catch a glimpse of the famous Rock. In the meantime, apart from driving on the right rather than we do on the left in Britain, the streets were remarkably familiar, with their Marks & Spencer, Morrison’s and other well-known British brands. In addition, the architecture and layout of the pedestrianised streets just felt as if you were exploring the high street at home. 🙂
As you know, Gibraltar is a well-known heavily fortified British air and naval base that guards the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the only entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. Since the 18th century, Gibraltar has been a symbol of the Royal Navy strength, and is commonly known in that context as “The Rock”.
Gibraltar also uses the pound as its currency, rather than the Euro, but the big difference here was the prices, they were quite a lot cheaper than those at home. There were lots of off-licences selling large selections of wines and spirits (especially rum!) and I spotted a range of 10 different flavours of the “Dead Man’s Fingers” brand of rum. They were only £8.50 each for a 700ml bottle!! That’s incredible; even on Amazon you are looking at nearer to 20 quid! 🙂
Going inside the “offy”, I bought a bottle each of the Coconut Rum and the Coffee Rum. Spotting some “Real McCoy” crinkle cut cheese and onion crisps (my favourite!) I also had to buy a packet of those as well. In addition, I bought some of the little 50ml bottles of rum, including two Pusser’s Rum and a pineapple DMF as well as a mango flavoured one; I also bought some Diet Coke to go with them; we’d enjoy them on our balcony later on. 🙂
We spent quite some time looking around the shops and walking along the wide, pedestrianised street. Buying a postcard to send home, we looked around for a pub so we could sit and have the obligatory cold beer while writing it out. As we walked along, we heard a voice calling our names and turned to see Billy and Carole sitting at a pavement café, enjoying a cup of coffee each. We stood and chatted for a while as we shared the bag of crisps, then we said we’d see them later and we went into a nearby pub where we ordered a large beer each and I wrote out my postcard. We enjoyed the drinks so much we stayed for another one; I had a white wine this time.
We then decided we’d take a slow stroll back, looking up at the Rock where we could see the cable car in the near distance ascending slowly to the top (which we had done in 1999). My fitness monitor said we’d already done over 10,000 steps today; no doubt we’d clock up plenty more later on, just walking around the ship. 🙂
We arrived back at the Queen Victoria around 1.30pm (the “all aboard” time was two o’clock) and we noticed the staff putting up Christmas trees and decorations; it reminded us of when we were lucky enough to go on the Maiden Voyage of the Queen Victoria in December 2007 when she looked all new and shiny and very festive, and we were entertained at the cruise terminal before we boarded by a group all dressed up as Dickensian carol singers.
We ate our lunch in the Lido buffet as usual; I do like their salads. There is always a good selection of cold meats and crisp salad vegetable, including pickled vegetable such as cauliflower, gherkins and silverskin onions which go fantastically with cheese.
We didn’t really do much for the rest of the afternoon or evening. On a cruise ship, you can do as much or as little as you like; there’s no obligation to join in with anything. On lots of cruises Trevor and I join in with everything and quickly become known to the entertainments team, but equally it is just nice to be able to take a step back, and enjoy your time relaxing, reading or just staring out to sea in quiet contemplation. 🙂
After pottering around in our cabin for a while (inevitably Trevor had the football on!) I took a long shower and washed and blow-dried my hair before getting ready to go down to dinner. Tonight was smart attire, so I wore a blue floral maxi-dress with my gorgeous blue and silver sequinned “Fancy That” Irregular Choice shoes.
Along we went to table #511 in the Britannia Restaurant and enjoyed another tasty meal; this time I decided to buy a bottle of the house rosé wine (which is actually quite palatable) and make it last; it was cheaper just to buy the bottle than to keep buying it by the glass.
Still no sign of the captain, any senior officers or any lobster! 🙁
Personally, we find this to be quite poor. On many cruise lines (including Fred Olsen, Azamara and Celebrity) the senior officers are very visible around the ship and are very approachable, answering any questions we might have. Here on Cunard it was as if the passengers didn’t matter, we weren’t worthy of the captain’s attention. Another thing we found unusual this time was that there were no official photographers; usually these guys are in your face all the time from the minute you board the ship, but not this time. Some people might say that was a good thing, but there’s no obligation to buy any of the photos; we buy any that we really love and leave the rest. Maybe, in view of all the printed photos that are not purchased, having a photographer on board was not cost-effective.
The entertainment in the Royal Court tonight was the production company’s version of Top Hat, including lots of tap-dancing and the famous song Cheek to Cheek (which now, inevitably, always reminds me of the movie The Green Mile). We enjoyed the show a lot, it was certainly something a bit different. As ever, some of the people in the theatre came over to look at the shoes I was wearing. 🙂
Then we finished off the evening, as usual, meeting up with Billy and Carole in the Golden Lion and enjoying a few drinks while listening to the music of “It Takes Two”.
Afterwards, back in stateroom 5123, we went out on the balcony for a short while (it wasn’t too warm!) and just gazed into the blackness of the night. Somewhere far off, near the horizon, we saw the lights of another ship, but the wifi signal was poor and we weren’t able to identify it on the MarineTraffic app.
We then got into our ‘jamas and read and wound-down before sleep. I enjoyed one of the little bottles of rum I had bought earlier with some Diet Coke as a night-cap, and once again we slept well.
Tomorrow we would arrive in Lisbon, Portugal, which would be our last port of call this voyage. As Portugal is on the same time zone as Britain, it meant we had to put our clocks back to GMT tonight, and so we gained and extra hour in bed. 🙂