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Saturday, December 8th, 2012: Gibraltar, Great Britain
Bob: Given the rather crude map provided by the ship, we had made a provisional plan to walk into the city of Gibraltar and then traverse Main Street until we arrived at the cable car station where we would purchase tickets to the "Top Of The Rock", in local parlance. From there we thought we would follow a street to St. Michael's cave and then either take the cable car back down or walk down if trails were available. Fortunately, the Tourist Information stall in the cruise ship embarkation terminal in Gibraltar had a much better free map of Gibraltar called the "123 Map" and published, appropriately enough, by 123 Printers Ltd. One side of the 123 Map gave a general overview of the promontory on which the Rock of Gibraltar lies, from the airport near the Spanish border to the southernmost tip called Europa Point. The reverse side of the 123 Map provided a close-up of the city area and all the streets, alleys, and steps. Since the town is built right at the base of the monolith, steps are necessary when trying to ascend straight up the side of the mountain. On the 123 Map we saw that some of the roads on top of the rock had "restricted vehicular access", which turned out to mean all the taxis and mini-buses taking tourists to the top were allowed, but private cars were not. I was pleased to find that the 123 Map showed the network of walking trails on top of the summit, and we decided to incorporate some of those into our walkabout. The small city of Gibraltar was not quite open for business when we walked into town around 9:30; it turned out that most businesses did not open until 10:00 on a Saturday. Although some other hardy souls from our ship were walking into town, there were not enough of us to clog up the pedestrianized main commercial street of the city, which was a good thing as all the delivery trucks were ambling down those selfsame streets and parking in the middle to drop off various and sundry goods. |
Monika: We had cruised past Gibraltar several times at night and once even by day, but had never stopped there. So part of the highlight of this cruise for me was the stop at the end of Europe, "The Rock". We had formed a tentative plan. There was a post office right in town, so we planned to go there first, then take the cable car to the top of the rock and walk around. Our map did not have contour lines, so it was hard to tell how much up and down there would be. We would have to check it out. Coming into dock at sunrise gave us some wonderful opportunity for pictures and we enjoyed looking at this iconic landmark that soon we would walk on. We were off the ship early and tourist information had a much better map for us. On the way into town I marked a supermarket in my mind and we kept going past a couple of statues to the gate into the city. The city was still waking up, after all it was early on a Saturday morning. The streets were relatively empty and not all stores were yet open. It seemed that the passengers from the Pacific Princess hardly added to the population, another advantage of a small ship. This made for nice photography. |
Bob: I wanted to try to mail off cards and letters to our friends and family, and that was the only thing that mis-fired during the whole day. We waited until the Royal Mail main post office on Main Street opened at 10:00 a.m., but it wasn't until after we entered the building that we saw the notices that they only accepted "pounds Sterling" in cash. Everyplace else in Gibraltar, as far as I know, accepted Euros, which made sense as the Spanish economy just a mile or two away was denominated in Euros and most of the tourists from the cruise ships would also arrive having Euros rather than British pounds. But the Royal Mail is apparently a bastion of British provinciality and backwardness, also refusing to accept credit or debit cards of any kind. Well, rather than pay exchange fees to obtain British pounds and then be stuck with useless British change as leftovers from our transaction, we decided to defer mailing all our cards and letters until Funchal, Madeira, where we would be in Portuguese, which is to say Euro, territory. That decided, we continued up Main Street to its end at the old city wall, and then proceeded through a gate just another block or so to the cable car station. Although there was a pay-toilet in the parking lot outside, it turned out that the cable car station itself had free rest rooms, so we availed ourselves of that opportunity before jumping on the cable car for the 6 minute trip up to the top. The cable car gave us wonderful vistas of the harbor of Gibraltar, which lies on the western side of the peninsula that sticks out southward into the Mediterranean Sea. Curiously, five or more tankers were lying at anchor in the harbor, some with lighters alongside, and my best guess is that Gibraltar is a major refueling port for ships going out into, or arriving from, the Atlantic Ocean. Our ship, however, having refueled in Barcelona, did not take on any more fuel. |
Monika: We stopped at the postoffice and found out that they did not open until 10. Since by now it was already 9:40 we decided to walk around a bit and come back at 10 to finally mail Heinke's birthday card. We walked past city hall were vendors were setting up and past a building with two cannons in front that Bob of course had to investigate. At the Catholic church mass was going on so we could not go in. We turned towards the harbor and walked back on a side street admiring the architecture. We finally got back to the postoffice. It was open, but there was a sign that said "only Pounds Sterling accepted, no Euros". This seemed to be highly idiosyncratic when even a postoffice in Croatia excepted Euros. So we asked about accepting credit or debit cards. Again we were told a polite but firm "No". I guess, we could have gotten some pounds from an ATM but we decided to just forget about it. So we proceeded with our plan and walked on to the cable car station. Since a single ticket was 8 Euros and a return trip 9.50 we decided to opt for the round trip, since we had no idea how easy it would be to walk back down. The cable car took us to the top of Signal Hill, the lower of the two peaks of The Rock. From here we really had a fantastic view over the Bay of the Gibraltar with our little ship docked way down in the harbor. |
Bob: At the upper tram station near the summit we disembarked and began walking due South on St. Michael's road. That road leads directly to St. Michael's Cave, but ultimately we decided against visiting the cave in favor of scenic walks on the trails on and around the summit. The first thing we encountered, however, were the famous Gibraltar monkeys, a small colony of Barbary apes from the North coast of Africa. They had just been provided their morning meal of fruit, fortunately, and were busy downing that rather than pestering the tourists for snacks, which they clearly also do. And although visitors are prohibited from feeding the monkeys, they regularly do so; I heard one woman bragging about the various kinds of fruit she had brought with to feed the monkeys. I also saw another woman persist in trying to feed a monkey despite the fact it had growled and snarled at her, bared its teeth, and already tried to nip and slash her! Such stupidity. |
Monika: We started walking towards the South and the larger of the two peaks. In the saddle between the two peaks the monkeys had just been fed and were still hanging around staring at the tourists who were staring at them. There were adult monkeys posing, a mommy and baby playing, and others grooming. Of course, whenever a minivan came up the street, they climbed all over to see who was coming to visit. |
Bob: Our next stop was Douglas Lookout at Ohara's Battery. First we tried to approach it from the North, but the series of steep steps carved into the limestone was slippery in the morning dew and the handrail had fallen away from the trail. We judged it too dangerous to continue, but backtracking to St. Michael's Road we proceeded South a bit and used a different trail to go back North to the lookout point. That trail had a gradual incline rather than steps and felt quite safe, and the view from Douglas Lookout is really spectacular. You can see several parts of the Rock of Gibraltar monolith as the white cliffs plunge almost vertically down into the Mediterranean Sea. Wow! |
Monika: After having taken all the pictures we wanted we forged on. There was a step path up to the top of the larger peak and we started walking up. It was rough walking with no railing. When we came to a little wider place we took some pictures and discussed. It seemed still a long way up. I was worried about Bob's knee and even more about my non-existing surefootedness. This was a place where a stumble could lead to disaster. So, in the interest of safety, we decided to turn around and instead walk towards St. Michael's cave. Looking down into the harbor we saw another cruise ship pulling into the harbor. It was a seemingly large P&O ship that docked on the other side from our ship. Seeing the two ships together was like seeing Mommie and Baby cruise ship. A little farther on was another path towards a lookout point were an old gun emplacement had been. This path looked a lot safer and we walked up. At the top we met another woman from our ship who had walked up using the Mediterranean Steps. We exchanged picture-taking duties so that we all had "We Were Here" pictures and decided it would be fun walking down those Mediterranean Steps. Maybe we could get glimpses of Africa as we rounded The Rock. So I gave her my return trip ticket and we started on our way to the Mediterranean Steps. |
Bob: We saw a trail marked "Mediterranean Steps" on our 123 Map that appeared to start just up the road from the Douglas Lookout and then circle around the base of Gibraltar back to the town. Well, that looked like fun, so we decided to take that route back down rather than take the return trip on the cable car. Instead, we gave our cable car tickets for the return ride to a lady and a gent who had walked UP the Mediterranean Steps trail and were looking for a less exhausting way back down the mountain. We were just glad that someone got the full use of our round-trip tickets! The map depiction of the Mediterranean Steps did not, however, do justice to the rugged descent from the top of the rock to almost sea level that we did for the next hour or so. The steps were rugged and slippery where the native limestone had not dried off yet, but the railings and handrails (ropes, really) were provided exactly where they were really needed, so we did not feel the trail was dangerous as long as we took the steps slowly and carefully. Our reward for this labor was just stunning views out over the Mediterranean side of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was, however, a rather strenuous hike down and, I imagine, a much more strenuous hike UP those steps. If the Gentle Reader is considering descending the steps, he or she should be in decent physical condition and have strong ankles, and have moderately good knees. For ascending the steps, he or she should be in excellent physical condition and have strong knees. |
Monika: We first had to walk to the end of the ridge, where there was an old fort. After another little uphill we finally started down the steps. They are called the Mediterranean Steps, since they are on the Mediterranean side of the mountain. There were probably 1,000, some were narrow, some wide, some in good shape, some were loose rock going steeply down the mountain side in a zig-zag pattern. You did have to watch where you were stepping. It was the old "either walk or look, but not both". At the steepest part they had strung some rope and that helped in keeping me upright. It was always a relief to see some straight stretches where you could enjoy the views out over the Mediterranean. At one point there even was a tunnel. I was hoping it would finally lead us around the mountain, but it only led to more steps. But eventually we did get to the end from where we could see the lighthouse at the edge and the Europe Point, the point farthest south in Europe. Beyond that were the Straits and Africa was barely visible, after all it was around 1PM and we were looking south, right into the haze and the sun. It was typical fall weather: in the sun with a calm wind it was hot, but in the shade with a brisk breeze it was cold. So we had plenty of cooling off periods. |
Bob: After zig-zagging our way down several switchbacks with more steps at each end, we finally reached the bottom and had to re-ascend through a small limestone cave to get around the shoulder of the mountain that points directly at Africa. We could, in fact, see the northern coast of Africa in the distance although it was almost lost in the haze lying over the Straights of Gibraltar. Continuing on around, we stoped at the Jewish Gate to view the "Pillars of Hercules" monument and then continued our descent into town through a nice but small botanical garden. |
Monika: Once we started walking around it was back up a little bit which did not seem all that bad after all the down we had done. At the precise end of The Rock was a little platform for pictures, and Mr. Tripod took a very nice picture of us. We kept looking for supposed landmarks, like the Jewish Cemetery, but finally saw a road beneath us. We had made it to the Pillars of Hercules, a monument at the end of one of the roads and the beginning of the Mediterranean Steps. It had really been a very interesting way down. My legs were tired but my knees had held out fine. As I found out the following days, my upper thighs had decided to keep reminding me of this little excursion for a few days. |
Bob: Once back at the cable car lower station we started to look for food as we had been walking pretty continuously for almost six hours. But the places that didn't look kind of seedy were chock full because another, much larger, P&O cruise ship, the Aura, had docked in the interim and disgorged its thousands of passengers. Another negative was that the prices were all stated in pounds sterling and we just didn't want to cope with the exchange rate of pounds sterling for Euros or US dollars. In the end, we hustled back to the ship for lunch, stopping off only at a grocery store to purchase wine, beer, and some stuffed-licorice candy that we knew we liked. You see, we could simply use our credit card to charge our groceries at the store and have the monetary conversions done automatically by our credit card company back in the U.S. That simple convenience, plus the advantage of not having to figure out the local tipping customs in a foreign restaurant, tends to make us favor direct purchases of food items rather than eating out, when we travel abroad. Once back on board, we threw all our stuff down in the cabin and grabbed some pizza and sandwiches from the buffet, which we washed down with the beer and Coke. Then Monika went up to the swimming pool and hot tub to work out kinks from our walk whilst I started catching up with the journal. |
Monika: Walking back towards town we were looking for a place for lunch, after all it was around 2 PM by now. But first we came to the botanical and zoological gardens. The Zoo was being renovated, but we could walk in a little bit. They had some iguanas, some exotic birds and a lot of monkeys. I think, that monkeys that did not behave on top of the rock, were brought to the zoo, since they really did not look very friendly. The botanical garden was quite nice and peaceful but we were looking for lunch and headed back into town. This was where "peaceful" ended. The couple of hundred people from our ship had not noticeably added to the population, but the several thousands from the P&O ship made for quite a throng. The pubs were full and the streets crowded. So we decided to head back to the ship, grab a beer at the grocery store and have a piece of pizza in the peacefulness of our room. But first we had to brave the crowd in the small grocery store. We walked out with 3 bottles of beer, a bottle of wine, and some licorice. Our pizza and beer lunch was indeed wonderful and we did feel that we had seen quite a bit of Gibraltar. |
Bob: We went back on deck just before dinner to watch the Pacific Princess pull away from Gibraltar harbor, and after dinner we even managed to stay awake to hear the violinist play some tunes. His choices were mostly easy classical or pop tunes like "Danny Boy" or the Beatles' "Hey Jude", but his playing was competent and it was all rather pleasant. |
Monika: As we sailed away I got a lot picture of The Rock of Gibraltar in the evening glow, while I was remembering walking on it. The evening performance was a Violinist who came from an Eastern European country and decided that he had to emulate the most dramatic Gypsy he could think of. Whether he also over emphasized his accent I don't know, because I never heard him talking outside the performance. Suffice it to say that he was a very good violin player and when I closed my eyes and listened, I actually enjoyed his playing. |
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