Saturday, November 25 – Gibraltar, Rock of

If this cruise were a horse race, we would be rounding the three-quarter pole and heading for the stretch run.  We have less than two weeks left and only a few ports to go.  We always know when vacations are over – we start making mental and written lists of things to do when we get home.  On that basis, the party’s over.
The Good Ship Lollipop is in Gibraltar today and tonight.  We have been here several times beginning in 2001 when we did a ship’s tour and saw the Barbary Apes and other highlights.  At that time, the apes used MA as a springboard, so we have no desire to tour here again.  In 2009, we walked into the old town which is now just an open plaza surrounded by cafes.  Retail stores including Marks and Spencer are nearby.  Last year, we started to walk but turned back when rain started and this year we made no attempt whatever to leave the ship.  The authorities may have offered to pay us to use WiFi, we were not going anywhere.

Our sole accomplishment today was solving the NYT puzzle.  As stated before, Saturday’s is the toughest of the week and this one took 4 hours from start to finish with lots of breaks during that time.  Otherwise, it was a quiet day like yesterday [which is why there is no separate entry for Friday].  We read a lot.  We have each finished 10 or more books since we left home and actually remember some of what we read.

Tomorrow we will be in Cadiz, Spain, one of our favorite really small towns.  Like Cartagena, there is no terminal, we just cross the street and we are there.  We hope there will be a little shopping and lunch in our future.  In the days ahead, we will stop in Casablanca and Madeira but have no specific plans.  After that, it’s all sea days until December 7 when we stay aboard and watch the people get sunburned at Half Moon Cay.


TOMORROW – Cadiz, at last

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