April 14, 2024

This is our second visit to Gibraltar so we decided to walk to the cable car and go to the top of the rock on our own. We were actually the first people to get off of the ship as we knew that the line for the cable car gets quite long. (Erin and Mui, we discussed being just like you!)

The walk took about 30 minutes. Most places in town were not open yet and some would not open because it is Sunday.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. And of course, the Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark. The Strait of Gibraltar is the narrow passage connecting the Mediterranean Sea on the east with the Atlantic Ocean on the west. It separates Northern Africa on the southern end.

We had a short wait for the cable car and went to the top of the rock. The views are wonderful. You can see Morocco here.

Here are some other pictures of the view. Our ship is the baby one!

One of the attractions at the top of the rock are what is called the Barbary Ape. They are really not apes but macaques, Europe’s only species of primate. You do need to keep a distance because they can attack if provoked. And they like to steal food so people are warned not to carry plastic bags since they think there is food in there. Of course people should also not feed them.

After walking around to see the Barbary Apes and the view, we took the cable car down to the nearby Botanical Gardens. From above it looked small and kind of unimpressive. What a surprise to see it and just wander through the beautiful paths.

We had passed the Pig and Whistle pub on our way to the cable car and thought it would be a good idea to go there for lunch. So we headed back in that direction. Here are some things we spotted along the way.

To our surprise when we reached the Pig and Whistle – it was open but they do not serve food! We had already passed the open square with many restaurants so we had lunch in the Terrace Cafe back on the ship. They did have most of the British options including fish and chips.

I had fun in the casino and playing name that tune in Martinis at 10:15 PM.

Tomorrow we sail in the river to reach Seville at about 1 PM. We have an overnight there so will have dinner at one of the riverside restaurants. We have 3 good options from the executive concierge so we will check those out.