Tue, 3/25/25    Gibraltar

Day 79 - Tuesday, March 25th, 2025 – Gibraltar

Like a few ports along the way, this was another mystery one. Despite Mary's best efforts to try to find an excursion they just do not have any lift or ramp equipped vehicles in Gibraltar. Through discussions with several people we know that it's about a mile into town. We were told that it is pretty flat. We are told that once we are in town there are several places to check out.

Because we did not have to be out early, we took our time. We decided to go up to 14 for breakfast. I had two egg bites which weren't very good. I had a cup of coffee. Mary had scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. I could tell from the look of the scrambled eggs that she was not going to eat them. They looked gross. I guessed right. We sat up there for about 45 minutes. I managed to catch a 15 minute nap which really helped. If I get up too early or too soon, I'm in this little fog that only a short nap can fix. It worked today. After my nap I was ready to go.

We made our way down to four midship and off the boat. We follow the crowd toward the city. For the most part, it is flat. Some of their curb cuts were a little dicey, but not bad. We had to navigate some strange intersections, but before long we were in the Town Center. Before we got to the town center, we stopped at a grocery store and noticed that they had Monster Energy. We decided not to buy it there or then because we could pick it up on the way back. We didn't want to have to lug it all day long. This was huge because I was down to one can in the cabin. I have this uncontrollable twitch when I'm down to one can of monster. My world is very simple. I need my wife. I need oxygen. I need Wi-Fi. And I need Monster Energy. I'm not exactly convinced that's the correct order, but you get the picture. I gotta have my Monster Energy.

We travel another 20 to 30 minutes inside the town. We come to one stopping point where Mary sees a souvenir shop. Where she buys, you guessed it, T-shirts, refrigerator magnet, postcards and stamps. This is like winning the shopping lottery. We got everything accomplished in one stop. While sitting in the sun, Mary fills out the postcards and drops them in a mailbox that is about 50 feet away. This keeps just getting better. Wait, right next door to the souvenir shop is a pharmacy because I keep tearing my hands apart I need band-aids. Mary is able to buy band aids at the pharmacy. Another score. Then, like a bullet out of a gun, Mary races across the street to a cosmetic store. I sit outside mostly because I don't wanna know. She's in there for 20 minutes and she comes out with a big smile on her face. I don't ask but she tells me that she saved money based on what she would have paid for these cosmetics at home. Saving money is always good news to me. We have to be back to the ship by 4:30. By now it's a little after 1:00. So we have time, but not a lot of time. I also know that my wife don't need something to drink, has to go to the bathroom and need something to eat. I know my wife. Will she say that she needs to do any of these things? No. So as we start to move back towards the way we came I suggest we get something to eat and drink. This opens up the global debate of where? We are standing in front of a Burger King. Yes, Gibraltar has a Burger King and a Taco Bell. I did not see a McDonald's, but I'm sure there was one somewhere nearby. Up a little ways we see a bakery. Up from there we see a fish and chips place. The fish and chips place is where we decide to eat. I wanted to find a table in the sun because the shade was still pretty cool. In hindsight, that was probably not the best idea, but I know I'm not perfect. We find a table in the sun. We order a beer and a Diet Coke. We then order the regular size cod dinner. The beer and soda come out. It takes a while but here comes the fish and fries. They were OK, at best. The fish itself was very good minus the breading. The breading was mushy. So if you only eat the fish after putting some salt on it it was very good. The fries were just OK also. While we're waiting for the food, Mary went to the bathroom. So we were good again. We had both and some liquid and food. Mary had gone to the bathroom. We could now tackle another couple hours if we needed to. You know it's the little things in life they get the most mileage.

We work our way back towards the ship. We found the grocery store that had the Monster Energy. Mary buys me 12 cans so my heart rate goes back down to normal. The twitching stops. She also bought some chips and cookies for the cabin. With all of this, we make our way back to the ship. As you got onto the ship there was a duty free shop. We broke the rules. We bought a bottle of Drambuie and we snuck it into the room. I don't know that we'll ever actually drink it, but it's nice to know that we have it here.

We make it back to the cabin a little before 4:00. We both close our eyes for about 30 minutes. I want to do a time lapse of this ship leaving so we set up the GoPro and wait for the captain to tell us that the ship is leaving. I will include the time lapse in the pictures section. I've included them in the past. I don't know if you think they're cool or not. I do.

Mary and I had a discussion about where we actually were. I'm envisioning Gibraltar as being directly between Africa and Europe. So, when the ship left it had to sail south before getting into the Mediterranean. Our cabin is on the starboard side. The rock of Gibraltar was going to be on the port side. I suggested to Mary she could go up to 14 and get pictures of the rock of gibraltarr from the port side. As it turns out, just as she got up there they were passing it. She got some great pictures nonetheless.

Because we had fish and breakfast I was not exactly looking forward to going to dinner. I was comfortable in the cabin. Although, I knew Mary would be hungry. So we cleaned up a little bit dash not at all actually. We made our way to dinner.

I had lentil soup, salad in the past the restaurant manager was making. Mary had a cheese dip, cold soup and the same pasta I had. It was not a red sauce pasta. It was like a garlic and oil, for lack of a better term period it was good. Was one of these pastas where you actually tasted the pasta, not the sauce. I passed on dessert. Mary had souffle. It was a nice dinner. It was low key period that's what I wanted. For the first time in forever I did not freeze to death in the dining room period that was a good thing.

We came back to the room and I worked on the log. Mary did what she was doing.

We have an itinerary update. The island of Volos was hit with major rains which caused massive flooding. Because of this we will not be stopping there. We will instead be spending two full days in Athens. This should be great. We already have a scheduled excursion for the first day. I'm gonna look to see if there's a second excursion we can go on on the second day. We were having a tough time finding an excursion on Volos anyway. All good.

Another successful day on shore. Can we say we saw all of Gibraltar? Not even close. Can we say we saw the town? Definitely. That is a win in itself. Another successful day.