Monday, September 18, 2006

Gibraltar (UK), Day 10

I woke up this morning with a sore throat. We were up early, because today we had a tour planned, City Under Siege (name of tour). The entire island is 2.53 square miles. Our tour guide Frankie, was a very funny guide. We had a good time and learned a lot about this British Overseas Territory (which is what Gibraltar is). People on the tour couldn’t believe that at 6 months pregnant, I was walking around on this tour, doing hills and stairs…. They were impressed. The entire island pretty much is one big hill. (Inside the hill there are tunnels that are about 30 miles long (winding)….. within the 2.53 square mile island.

Some info on Gibraltar:

Gibraltar is connected to Spain by a sandy isthmus, a ferry to Morocco and flights to London. The subject of repeated conquest and sieges, Gibraltar has been a British Territory since 1704. Ceded forever to Britain by Spain in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Gibraltar joined the EU in 1973, under the British Treaty of Accession. It shares a three-quarter of a mile (1.2 km) land border with Spain and has 7½ miles (12 km) of shoreline.

We lost 2 hours today, as Gibraltar is on a different time zone, and boy that was tiring.


First stop on the tour was to the cable car. That was pretty cool. When we got up there, we got to see a few tail less barbery apes. Those are quite adorable. There was a sign that if you feed the Apes, you can be fined 500£ (british pounds). Apparently they like plastic bags, so if you buy something, we’re told to put it in our backpack or purse, because the Apes think it’s food and will steal it out of your hand… which is crazy! They are very very smart animals. They are the only wild Apes in Europe. (AND VERY CUTE!)

While visiting, one ran into the gift shop, grabbed a bag of potato chips and ran out onto a higher ledge (so no one can reach him) and he ripped open the bag of chips and ate every single last one, licking his fingers afterwards…. I photographed this of course… too bad we had no video camera.

Down at the Apes’ Den I got to feed them (legally….. will not be fined 500£). We were given a seed that they are allowed to have. I had some in my hand, and had some of the apes’ eating right out of my hand. It was a pretty neat experience. One ape though, started tugging on my arm and then almost tried to bite me, I freaked out - and screamed, which scared the Ape. J took pictures of me feeding the apes, it was really cool. I can’t wait to post all my photos on FLICKR when I get back!

It was really neat hanging out with the Apes’. So far, this is one of my fave things on the trip! It was quite unique, actually.

We did a tour by bus afterwards of the ‘rest’ of Gibraltar (don’t forget the island is very small!) And we also went into the Great Siege Tunnel. It was all down hill, and I was very happy about that until I realized that you have to go all the way back up to get out….. well…. that was quite tiring, let me tell you! But, if the seniors could do it - so could I!

We stopped off at the Gibraltar Museum, and I decided just to pick up the souvenirs that I needed there, instead of us going into town afterwards. We were both really tired and didn’t want to go into the city (Main St.) after the tour ended, (which was bringing us back to the ship afterwards). We could have taken the city bus a couple of stops back into town, but boy were we zonked.

We had a nice time in the morning, so we decided to go back to the ship and have lunch. Before retiring to our room for a 3 hour nap (which was MUCH NEEDED), I was able to get the entire island of Gibraltar into ONE photograph! Can you believe it? ONE picture… it was that small.
Dinner this evening was just the two of us, and that was really nice. I had a shrimp stir fry and that was very good. J allowed me to have ONE sip of wine, to toast our 1 year wedding anniversary, and I enjoyed that one sip very much. (That is one thing I’m missing during this pregnancy… it’s wine! I love a good glass of wine!)

We had this card that we were given to bring down with us to dinner, which was to celebrate our anniversary on the ship. The only thing that it entitled us to - was the wait staff singing us “Happy Anniversary” to the tune of Happy Birthday. So…. we decided to take that back from them, and forgo the happy anniversary song! (LOL) We had also gotten one for celebrating our Honeymoon, so that one got chucked as well.

Tonight, J asked me what I wanted to do. He told me that he didn’t need to play poker (he has been playing Texas Hold’em everyday on the ship at night after we sail. Some nights I’ve been playing with him, and others, I’ve just done my own thing… (including laundry, which I did on Saturday night, as we didn’t pack enough tank tops for me and polos’ for J as we were expecting cooler weather than the heat we’ve been blessed with)). BUT… since our bad experience with the horrible comedian last week, I decided that I wanted to play texas hold’em tonight…. at my insistance. J couldn’t believe it! There wasn’t really anything else going on in the ship (in any of the lounges or in the theater) so… poker it was. We have become really friendly with the dealers in the casino, so that is fun too…. it’s funny that they now know our names!

Tonight I won 40$. I sat down originally last week with 40$ and tonight when I started playing I was at 65$. So In the end, tonight I left the casino with 102$. I am very happy about this, for sure. J on the other hand….. well, he’s up a couple of hundred - we won’t go there tonight! LOL….. I had a really fun time playing - that’s for sure.

I had brought J - 3, yes, THREE, cards that I bought him for our anniversary….. but since he decided to tell me that he didn’t bring any for me, not even one…. I decided to not give them to him until he writes me one. He said when we get back home. Ha! That will be the day (he’s Mr. Unromantic - but that’s why I married him - I hate cheesy romance shit to begin with!) Anyhow…. don’t ask why I got him three cards… one is just funny, and the other two, well, I just couldn’t decide…. you know? Maybe I’ll just keep them for next year. It’s kinda funny that he knows about them though…

I can’t believe it’s already been one year since the wedding… ONE FULL year! Where does time go? It feels like yesterday the wedding. I can remember it so clearly… it’s unreal! And who would have thought, that a year later, we’d be in a another country celebrating our one year anniversary, myself 6 months pregnant….. it’s just too amazing… !

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