Gibraltar

Wednesday 30th November

Our visit to Gibraltar was planned as a short one, 8am to 1pm. This meant I would need to wake up early. I don’t know if that disturbed my sleep but I kept waking all through the night. I heard the Captain’s docking announcement at 8am and decided I may as well allow myself to wake properly.

I was off the ship by 9.30. I have been to Gibraltar twice before. The first time I walked down the Rock with a group of people; the second time I went shopping. This time all I wanted was a bit of shopping.

I found that I could get a shared shuttle taxi to the shops for £4 return, which seemed much easier than looking for the local bus. In the windy, showery weather, Gibraltar seemed a bit of a dump. I needed to buy cigarettes for Jonathan as a thank you for driving me to Southampton. Although everyone raved at Gibraltar prices, and one man showed me the shop where he always bought his liquor and cigarettes, I’d checked the duty free shop on the way out and found their prices to be much better! I had hoped to buy some more fans, as I love the ones I bought on a previous trip, but only found one shop selling them, and the pictures were single-sided rather than double-sided so I passed on that. Lots of shops sell Swarovski items so I bought the ear-rings that I had failed to get in the online sale earlier in the year. At least they were duty-free, even if they weren’t half price.

Back on the ship I sat in Café Corinthia to write up my diary. An announcement came over at 11.45 to say that the weather was so blustery that they were cancelling any further shore leave. The gangplank must have been moving too much for safety. I was glad I was already on the ship.

That morning we had received an up-to-date statement of onboard spend. I was surprised to see $44 for table sales on the day that I had spent mainly in my room because of my sore back. I queried it at Reception and was told I would need to wait until we sailed, when the shops would be open. In the end I visited the relevant shop and their system showed it was for the purchase of a watch. No, I had not bought a watch. The sales assistant then phoned down for all the receipts for that day. It turns out that for table sales the receipt is written by hand and then put into the computer system later. Someone had given my room number, hopefully by mistake. At least they had her name and could chase up her details through the system.

During the evening dance session I got very hot and went back to my room for my fan. Once there I realised I had not taken my key with me. The female steward from the next section was cleaning a room so I asked her if she could let me in. Her supervisor was leaning against a wall chatting to her so he came to let me in. He then leant against my door, chatting to me. I was not impressed. I picked up the things I needed and headed for the door and he got out of my way. (See Saturday's post for the next instalment in this drama.)