Our Magical Westbound Transatlantic Voyage: September 2010

[gismo1554]

Loving this so far Sarah!

[Michelle]

Loving the report Sarah.

So looking forward to sailing on the WBTA this year

I've added your report to the Cruise reports thread

Can't wait to read more.

[M M]

Great report Sarah

[Guest]

Originally Posted by gismo1554

Loving this so far Sarah!

See more...

Originally Posted by Michelle

Loving the report Sarah.

See more...

Originally Posted by M M

Great report Sarah

See more...

Thanks everyone

[Guest]

DAY 5 : Gibraltar !

We were quite excited about visiting Gibraltar … me because I had never been there, and Tony because he had spent a lot of time there during his Navy days and was looking forward to revisiting old haunts. We were both up early .. Tony went off to the gym and I went up on deck to take some photos .. it was still quite dark and very quiet up on deck,



so I snapped a few photos of the view







Morrisons:



I watched the sun come up for a while, before heading back to the cabin to prepare for the day ahead. When Tony returned we headed to breakfast at Topsiders, and before long it was time to head off the ship to explore Gibraltar. Our plan was to walk up to the Cable Car Station and take the cable car up to the top of the Rock, where I hoped to avoid any contact with the apes at all cost, but was going up there purely for the photographic opportunities of the view of the straits etc.






So we headed off to the cable car station, and on the way we encountered the Trafalgar Cemetary, which was very interesting.



We wandered for a while, reading the inscriptions and marvelling at hoe old and historically important this place was. It was also very moving.










While we were there I heard something rustling in the trees, and was shocked to spot an ape up there, who promtly decided to leap out of the tree and approach us … I don't think I have ever moved so fast. I managed to snap this photo using the full extent of my zoom lens!



We continued to the Cable Car station, taking photos of the architecture and anything else I found remotely interesting along the way.
















continued below ...

[Guest]

Unfortunately when we arrived at the cable car station, we were informed that the cable cars were not going to be running because of high winds, so the only way up the Rock was to take a taxi or walk, neither of which we found particularly appealing, so we decided to walk into the main town and the street which was appropriately known as Main Street. We came across a shop which specialised in photographs of Naval ships and had data bases going back years, and Tony managed to find photographs of all the ships he served on in the Navy, including one photograph which showed him actually standing on the deck. We bought these and plan to get them framed up at some time. There was a shower while we were in the photo shop, but luckily by the time we exited the shop it had stopped, so we just wandered around the streets for a while, popping into a few shops along the way until we decided it was time for a coffee.

We found a coffee shop / bar in one of the back streets, as as we were sitting there we spotted Warren and Abby passing by, and they decided to come and join us, so we had a lovely coffee and a chat. We then continued wandering aimlessly around the streets, taking lots of photos,
























and then Tony set out to try and find a bar he used to frequent in the Navy, a place called "Charles' Hole in the Wall". He was thrilled to find it was still there, although it was closed, and the actual “hole in the wall” had now been bricked up and it had a regular door.





By now we had seen most of the main area of Gibraltar and so we decided to head back to the ship via Morrisons supermarket, as I needed to buy chocolate bars for the candy swap and other gifts, fizz for the champagne girls party, toiletries I had deliberately left at home because of the weight allowance, and a few other bits and pieces. It was amazing how many cruisers and cast members were in Morrisons … we bumped into people we knew in every aisle!

Shopping completed we headed back to the ship …. it was a relief to get back to the air conditioning and get rid of the shopping bags.

Once on board we decided to get some very late lunch, and because the buffet was closed we opted for chicken strips (me) and burger ( Tony ) followed by soft serve ice cream. We then sat up on deck and relaxed and watched the world go by for a few hours.






The show that evening was a Beatles tribute act, so we decided to give that a miss. I hate to admit it but I am not a big fan of the Beatles music and Tony wasn't fussed either.

continued below ...

[Guest]

Dinner was in Animator's Palate,



where I had wild mushroom risotto, followed by smoked salmon, trout and goats cheese salad, penette pasta and apple crumble …..



all of which were totally delicious. A few photos were taken at dinner:













When Lynne answered “me too “ for her dessert, she didn't realise it would be taken literally:



After dinner we decided to go for a night cap with Michael and Michele in Diversions,



and on the way there we got a bit distracted by the Magic Quest game which was going on in Rockin Bar D so we watched that for a few minutes. The host was the lovely David:



Lets just say it was quite entertaining, particularly the guy on the far right in the white bra, who eventually won the game by dropping his pants to the tune of “I'm too sexy for my shirt”






in Diversions we met up with Jodie and Mike who were concocting their own cocktails with the bartender Nur:



Jodie had invented this cocktail called “Klondike” and although I can't remember what was in it it was totally delicious.

We ended up having a couple of nightcaps and then on our way to the cabin we bumped into Angie, Dennis and PJ so that called for a photo moment !





a few more photos on an empty Deck 4:







Overall it had been a really interesting and enjoyable day, and I was really tired buy the time my head hit the pillow ( nothing to do with the nightcaps of course ! ).

[NatsyNoo]

Excellent report so far! Look forward to reading the rest!

[Guest]

The pics are amazing

[Guest]

Originally Posted by NatsyNoo

Excellent report so far! Look forward to reading the rest!

See more...

Originally Posted by tina williams

The pics are amazing

See more...

Thank you