GIBRALTAR, UNITED KINGDOM (4/19/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Apr 19, 2007 2:54 PM
Subject: Thursday, April 19, 2007

Thursday, April 19, 2007

GIBRALTAR, UNITED KINGDOM

They got us up early again this morning. There was an event for full world cruisers. “THE EUROPEAN SINFONIETTA ST MICHAEL’S CAVE” They picked us up with small buses and drove us from the harbor to the rock. We drove most of the way up to a huge cave where they were having the concert. Juices and Champaign were being served along with a few snacks.

We have been here and knew what the cave looked like. It was still outstanding. For those seeing it for the first time, it is unbelievable. There is a natural orchestra area and seating goes up one side. The music could not have been better. This was a very classy event.

The driver made a couple of stops on the way back down, for pictures. We then drove through town. The last times we had just been driven right back to the ship. We didn’t know there was a very nice little town. We were dropped at the center of this town for about one and one half hours.

It has a very pretty mall area of old buildings. Everything was priced in Euros and British Pounds. Today the pound hit a record high against the dollar so everything was too expensive for anyone to buy. Everyone that is except, you know who. There was a LLadro store. They are not discounted anywhere in the US. They are made in Spain and Gibraltar gets them the same as if it were a part of Spain and they are discounted. There is also no tax.

We got two stores away and guess what? There was a linen store. They had large table cloths. They were really pretty so we now own a couple of three of those too. Only two more ports for me to go broke on.

We got back to the ship for lunch. There was a Burger King at about the center of the mall area. A Whopper cost about $7.00. We were afraid to even look at the Pizza Hut.

We left at about 1:30 this afternoon. This is a great place for a stop. Especially if you have never seen the rock. On our last trips here the monkeys had been very vicious. They would steal the things out of women’s hair and run or throw them to another monkey. We saw them tearing the mirrors and antennae off cars for no reason. Now they were very cute. They did not attempt to even go very close to people even though they were there in numbers.