Marc Wambolt's Blog - Posts Tagged "europe"
MARC'S MEMOS
10-23-21
TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Part 7
Gibraltar was next on the itinerary. A very interesting place to visit. The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promotory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is 426 meters high. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. Gibraltar flies the flag of Great Britain even though it is geographically far away.
The excursion to the Rock starts in either a bus that carries around twenty people or a full size Grehound-like bus. Today it's on the smaller one.
Our tour was guided as usual and she spoke three languages. Most of all, you could understand her. Some of the other guides we have had were difficult to understand even though they were speaking English.
As a side note, most of the guests on this cruise were British and we had a hard time with them too. With their strong accents and special words to describe things, it made it a real challenge to figure out what they were saying. Sometimes we would ask them again. Sometimes we had to just nod, smile and say yes. We weren't being rude, we simply didn't understand. Out of three thousand guests, only one hundred and sixty were from the U.S., and most of the remaining were Brits. With very few guests from other countries like China, etc., we were definitely at a disadvantage when trying to ask or answer questions.
Of course, the cruise personnel on the ship speak many languages, but sometimes they aren't right there to help you such as on the elevators. That is where you encounter other passengers that you may not understand what they are saying.
Anyway, Gibraltar flies the flag of Great Britain even though it is geographically far away. We had an exciting tram ride to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was an awesome ride. The guide warned us that there were wild monkeys (macaques) qat the top and they can be agressive. They will steal just about anything they think may have food in it. Backpacks, purses, or some treat you might have bought at the cafe there, could be targets. One of the monkeys pushed open the door to the cafe and was sitting on one of the chairs before being chased out by two workers.
Our next adventure was to go to the Siege Tunnels. They were created by carving out tunnels inside the giant Rock. These tunnels provided the military here to defend against enemies and invading armies. We got to enter the tunnels and look at life-long figures and signs explaining its history. Access holes were blasted to create windows for outside air and to position cannons to fire on the enemy. It was amazing to see how large this underground labyrinth was and it's strategic effect on this relatively small piece of land.
Then we headed to Europa Point and it's lighthouse. It is the southernmost tip of Gibraltar. It is flat and on clear days you can see Spain and the mountains of Morroco (Northern Africa) across the Straits of Gibraltar (the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.)
It was a wonderful experience and just one of many great places we explored on our TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Where are we going to visit after this?
UNTIL NEXT TIME, TAKE CARE! Marc
TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Part 7
Gibraltar was next on the itinerary. A very interesting place to visit. The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promotory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is 426 meters high. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. Gibraltar flies the flag of Great Britain even though it is geographically far away.
The excursion to the Rock starts in either a bus that carries around twenty people or a full size Grehound-like bus. Today it's on the smaller one.
Our tour was guided as usual and she spoke three languages. Most of all, you could understand her. Some of the other guides we have had were difficult to understand even though they were speaking English.
As a side note, most of the guests on this cruise were British and we had a hard time with them too. With their strong accents and special words to describe things, it made it a real challenge to figure out what they were saying. Sometimes we would ask them again. Sometimes we had to just nod, smile and say yes. We weren't being rude, we simply didn't understand. Out of three thousand guests, only one hundred and sixty were from the U.S., and most of the remaining were Brits. With very few guests from other countries like China, etc., we were definitely at a disadvantage when trying to ask or answer questions.
Of course, the cruise personnel on the ship speak many languages, but sometimes they aren't right there to help you such as on the elevators. That is where you encounter other passengers that you may not understand what they are saying.
Anyway, Gibraltar flies the flag of Great Britain even though it is geographically far away. We had an exciting tram ride to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was an awesome ride. The guide warned us that there were wild monkeys (macaques) qat the top and they can be agressive. They will steal just about anything they think may have food in it. Backpacks, purses, or some treat you might have bought at the cafe there, could be targets. One of the monkeys pushed open the door to the cafe and was sitting on one of the chairs before being chased out by two workers.
Our next adventure was to go to the Siege Tunnels. They were created by carving out tunnels inside the giant Rock. These tunnels provided the military here to defend against enemies and invading armies. We got to enter the tunnels and look at life-long figures and signs explaining its history. Access holes were blasted to create windows for outside air and to position cannons to fire on the enemy. It was amazing to see how large this underground labyrinth was and it's strategic effect on this relatively small piece of land.
Then we headed to Europa Point and it's lighthouse. It is the southernmost tip of Gibraltar. It is flat and on clear days you can see Spain and the mountains of Morroco (Northern Africa) across the Straits of Gibraltar (the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.)
It was a wonderful experience and just one of many great places we explored on our TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Where are we going to visit after this?
UNTIL NEXT TIME, TAKE CARE! Marc
MARC'S MEMOS
11 - 13 - 2021
TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Part 8
Then we had two days at sea with no stops in a port. It is nice to have a few days to rest before the end of the cruise. Well, we made it back to the main port of Southampton, England. That ended our fourteen-day cruise to the Meditteran and it was a trip of a lifetime. However, we were not done.
We were scheduled to get a ride back to London and spend an entire week there! We drove about two hours with an Uber driver and arrived at our hotel. It is called St. ERMINS. It has been said that Winston Churchill stayed here in the 1940's during WWll, among other famous people in its long history. It was opened in 1899 and has its own honey bees up on the third floor of the building. Also, it has an herb garden on the fourth floor roof.
We checked in and shortly afterwards, decided to do some exploring. It was about 1:30 p.m. so we had the rest of the day to be tourists. We made our way to Victoria Street and as we turned the corner, there stood Westminster Abbey projected against a beautiful big blue sky. The cumulous clouds looked like decorations placed there just for us. We were so excited and began wildly snapping lots of pictures. To come all this way to be so close to an historic place, on such a perfect day, was amazing. We decided to continue exploring and made our way over to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. A form of government our forefathers copied as our Congress. In America, the House and the Senate.
From there it was only a short distance to Big Ben. We found out that the name Big Ben was not actually the clock, but the BIG BELL inside the clock tower! Very interesting! We were getting hungry so we decided to get something to eat right by the hotel. At the OLD STAR PUB, we got fish and chips plus and a good local beer to cap off Day 1 in London.
Oh yeah, I forgot we had a three-hour tour of London that night after dinner. We did plan this tour perfectly because we were not tired yet and it was still early. We hopped aboard the typical double-decker bus you see in photos and postcards. It was a wonderful experience. We chose the upper deck. You get a better look at the sights because it has no roof to limit your view. The weather was perfect too. The tour took us by all the main icons of the city and we listened to a narration of the sights through headphones that were provided. We crossed over the Tower Bridge and while looking straight up at it, took a picture that later that turned out to be one of my favorites. Sometimes buildings or bridges look so amazing at night if they are illuminated with bright lights or even some colored lights to highlight the architecture. A softer light can be effective too.
Anyway, it was a great tour. Part 9 is next of this adventure is next
UNTIL NEXT TIME, TAKE CARE! Marc
TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Part 8
Then we had two days at sea with no stops in a port. It is nice to have a few days to rest before the end of the cruise. Well, we made it back to the main port of Southampton, England. That ended our fourteen-day cruise to the Meditteran and it was a trip of a lifetime. However, we were not done.
We were scheduled to get a ride back to London and spend an entire week there! We drove about two hours with an Uber driver and arrived at our hotel. It is called St. ERMINS. It has been said that Winston Churchill stayed here in the 1940's during WWll, among other famous people in its long history. It was opened in 1899 and has its own honey bees up on the third floor of the building. Also, it has an herb garden on the fourth floor roof.
We checked in and shortly afterwards, decided to do some exploring. It was about 1:30 p.m. so we had the rest of the day to be tourists. We made our way to Victoria Street and as we turned the corner, there stood Westminster Abbey projected against a beautiful big blue sky. The cumulous clouds looked like decorations placed there just for us. We were so excited and began wildly snapping lots of pictures. To come all this way to be so close to an historic place, on such a perfect day, was amazing. We decided to continue exploring and made our way over to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. A form of government our forefathers copied as our Congress. In America, the House and the Senate.
From there it was only a short distance to Big Ben. We found out that the name Big Ben was not actually the clock, but the BIG BELL inside the clock tower! Very interesting! We were getting hungry so we decided to get something to eat right by the hotel. At the OLD STAR PUB, we got fish and chips plus and a good local beer to cap off Day 1 in London.
Oh yeah, I forgot we had a three-hour tour of London that night after dinner. We did plan this tour perfectly because we were not tired yet and it was still early. We hopped aboard the typical double-decker bus you see in photos and postcards. It was a wonderful experience. We chose the upper deck. You get a better look at the sights because it has no roof to limit your view. The weather was perfect too. The tour took us by all the main icons of the city and we listened to a narration of the sights through headphones that were provided. We crossed over the Tower Bridge and while looking straight up at it, took a picture that later that turned out to be one of my favorites. Sometimes buildings or bridges look so amazing at night if they are illuminated with bright lights or even some colored lights to highlight the architecture. A softer light can be effective too.
Anyway, it was a great tour. Part 9 is next of this adventure is next
UNTIL NEXT TIME, TAKE CARE! Marc
