GIBRALTAR

It's hard to believe but our time in Gibraltar is at an end.  We've been here for eleven days already and we leave tomorrow for the Costa del Sol in Spain.

Eleven days is a long time on this little spit of land (just two miles long and a mile wide - most of which is taken up by a very, very large piece of limestone), but, as many of you know, with our Schengen Zone issues we had to "get out of Dodge" and this proved an easy escape between Portugal and Spain.  The town itself was not at all what we had expected.  It is old and rundown.  The streets are a maze (thank heaven we had our trusty Tom Tom GPS) and beside the main street which is just a long, long row of duty free shopping (there is no VAT here so everyone comes over from the mainland to shop), there is nothing much else.

It took us all of one day to see the major tourist attractions on this rock.  We took the cable car up to the top and then hoofed it from one side of the rock . . . . .








(going up and down, back and forth) all the way to the other side.  Needless to say, we got our exercise.










We started at St. Michael's Cave.  It is really quite large.  So large, in fact, that they actually hold concerts and fashion shows here (if you look closely you can see all the chairs).  I can't imaging going to one of these events as it is quite wet inside.  Nothing like having to wear your rain gear while listening to music.  I wonder how they keep the amplification from shorting out.  And, why they have the whole cave lighted in these garish blue and purple lights is beyond me.

Our next stop was on the other side of Gib (as they call it) - The Great Siege Tunnels.  The first part of these were excavated in the late 1700's by the British as a means to fight off the Spanish who had laid siege to them trying to get control of the straits.  This siege went on for over three years. 

The last time the tunnels were used was during the second world war.  Additional excavation has occurred over the years and there are now over six miles of tunnels in this rock.

Our last tourist stop was to the Moorish Castle.  Originally called The Tower of Homage, it was first constructed in the early 8th Century and over the years rebuilt during times of Moorish occupation of the area.


Part of the Castle actually housed the HM Prison until it was moved in 2010.

And, while talking about Gib you have to talk about the "Apes".  Actually Barbary Macaques, they truly are everywhere!  



But the majority of our time here was spent in a lovely apartment in the Caleta Hotel, definitely the best place to stay while in Gib.  It is on the east side and we had views of both Spain and Africa from our balcony.  The surf (which we not only heard but felt six stories up) pounded the rocks on which the hotel was perched, and the changing ocean and sunrises and moonscapes were awesome.  It has been a wonderful respite and we enjoyed our time reading and sunning on our balcony.  And, yes, we even got our workouts in at the health and fitness center - what more you could ask for? 

So, I'll leave you for now with just one of our beautiful sunrises . . 









and one of our beautiful moonscapes.

See you in Spain!

PORTUGAL

It's hard to believe but our time in Portugal has come to an end.  We have really enjoyed reacquainting ourselves with this lovely country and our apartment in Cascais was the perfect place from which to explore the Lisbon area.  

A little commentary on this country before I get to the pictures of our various sightseeing adventures.  The Portuguese people are some of the warmest we have ever met and the country is not only beautiful but so clean and well-kept.  That being said, there are some serious problems here.  As a local we ran into while in the Sintra forest (he was out for his weekend run) put it - this is paradise for living . . . . but not for working.  Some examples:  We disembarked and expected to have to spend time going through immigration.  Not so - seems no one showed up that day so we entered the country with no one stamping our passports!  It will be interesting to see what happens when we leave at the end of our trip and they want to know when we entered the Schengen Zone since our first stamp will be exiting it into the UK.  And, the tollroads are interesting here, too.  To raise money, in 2012 the Portuguese turned regular highways into toll roads.  But there was no place to put toll booths so they made them electronic only - fine for locals but not so great for foreigners.  After much research on line we found that we needed to buy a prepaid card at the post office, get it validated through texting and then place it on our windshield.  The only problem was that no one ever answered our texts so it never got validated.  I guess no one came to work that day!  No wonder they have 25% unemployment!  But, no worries.  We put our unvalidated ticket on our windshield and sailed through all the toll booths on our way out of the country - I guess the highway patrol weren't working that day either.

Anyway, back to sightseeing.  Our first day of exploring was in the Sintra area.  This area is full of palaces for it is where the Portuguese royalty had their summer residences and hunting grounds.  The town of Sintra is very quaint and we had a great lunch of grilled sardines.

From there we were able to make a loop to visit Pena Palace, the largest of the royal palaces,

the Capuchos Convent (a religious sect with monasteries all through Europe) which is also called the Cork Convent as all the walls, doors and windows are covered in cork

 and Monserrate, which was actually built by a very wealthy Englishman in the 1800's. 

We also played some golf which was great fun.  The one course, Areiola, really reminded us of Pebble Beach.  It was close to the ocean and was lined with evergreens.  Really beautiful.

We had many more adventures, including a day train trip into Lisbon, but that's enough photos for now.  We will leave you, bid you Bom Dia from our terrace and catch up with you again in Gibraltar.

WE'RE BACK ON LAND

We set sail from Miami on March 31.  Our cabin was beautifully situation on the ship so that we were able to have our first dinner on our veranda with a stunning view of the Miami skyline.  Here is a shot of it at night right before we sailed.

Our crossing was very calm, for which we were extremely grateful.  Though we had a number of overcast days we were able to get a few days of vegging by the pool which was pure heaven.

On day 8 we landed in Funchal, the main city of Madeira.  Again we were on the correct side of the ship as we woke up to this beautiful view.

The town was charming, with many interesting shops, a plethora of unusual fruits, wicker products and of course, Madeira wine.  We found though that while Madeira is their number one export, bananas are their second and the hillsides close to town were covered with banana groves.  

The most interesting part of the town though were its doors.  Every door in the historic part of town was painted.  Here are just a few examples.

It was great fun just walking around looking at all the creative ways that people painted their doors.

We weighed anchor and sailed for Lisbon around 5:00.  Again, we have a beautiful evening on our veranda and after dinner watched this stunning sunset.

We are now on dry land, ensconced in our Cascais apartment.  Cascais is a charming town close to Lisbon and a number of other historic, scenic towns.  We plan on doing a lot of sightseeing along with playing some great golf.  We will fill you in on our activities at the end of our stay.  Until then Bom Dia.