"maykal's new Gibraltar Page" Gibraltar by maykal

Gibraltar was a port of call on my one and only cruise holiday. It was a special holiday because it was my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary, my parents' silver anniversary (or at least I think it was), and my Grandad's 75th birthday, so most mealtimes were celebrations. We sailed on the S.S.Canberra, which has since been destroyed. It was a memorable holiday, and being seven years old at the time, also quite exciting, but now I wouldn't even dream of going on a cruise holiday, as you don't get to see much of the places you visit.
Anyway, back to Gibraltar...what do i remember? Well, I remember going with my brothers to see the famous Apes of the Rock of Gibraltar and laughing at a silly man being bitten by them. And at the top of the rock, one of my brothers decided it would be funny to make me pull my other brother's trousers down in a busy cafe...so I did, and got a painful slap for my trouble! The rest of my memories of Gibraltar are blurred through tears!!
I think we also visited St Michael's cave, but am not certain of that...my grandparents were content with just the view from the ship, and didn't even go ashore! And I also remember being overexcited at seeing Ceuta, my first glimpse of Africa.

## Hahaha, reading the above makes me laugh, because although I am still allergic to cruises, possibly even more so now, another family celebration did make me board one...and again, it stopped at Gibraltar. Three hours is not a long time to spend anywhere, so there were limits as to what could be done. I decided not to take any cable cars up rocks, or feed any apes...instead, I wandered down Main Street, which seemed like a sunnier version of a dowdy British high street, then spent the remaining time scampering around the backstreets on the slopes of the Rock. I get the impression most visitors to Gibraltar are daytrippers with limited time, so climbing uphill from Main Street and getting lost in the maze of alleyways and stairs felt like going off the beaten track a little.

Gibraltar intrigues me. It is British, and then it isn't. Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples...English, Spanish, Arabic...at times it seemed so multicultural, yet at other times it seemed more British than Britain. It was odd.

I'm not sure if Gibraltar will lure me back for another visit (it certainly won't be by cruise ship next time!!!), but who knows? Maybe use Gibraltar as a spring board for a jaunt around Morocco? Or maybe spend more than a few hours getting to know the real Jebel Tariq?

As I say, I'm intrigued...

Check back later ;@P