Debarking from Barcelona, we headed to Palma de Mallorca, which was a lovely little city in the harbor of a beautiful island off the coast of eastern Spain. I wondered around the tiny little cobblestone streets packed with history and culture. I walked into a few little corridors one of which turned out to be a beautiful Public Gardens. I wandered around the outside of the gorgeous cathedral that sits centrally atop the hill of the city. When I was completely exhausted from walking and had pulled a muscle in my toe, which still is aggravating me a week later, I headed back for the ship.
Palma alleyways:
We headed onto Malaga, but I was on IPM that day so, I did my duties and rested on the ship catching up of my movie watching (translation catching up on finally watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4).
Our next port was Gibraltar, which was amazing and one of my favorite spots so far. It is sort of like a little England with a suntan. Perhaps better described as Spain trying to do England trying to do a summer holiday city. It had all the English foods and stores, and had the charm of a Spanish town, and I really quite enjoyed that. Mark, a new friend and addition to the clan (he is the Shore concierge manager), Victoria, Nina, Kelly, Olivia and I took a cable car ride to the top of the rock of Gibraltar. (Did I mention that Mark got us the free tickets?…but don’t worry, that’s not the only reason we’ve added him to the group, he’s also a awesome guy.) Once at the top of the rock, we looked out over the straight of Gibraltar and saw Africa! Standing in the UK, looking out at Spain and Africa was a sight to see. It was an amazing thing that I would recommend to everyone. There were also these crazy monkeys that live all over the rock, and they are not scared of humans at all. When we got out of the cable car one jumped on the back of the guy in front of me. While we were looking at the view I asked Oli to take a picture of me next to a giant one and I must have gotten a bit to close as he batted me away. He hit my leg with his arm; it frightened the daylight out of me, but didn’t hurt. Mark, Vicki and I went to go get some fish & chips, (why not?) and they were delicious! It started to rain, so I headed back for the ship.
the group of us on top of the rock:
the monkey that attacked me:
That evening we sailed through the straight while there was still light out and it was astonishing to see Spain starboard and to see Africa on our Port. I really enjoyed walking around our top deck just looking at the night lights of Morocco! We next came to Cadiz and Vicki, Kelly, and I set out for the beautiful beach I had spotted while on tour the week earlier. We soaked up some sun and paddled about in the water and then headed into town for a late lunch where Victoria was exchanged for Olivia and Antonio (one of the waiters who was about to leave us in Lisbon.) I headed back to the ship for a late siesta after roaming the streets a bit, and then without even suspecting it, we were off to Portugal.
We came into Portimao, Portugal and I headed out with Kelly and Vicki to town. It, however, was a Sunday, so literally everything was closed; so instead I came back to the ship for lunch and picked up Gemma and Joanne, from the spa; who by the way cut my hair to the original length of my contract, which was very nice to be cleaned up. So Gem and Jo and I went to the beautiful beach Playa de Russia, and laid out next to some very good looking Spaniards. I looked white. I mean seriously white next to these tan young women and men. But what was I gonna do, the only way to get a little color was to be there in all my whiteness, so that’s what I did.
We pulled into Lisbon and I headed into town for some wifi at the Starbucks I had found with Lara and Rob, a few days earlier, and it was at this point that I caught up on my birthdays. I had missed some very important ones, what with no internet and no track of days. I literally as I am writing this have no idea what day it is. Is that bad? I know it’s somewhere near the end of September. I apologize to all those people who’s birthdays I missed celebrating. Post the starbucks, I headed back to the ship for embarkation and a nap. Which brings us up to the next voyage, which we just started heading to Civitavecchia (Rome).
Me at the top of gibraltar with africa on the left and Spain on the right:
Love heals,
Rhett
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