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Gibralter, United Kingdom
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World Cruise 2007
Thursday, April 19, 8am-2pm
Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Excursion: World Voyagers Concert in the Caves, 4 hours, free to world cruisers
Background from Fodor's:
Today: The Rock dominates the strait between Spain and Morocco. It was one of the two Pillars of Hercules in ancient times, marking the western limits of the known world. Gibraltar today is a bizarre anomaly of Moorish, Spanish, and British influences. It commands the narrow pathway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It's like Britain with a suntan. There are double-decker buses, policemen in helmets and bright red mailboxes. Gibraltar is still enhancing its tourist potential, but already expat Britons come from Spain to shop in British stores like Marks and Spencer. Gibraltar is also a financial center because it's a tax haven.
Historically: The Moors (from Africa) seized the peninsula in 711 as a preliminary to conquer Spain. The Moors ruled for 750 years. Spain recaptured the Rock in 1462. The English, during the War of Spanish Succession, gained control in 1704, and Gibraltar was finally ceded to the British in 1713. Spain has been trying to get it back ever since.
In 1779 a combined Spanish and French force laid siege to the Rock, to no avail. You can visit the siege tunnels (we saw signs but didn't go there). During the Napoleonic Wars, Gib was Horatio Nelson's base for the decisive Battle of Trafalgar; during both world wars it was a naval and air base for the Allies.
The land border to Spain was closed by Franco in 1967, and it stayed closed until 1985 (he was trying to strengthen his claims over the colony). Today there are flights from Spain to Gibraltar, and Britain and Spain are discussing joint sovereignty, but most Gibraltarians are fiercely loyal to the crown.
Enough about that. Now about us. This turned out to be a surprisingly lovely day. It started at the crack of dawn, when the wakeup call went off at 7am-it wasn't even light outside! I was grouchy because I didn't have enough sleep and wasn't able to have any breakfast because I have to wait an hour after taking my morning pills, so actually I was really grouchy. Make that really, really grouchy. We went to the Constellation Theater at 7:50 and we were one of the last to assemble.
All the world cruisers were invited; maybe 1/3 didn't go because it wasn't wheelchair accessible and there were stairs to navigate. Small buses picked us up and took us to St. Michael's Cave. This is a dramatic natural grotto rich with stalactites and stalagmites, a natural auditorium for concerts.
We were offered Mimosas in plastic glasses as we entered the grotto. It seems that some sort of alcohol is considered obligatory at these events. I've noticed that on those rare world cruise events where there's no liquor (e.g., in a Muslim venue) there's an apology in advance in the description of the event.
We walked down into a cavern set up with plastic lawn chairs for us and the orchestra,
the European Sinfonietta. This orchestra is primarily known for its work as a touring orchestra throughout Europe. It first toured Spain in 1992, and has gone on to perform at all major concert halls in Spain, in addition to tours of Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Korea. Members of the orchestra regularly play with some of the finest orchestras in the world.
The solo violinist was Barbara Doll. She was a German child prodigy-she appears to be in her 20s or early 30s now. She's now a soloist and chamber musician, and also professor for violin and chamber music at the Hochchule der kunste Bern in Zurich.
The conductor was Maestro Giovanni Pacor, also a former child prodigy, from Italy. His august career seems to be concentrated in Italy, Germany, and Vienna.
The program was classical, and included:
Mozart's Overture to Cosi fan tutte
Mozart's Violin Concerto No3 in G Major
Mendelssohn's Symphony No4 in A major, Op 90 "Italian"
Mozart's Violin Concerto No3 in G major
Mendelssohn's Symphony No4 in A major, Op 90 "Italian"
And as encore:
Johann Strauss's Cachucha Galop and
Strauss's Pizzacato Polka.
One of these, I think the first, was a fun piece played only by plucking the strings on all the string instruments. Everyone, including the musicians, was smiling at the end.
This reminded me of the outdoor concerts we went to in Vienna. None of us were dressed up. The musicians, even the violin soloist, were in street clothes. It was 9am. It was not a serious event. It was just about the music, and of course the amazing acoustics in the cave. It was quite damp and cool; water was dripping from the stalagmites or 'tites onto the group among the audience and the musicians. There were occasional shallow puddles on the ground.
As we exited the concert we had a chance to wander around the caverns just a little bit-the little bit we saw was just amazing.
I thought that was the end of the event. But no...we next visited the famous Barbary apes. It was just a stop along the roadway, actually.
The famous Barbary Apes are a breed of cinnamon-color tailless monkeys native to Morocco.
Legend holds that as long as the monkeys are in Gibraltar, the British will keep the Rock. Winston Churchill reinforced the legend by issuing an order for their preservation when they were endangered during WW II. We were warned that the apes could be dangerous,
grabbing purses and biting, but they were surprisingly docile. There was a huge notice to leave them alone, but several of our guests played with them.
The vets in charge of the apes warned that human interaction destroys the apes' culture and familial units, but our guests just interacted anyway.
Next we stopped at the fortifications for a panoramic view of Gibraltar,
Spain across the narrow strip of land, Morocco (we never did quite figure out where it was) and Africa in the distance. None of these places was more than 25 miles from us.
As if that weren't enough, we got an hour in the town.
I (Cynthia) was still kind of grouchy, so we had a cappuccino at an outside table, and then strolled through the town.
Cynthia's mood improved. We were back at the ship by noon or a little after. I'm really tired, but this excursion was worth the effort, lack of breakfast, and loss of sleep.
Once we returned to the ship, Capt Dag came on the intercom to tell us that we'd spend about an hour turning in circles to reset our magnetic compass onboard. We hadn't been able to get Internet access all day, so we theorized that maybe the two were connected. In any event, we got some great photos from our balcony as we circled.
I got confused about which land mass was which, but think Africa, being farthest away from us, is always the cloudy far-distant land mass.
John really worked at getting photos, because the sun was in the wrong direction for good shots. These are the best of maybe 30 tries.
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