March 18
Yesterday (Saturday) started as a beautiful, sunny day in Malaga but that quickly changed as we drove southwest. We quickly hit rain and it was rainy and windy for the rest of the day.
Originally, we had not planned to visit Gibraltar as it was a stop on the cruise we had scheduled for next year. But a week ago we were told by the travel agent that the cruise line had rescheduled the cruise from April 29 to March 27. We decided that we didn’t want an Atlantic crossing that early and certainly didn’t want to have shore stops in weather like we are having this year, so we cancelled the cruise. Luckily it was in time to add Gibraltar back into this trip.
It turns out, though, that cars are no longer allowed at the top of the Rock. We didn’t find out until we had driven a rather steep road about halfway up. We were stopped by a guard who said we couldn’t drive any further. When we mentioned that we simply followed the signs that said “Upper Rock” he told us that they stopped allowing cars 2 years ago and never changed the signs; he said he happens all the time. Well, in that case you would think they’d change the signs as it was not an easy drive up the hill on the narrow, windy road. Apparently now the only way to the top is either on an organized tour which are impossible to get without advanced booking or the cable car, which due to the high winds, wasn’t running. So, we turned around and headed back down the hill. We found a place to park and walked around city center for a short time, stopping for fish and chips for lunch. At least Lynn had lunch. Peter had an English breakfast minus the baked beans. Seriously, who eats baked beans for breakfast?!? Apparently the British, but…eew.
After a quick walk around the square where Lynn picked up some beautiful hand-blown crystal items as gifts, we headed back to the car for the 90-minute drive to Rota. It was disappointing that we didn’t get to see the historic stuff in Gibraltar, but at least Peter got there for a short while.
The plan on the base was to stop at the Exchange (department store) and Commissary (grocery story) and do laundry before settling into our flat in a nearby town. But it turns out that Lynn’s retired ID doesn’t allow her access to the Exchange or Commissary. Naval Station Rota is a Spanish base leased to the American Navy and the agreement says that only Active Duty and their dependents are allowed to purchase in the stores. The idea is that they want everyone else to buy on the economy. While we understand the sentiment, if we could have gotten Cheetos and Fritos on the economy we would have already done so. The ones we had last week were BBQ flavored and, yes, they taste just as bad as they sound. But the good news is that we could access the mini mart which had just about everything we were looking for, including Cheetos and Fritos. Oh…the simple pleasures when traveling overseas.
Then it was off to do laundry in a real American washer/dryer which was very exciting. While waiting for laundry we packed up a box of things we bought over the last 2 1/2 weeks to ship home. Our two small carry-on sized suitcases are packed very tight, and we couldn’t drag these things around for the next 2 1/2 months especially since we’re flying a few times. We’ll take the box to the base post office on Monday morning before heading to Sevilla.
Our flat in Puerto de la Santa Maria is very nice but the internet is a little spotty. It’s only a few blocks from the beach and if the weather ever clears, we may take a walk on the beach. But Peter is still coughing and has been ordered by the ex-Navy Nurse not to step foot out of the house if it’s raining. Since the sky is pretty dark, we’re probably not going anywhere today.
So, as you can see it’s been a very mundane couple of days. Tomorrow we head for Sevilla which is one of Lynn’s favorite European cities. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for better weather, but we’re not holding our breaths. We’ll keep you posted.