Back to the boat at 2pm and the results of my shopping spree, each from a different shop.

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Blackstrap Cove £23.50

JD master distiller No 5 £19.95
JD master distiller no 6 £14.95
1L Basil Hayden’s Bourbon £28.50! I bought their last bottle otherwise I’d have more of these!

Oh, and 35p for the Japanese kitkat :)

Nice!!

All the bars in the boat are closed so it is back to O’Reilly’s as my feet are telling me that 15K steps is enough for them :)

A pint of Estrella again and this is much much better than the earlier beer, O’Reilly’s keep a good pint.

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I’ve ordered a couple of basic starters to keep the wolf from the door, I don’t want a heavy late lunch as I’m planning on a reasonably early evening meal.

Changed my sig last week when I booked my first AFKL flights - must get down to the burning though!

Just to add, scrolling through I saw the picture before reading your caption and was saying to myself "that's not 100 tons" - no, it's a pipe and a tree :)

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The photo doesn’t do the Pil Pil prawns justice, they were loaded with garlic and chilli in the bottom of the dish, really good and the bread was perfectly fresh and soft for soaking up the oil.

The Jalapeño poppers looked like your standard freezer fryer fare but were made with red chilli rather than green jalapenos and had a serious kick!

I’ve decided another beer is called for, and then a little afternoon snooze may be in order.

I was back in my room by 4pm and fell almost instantly asleep. I was rudely awakened at 6pm by my phone ringing, it was BA customer support so I ignored the call and rolled over, but a return to the land of nod was not to be. The call could only be in relation to my whinging about the chorizo roll so I checked my Executive Club account and lo and behold, 5,000 avios have appeared.

Right now I’m lounging in the room listening to the England France rugby match that is playing on the big screen of the bar next door, it’s loud enough that I can clearly hear the commentary.

To be honest I don’t really feel like either beer or food at the moment (I know!) so the new plan of the evening is to have a couple of coffees in the room, do a little bit of searching for flights back to GIB later this year, and then eat in the hotel later this evening. My planned restaurant for tonight can wait until next time.

It’s a regular destination for myself and a group of friends, we were there about 3 weeks ago. Never really given it much thought about writing a trip report as I always thought it would have been covered before.

Always worth a trip report :)

I have taken up residence in the Gastrobar again this evening and decided to give the chicken quesadillas from the bar menu a try for a first course. Bar snack my derrière! That was a ginormous serving.

The house white is a very easy drinking Pinot Grigio and the standard pour is an easy 1/5 bottle and more!

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I think I’ll give that time to settle and then maybe try a starter off the main menu to see what they are like.

When I saw that you were staying at “The Party Boat”, I did raise an eyebrow in surprise.

Precisely why I never stay there; always at “The Rock”.

See… if you had written a trip report I would not have made this mistake…. Now I blame you for my suffering :D :D

I would say that it’s worth it for the novelty value: Gibraltar airport is one of the top 10 “worlds most dangerous airports”. This is because the runway is short by international airport standards; it’s a “Captain only” landing which requires additional extra training before the Captain is allowed to land there. The approach is usually to descend to the west of Malaga and to the east of the peninsula. The approach is mainly hand flown and routes clockwise around The Rock (usually, a window seat on the right hand side of the aircraft yields the best views and photos) and comes sweeping in to land towards the east.The winds over and around the Rock can also make landing “interesting” and it’s not unusual to experience a go around or possibly a diversion to Malaga and a bus journey to your destination.

Another novel experience is being able to walk from the airport, across the runway and into town; where else can you stand in the middle of an international airport runway and get a selfie when there’s no air traffic movements? This might not be possible in the future as there is talk of stopping it and using shuttle buses via the new road tunnel to the west of the runway.

I find the history of Gibraltar fascinating; it was captured from the Spanish in 1704 during The War of the Spanish Succession and formally ceded to Britain as part of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The fact that this annoys the Spanish to this day appeals to my childish sense of humour.

Gibraltar used to be a very important naval base but activity is now much reduced. The military history during both World Wars is interesting and there are many tunnels within the Rock, some of which you can visit.

Its a good trip to take the cable car up to the top of the Rock for the views towards mainland Spain and over to Africa. Then there are the Barbary Apes that live wild around the peninsula but mainly on top of the Rock.

I would say that 2 nights is sufficient to see just about everything; you could always hire a car and drive to Cadiz or Malaga if staying any longer.

LOL!

I should say that there isn’t that much decent accommodation in Gibraltar and as a consequence, room rates are usually expensive. I’ve always stayed at “The Rock” hotel; it is a large, Art Deco building built in the 1930s and has hosted many famous people whose portraits hang in one of the foyers (although those of Prince Andrew and Jimmy Savile have mysteriously disappeared).

It has a kind of “colonial” feel about it and probably could do with some cosmetic attention in some places but the rooms are clean and comfortable, the views out over the bay to Spain are good from the higher floors and the staff are friendly and efficient. I’ve always had a decent rain shower in all of the rooms that I have stayed in (attn. JapesUK ).

It’s a really steep walk up to the hotel entrance, which might be a negative for some but it’s in a quieter area, the bar is nice and quiet and it doesn’t seem to attract the “Party Crowd”.

Apologies Japes, for hijacking your trip report 😬

No apologies necessary, I always enjoy the interactions in the trip report, makes it all the more interesting and especially when someone is offering valuable advice and enhancing the report.