Rome and Silversea Day 10

Start of day: At sea, leaving the western Mediterranean
End of day: At sea (Atlantic), heading toward Portimão, Portugal

A lazy day at sea, with the highlight being our passage through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The strait is the narrow gateway between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic — barely eight miles across at its tightest, with Europe on one shore and Africa on the other. The ancient Greeks called the headlands that flank it the Pillars of Hercules and treated them as the edge of the known world, the point past which ships weren’t meant to sail. We spent the afternoon threading right down the middle of it.

Off the port side you can see the mountainous Rif shoreline of northern Morocco, anchored by the blunt headland of Jebel Musa. Note the cargo ship. This thin sliver of water is one of the busiest shipping lanes on Earth, funneling nearly everything bound between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean through the same narrow neck.

Then, to starboard, the Rock of Gibraltar.

It’s a single great slab of limestone shouldering some 1,400 feet straight up out of the sea at the southern tip of Spain. We don’t have a stop here on this voyage, but we passed this way during our European honeymoon cruise on the Celebrity Millennium in 2007 when we were mere babes. On that trip we toured some of the caverns and tunnels of Gibraltar, and even conferred with the Barbary macaques.

Photo from April 2007 atop the Rock of Gibraltar — a younger version of the author in a dark polo shirt leaning toward a Barbary macaque perched on a metal railing, with the Bay of Gibraltar, distant hills, and a partly cloudy blue sky behind

Photo from April 2007 looking down from the Rock of Gibraltar over the town and harbor, the wooded limestone slope falling away on the left, cargo ships anchored in the bay, and the hazy mountains of the North African coast across the Strait of Gibraltar

Photo from April 2007 of a Barbary macaque sitting on a black metal railing high on the Rock of Gibraltar, overlooking the marina, cruise ships, and densely built waterfront below, with the Spanish mainland coast in the distance

Around 6pm I had a casual solo dinner at the Atlantide: A plated fish dinner aboard the Silver Spirit — a fillet of white fish topped with capers and cherry tomatoes, served over greens with broccoli, cucumber, carrot, mashed potato, and a lemon half on a white textured plate, with a water glass and butter dish on the white tablecloth

A plated dessert aboard the Silver Spirit on a round black slate — a powdered-sugar-dusted millefeuille square beside a quenelle of pale ice cream, set on a brushed streak of sauce with slivers of candied citrus peel and herb garnish, flanked by a fork and spoon and a water glass on a cream tablecloth

Strolled through La Dolce Vita:

And had a decaf Americano and worked on this journal in the coffee bar for a bit. Tomorrow we are in Portimão, Portugal, where I have two shore excursions planned, so I’m calling it an early evening.

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