Norwegian Gem 12/11/2022: Malaga Spain

I woke up to a rainy morning. The excursion wasn’t scheduled until 2:00PM so there was plenty of time to sleep late and post my blog entries from the last couple days. The ship has pretty much nothing scheduled for activities. Unfortunately, I missed fancy breakfast in the main dining room so I ate a light breakfast in the Garden Cafe.  I sent my first batch of laundry off with my room steward.

I was able to post pictures to the blog entries by going up to the Spinnaker lounge for better cell service. It was really raining at this point so I took a short nap until it was lunch time. I grabbed a plate of food and ate on my balcony watching the weather clear. By the time 2PM rolled around, the sun was poking out.

My group met in the cruise terminal where we waited for 30 minutes until we were called. The hike left from the cruise terminal and proceeded through a bunch of shops on the pier where we stopped for a toilet break before the real hike began. The tour guide was Dennis and he supplied commentary all day about interesting things local. For example, the cathedral only has one tower because Malaga sent the money for the second tower to George Washington to fight the British. I need to research that one. Also, that Galvaston, TX is named for a Naval Officer from Malaga who liberated Pensacola, FL from the British.

We hiked up a ramp to the top of Mount Gibraltar which was an easy couple hour hike from the ship. The views were fantastic all the way up and the weather was perfect. Note that the very top normally charges a couple Euros for entry but it is free on Sunday afternoons after 2PM. That said, we skipped it unfortunately.

We came down the other side using a bike path through the trees and it was much cooler to be out of the direct sun. Both paths are linked at the bottom with a tunnel. If we had walked back to the ship at this point, the whole hike would have been about 3 miles. However, we proceeded to hike into and around town seeing sights like Pablo Picasso’s birth place, Antonio Banderras’ condo, and the old Roman Theater.

In the end, we hiked over 6 miles in about 4 hours or so. We did have 30 minutes of free time to shop and I bought chocolate for the crew and coffee pods for the coffee maker in my room. 

Dinner felt well earned and I ate a ton of food in the main dining room and didn’t feel quilty for once. The lamb was delicious. The ship was in port until 10PM so I was actually able to post my blog entry on the same day for a nice change. Unfortunately, there is no show in the main theater tonight because of the late stay in Malaga (I assume it is because people are traveling to Granada to see the Alhambra). 

When I returned to my room, I was greeted with my fresh clean laundry. This free laundry benefit is huge! 

Also, I feel that being able to have a coffee maker in the room is a huge benefit. For some reason, the Gem only had decaf coffee pods in May for the room coffee maker. Seven months later, they still only have decaf coffee pods for the room coffee makers. In addition, there is now a $4.95 charge to deliver basic breakfast (coffee and pastries) in the morning. In any case, for $4 I was able to purchase a bag with 32 coffee pods that will mean I’ll have fresh coffee in my room without going up to the Garden Cafe in the morning.

I was exhausted but it was a good tired. Not having to rush any meals to make an excursion or a show made it feel more like a vacation and less like a job.

Happy Cruising!!