On the 10th day of the quest ...

we were in Great Britain at the Rock of Gibralter. I think this is a picture of it as we were leaving. This was our second Sunday being gone. I had tried to find a branch of our church in Gibralter but could only find one in Cadiz -- which did us no good. Fortunately, I didn't find this Sunday as hard to deal with as the last one. I really don't handle not being able to go to church very well. On this day we did what we had done on many other days. We walked. In fact, I kept thinking of the pioneer song "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked" and I thought that they must have done their singing walking downhill -- or on a flat surface and not hiking up a mountain. I could barely talk, let alone sing.

Our original vaguely formed plan was to take the tram to the top of the mountain. As we were walking to the tram, we passed a graveyard for soldiers. Their grave stones had mini stories on them. If you could read it, you would find that this stone is for two soldiers who were killed with the same bullet in a battle on Nov. 10, 1810. It was a very nice tribute.

Right next to the tram was a beautiful garden which we decided to look at before riding the tram. Derek said we should make our next yard like that and I laughed since the weather is all wrong and we don't have enough water to make those plants live where we are. The garden was on a hill and by the time we got to the edge of the garden we were so far up that we thought we would just keep walking instead of hiking back down to the tram. Sigh. I don't think that was our wisest decision ever but we did see things that nobody else did -- and we got a reputation as "hikers" who "probably walked more than anyone else on the cruise". I think the person who said that was probably right. The picture at the beginning of my blog is from this garden.

I think that this is the path that we took that nobody else got to see. It was made during the war -- but my knowledge is a little lacking as to what war so if any of you go through the trouble to figure it out -- let me know. There were places for cannons along the trail and we felt sorry for whoever had to get those cannons in place. There were chimneys built in to the rock with big ovens too but I'm not sure what they were for. We were supposed to get to enjoy seeing the apes in their natural habitat as we walked the trail -- but the apes prefer the more populated trails so that they can beg for food. You are NOT supposed to feed the apes but we found several people who risked being fined to feed them.

At the end of our side trail we met up with the road and the "apes" which we called monkeys for obvious reasons. They would hop on cars and busses and the bus driver had to chase one away from the bus door. They obviously had no fear of people and Derek could have moved closer to this one but probably was a bit wary since it had just used that railing as its potty. Ewww!

After that we walked down the other side of the Rock -- closer to the ship. We found a great short cut (a little rocky trail with steps at the end right into downtown). I wish we would have found that on the way up! It was much shorter. It was after noon when we got back to the ship and I was kind of tired and grouchy -- but lunch helped.

The rest of our Sunday was spent on deck chairs. Derek read and I did too. I read for my primary lesson which is tomorrow and some other church related things so that I felt better about the day. Later we got out the house plan book that we had hauled across the world and sorted out our favorite look for the outside of our next house (okay so our top 20 or so). People came over to offer opinions and it was nice to visit with people.

I think this was the day that ended with a jazz concert. It wasn't our favorite music, but the man who played the clarinet, saxaphone and a mini banjo thing was very talented. There was a lady down below by the stage that provided us with entertainment as she swayed and rolled her head around. It was also interesting to watch the people around her stare at her -- half appalled and half amused.

I was generally pleased with this day. Derek was feeling more energetic and I only whined a little bit about us not taking the tram -- which was my own fault since Derek gave me a choice. I just usually do what I think he wants to. Maybe sometimes I should do what I think I want to do. Hmmm. Did I come any closer to finding my brain? I guess you can say yes if you count the fact that I was reminded of the importance of the Sabbath day and what a blessing it is to be able to attend church every week. At home I find the Sabbath day long and sometimes difficult right now -- but I still missed the things I love about it. I missed taking the Sacrament, singing the hymns, and having the chance to worship our Savior with other people who love Him too. Maybe I'll be like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and find that I had a brain all along. Maybe mine is just a little tired right now.