MALTA  

Malta is just south of Sicily and north and east of Africa. It's been an independent nation since 1964.

Sliema

December 1, 2024

It was a quick three hour nonstop flight from Porto to Malta.

Our Airbnb is in on the top floor.

Although our eighth floor Airbnb had an awesome view and an excellent location, it did have one MAJOR downfall. The cleaning product they used to clean the place was SO STRONG it literally made our eyes water. For two days, we had to open all the windows and doors to try to clear the air.

I must admit though, the views are amazing!

This is the view facing west for the sunset.

Every night we walked along the waterfront.

The old town of Valletta was quite beautiful at night.

Valletta

December 2, 2024

This was our first morning sunrise. Spectacular!!

We caught the ferry over to Valletta for the first of our three walking tours. Although the ferry is quite cheap at €2 for one way...

...it is only about a 90 second ride to the other side.

There is a fort in every direction.

So many areas are walled. Because of its central location in the Mediterranean, it was invaded many times over the centuries.

We can never seem to get away from stairs!

The word "Malta" comes from honey, which has to do with the color of the stone of all the forts.

I've never heard of Libyan Airlines and was surprised to see a ticket office. But Tripoli is only a 50 minute flight from Malta.

We met our tour guide here at the city "gate". The present gate, which is the fifth one to have stood on the site, was built between 2011 and 2014 by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Apparently, the Maltese were not very happy with his modern version and that there was no actual gate.

They were even less happy with his modern version of the Parliament building. The locals call it the cheese grater.

But they were the least satisfied with what was once the Royal Opera House built by the British in 1866. It was bombed during WWII and only a few pillars still stood. The Maltese hoped it would be restored to its original grandeur, but instead it is now a modern open-air theater. I do have to admit that I thought it was a construction site!

Can't remember the name of this church.

The Maltese compete with each other at Christmas time with their manger sets by adding waterfalls, trains, current people, etc. You can see off to the right the priest was a traditional Maltese Saint and the boy on the left has turn of the 20th century clothing.

The Upper Barrakka Gardens with arches, sculptures, and beautiful views over the Grand Harbour. A crowd gathers every day to watch the firing of the cannon at noon and 4 pm. We couldn't get close enough when we came back for the firing later, but the boom scared the absolute shit out of me.

We tried a pistachio croissant. Little did we know how hooked we would be!

Above the trashcan, there is a ledge with hooks above it where they would punish people that had committed a crime. You could walk by and throw rocks at them or spit on them or whatever you saw fit for their punishment.

Despite being one of the smallest countries in Europe, Malta was the most bombed country during WWII thanks to its strategic location on the main supply lines to North Africa and the Suez Canal. On December 8th, 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Malta. He carried with him this letter which he wrote to the people of Malta. President Roosevelt was very sensitive of the role Malta played during WWII and, particularly, of the sacrifice and contribution of the Maltese during WWII.

The dark brown sculpture is a monument to the people who died during WWII. The island behind it is a favorite location to make movies.

You can see all the movies that have been made in Malta. Gladiator 2 just came out in November and was filmed here last June.

I LOVE the trees!

The wooden outcropping balconies are from Islamic architecture and cannot be changed. You can replace the wood but the balconies must stay.

The grates below the doors were to prevent the roaming goats from entering. People left their doors open for ventilation because Malta gets VERY hot.

We are back at the Airbnb and the bucket and cleaning rag are now on the patio... still hoping to get rid of the antiseptic smell! It's worse than any hospital.

Throughout our entire stay, the clouds were amazing.

Is that a styrofoam boat?!!!

Wish there was "No Fouling" here in Portugal.

The view never gets boring.

We are headed over to Valletta to see the Christmas lights.

Every street has a different pattern.

Birgu

December 3, 2024

We are over in Birgu now to do the Three Cities Tour.

Another day, another fort!

I will never get used to what looks like a driverless car. Since Malta was a British property for decades, they drive on the left side of the road.

Oops... almost got hit by this car because we forgot to look to the right instead of the left.

Much quieter over here than Valletta. If it's a cruise ship day, as many as 9000 people descend on the island.

The Bishops Palace was built in 1542...!

So many beautiful doors.

The Roman Inquisition was a system of tribunals developed during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes related to heresy, including sorcery, blasphemy, Judaizing and witchcraft, as well for censorship of printed literature.

Although still brutal, the Roman inquisition wasn't as severe and torturous as the Spanish Inquisition. The building that housed the Inquisitor as well as the prisoners has been restored and is now a museum.

We ended up behind a group of students being graded by the teacher (woman with burgundy sleeves) as each took a turn as a potential tour guide. Our guide was also a recent graduate of the Institute of Tourism Studies School. Tourism is the main source of income for Malta.

The doorways were short throughout parts of the building because one particular Inquisitor didn't like that people didn't bow to him. So, he forced them to do so by coming through the doorway.

I'll never understand the violent history of Christianity.

The coffee and chocolate cabinet was used by one Inquisitor to have the ladies of nobility come over for drinking chocolate and coffee in exchange for gossiping about their husbands. Chocolate was only in liquid form.

Out of any trip I've ever been on, this one was the most difficult to dress for. I'm wearing three layers here. One minute it was hot and I wished I had shorts on, and the next minute the wind kicked up and the wind chill temperature would drop to the low 50's. Also, the food portions were huge! We split this chicken entree and an appetizer bruschetta.

We looked up this boat and you can rent it for €368,000 per week.

Malta - the land of forts and yachts.

This ship was being towed backwards by two tugboats out to the Mediterranean Sea.

We opted for the €3 water taxi back to the Valetta side.

Lucky that it didn't take much concentration on the part of the "captain".

Mdina  and  rabat

December 4, 2024

We took an Uber to our third and final tour of the walled city of Mdina.

We met our guide near a playground. I appreciated that much of the equipment there was designed for wheelchairs.

The moat surrounding the city is called a ditch. Because Malta has no lakes or rivers, they didn't want to waste valuable resources by filling it with water.

The gate into Mdina. I knew I had heard the name Medina in several other places we've been, and it just means "walled city".

The balconies have holes on either side and underneath so you can see who is coming or who is at the front door.

The guide told us that they were grateful for the balconies during covid because you could sit on it and have conversations with others.

They were also known for their elaborate door knockers. This one had the family coat of arms.

If you hear the ringing of the bells of the horses, you MUST quickly get out of the way because they do not stop. As our guide said, they don't seem to have any brakes. We found this to be true as they will just run you right down.

The oldest house in Mdina. It's now a museum.

This store is entirely dedicated to Game of Thrones. Season one was filmed in Malta. Our guide also does Game of Thrones tours.

The locals call these "pregnant windows". This is so you can stick your head out to see who is coming.

Although I love this photo...

...this is supposedly the most photographed spot in the Mdina.

We left the walled city and walked over to Rabat. There are other "Rabats" around the world and it simply means "outside the walls".

We went down into the catacombs that have some religious significance related to St. Paul.

However, I was way more interested in the WWII history. Hundreds of people would line the hallways during bombing raids.

If you were wealthier, you got your own room. Some even had the floors tiled.

They are setting up the Christmas market booths below the balconies.

We went to Chalk for lunch.

We split a Ftira (type of sandwich bread) and a calzone stuffed with --- you guessed it --- pistachio.

Followed by a pistachio cannoli.

We could take a retro bus back to Sliema.

Even though we weren't hungry at all, we were told we must try the Maltese pastizzis at this famous restaurant.

We ordered the two most popular ones - ricotta and mushy peas. I didn't like either as I thought the pastry was too chewy and the peas were gross. The cost was only .65 each. But the place was extremely popular at 3pm!

On the way home, I managed to get a photo in Mosta of this famous Dome. It is the third largest unsupported dome in the world. Our guide had told us a story about what happened here during WW2. On April 9, 1942, a German aerial bomb pierced the dome and fell into the church during Mass, but failed to explode. No one was injured. This event was interpreted by the Maltese as a miracle and has been called The Miracle of Mosta. The German pilot visited in 1980 and apologized to the people for dropping the bomb.

St.  Pauls  bay

December 5, 2024

Our last day and the weather was intermittent rain and wind. What are we going to do?

Oh yeah... there was only one electrical outlet in the bathroom BEHIND a washing machine. There were no mirrors anywhere else so we used the reflection on the microwave to blow dry our hair.

We walked to the other side of Sliema and managed to get breakfast before it started to pour.

We hopped on a city bus to St. Paul's Bay.

The wind was CRAZY!

With the bad weather, we opted to go to the Classic Car Museum. I thought it would be a crappy little museum with just a few cars, but it turned out to be 3000 square meters with many amazing cars!

We decided to walk most of the way back. Google GPS took us along what seemed to be an expressway!

Robin wanted a coffee and....

...of course, that called for another pistachio croissant. The best one yet!!

Some Final Thoughts...

Although The Strand in Sliema (where we stayed) had all the action - bars, stores, and restaurants, I would stay elsewhere if I returned. It felt like Ft. Lauderdale Beach and was way too commercialized.

I expected to have to translate from Maltese to English, but EVERYTHING was in English literally everywhere we went.

Although some may not know American slang English.

Old English.

I was happy to peruse a bookstore with books in English since we don't have them here.

ALL the magazines were in English.

At the very end of our trip, we got caught in this downpour without our umbrellas. It didn't matter anyway because we had to wade through almost knee-deep flash flood waters to get back to our Airbnb! Time to get back home!