Malta is a Marvel

July 6

 I woke up this morning at 6:30am and looked out onto my stateroom balcony to see that our ship was docked right next to an awakening city street. The walled city of Valletta, Malta presented absolutely breathtaking views. Built during the 16th century, these walls and buildings were meant to withstand attacks from the Ottoman Turks. The city is on a peninsula, so it is surrounded by water on three sides.

Views from our stateroom balcony

Views from our stateroom balcony

We purchased tickets for a hop on hop off tour, but instead made some new friends, Ken and Dee, from Washington, D. C.  and went with them across the street, up the elevator, and stepped right into a majestic square above the harbor. The square leads into a warren of historic narrow brick city streets that are bustling with coffee shops, restaurants, bars, stores, and humanity.

It is vibrant and also HOT. It is a dry heat and the air is very still here. We explore for a while, make a few souvenir purchases, but not too many as some friends who left the ship before us had mentioned a craft village on the hop on hop off bus route. Plus, the unfriendliness of one of the workers at the first shop we went into left me with a bad taste in my mouth, to the point where I was ready to put my purchases back on the shelf and leave the store.

We stopped at a McDonalds because we all wanted to compare the menu (They were  fairly similar) then parted ways with Dee and Ken as we went to catch the bus and see more of this island nation. They drive on the right side of the road here, which is always terrifying to me when I experience it. They also have a severe deficit of traffic lights. Seriously, I don’t know how they determine the right of way here. During the tour I learn that Malta has no natural rivers or lakes and that providing water is always a concern during the hottest months of the summer. All of their water sources are man-made. We hop off the bus at Ta’Qali Craft Village and are blown away at the artisans at work at the various shops. You can actually watch them working on their craft, which is fascinating, our first foray into a shop is at Bristow Pottery, which is inside a converted WWII building and has been around since the 1960s. They have beautiful pieces, small and large, plaques, bells, wine stoppers, figurines, kitchen ware, tables, it just went on and on. We made some purchases and next went into a ship that specialized in pieces made of olive wood, where I purchased a wine stopper and a bracelet, although it’s not the type of bracelet I typically get on my journeys. Our last stop was at Nem Nem candle shop, which had a lot more than candles. Once again the artisans are there at work in the back of the shop in full view. They had amazingly beautiful textured candles, jewelry boxes, and small statues there, and Lindsay proclaimed it to be “heaven” and went a little crazy buying items. (By the way she also used a hell reference a little later, when wondering if it felt anything like Maltese heat!) We then hopped back on the bus and went to Mdina, known as “the Silent City”. We didn’t take a scheduled tour there so we don’t know why it’s called that, but I’m sure it has something to do with how narrow the streets are, how tall the buildings are, and the stillness of the environment there.

The entrance into Mdina "the Silent City"

View of Mdina from afar

The streets of Mdina

The streets of Mdina

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant housed in a building from the year 1560 called Relais & Chateaux. We split a focaccia campaina as a starter then I had the ravioli cacio e pepe, and she had pea and Parmesan risotto.

After lunch we continued walking the city and went into St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was as beautiful and majestic as advertised. I recognized the style as baroque, which lead me to questions, and a quick Wikipedia search let me know that this was not the original cathedral. The original was destroyed in an earthquake and this one was built between 1696-1705. Tomorrow it’s on to a Italy, and the city of Messina, where I have a walking tour scheduled. 

In front of St. Paul's Cathedral

Inside the cathedral