Valleta, Malta

Valletta, Malta                      April 9, 2017

                  A nice little sunrise began our day as the ship came into the golden city of Valletta.

Malta suffered with much destruction during WWII. Because of its strategic location to the south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, it was a desirable spot for the German Forces to capture…although it was never over taken….it was bombed repeatedly.

                                       Salute to the children of Malta.....a little paper style boat.

Look at that great wall....an elevator would take you to the city on the hill top.

       It was a very windy day….probably the coolest one that we had had on the entire trip…..brrrr!

                                                     All flags were flipping in the wind!

With the island being quite large, we took the yellow line of the Hop on Bus out Valletta to Mdina, an ancient walled city. 

The street was lined with horse drawn carriages for hire to take you across the old once filled moats and into the center of this old fortress.

       Crossing the bridge into Mdina....the moat had been turned into a gorgeous garden walkway.

                                                                  Entrance into Mdina

We enjoyed walking deep down the narrow streets enjoying the old architecture.

 We came across the  St. Paul’s Cathedral which was having Palm Sunday Mass.

Palm leaves lined the entrance of the church.

The church bells rang out several times and the big organ resonated off the inside walls….What a grand experience!

The floor tiles were each dedicated to the knights who had served the kingdom long ago...many were buried below the  cathedral.

                                                     Old cannons fronted several buildings.

Malta became a country in 1964, gaining  independence from the United Kingdom; however, reminates of the past English rule still exists….such as driving on the  left side of the road and the old English style telephone booths.

                  The production of door knockers is a big business here...they were really nice!

A final look at Mdina as the bus rolled into the countryside.

This time we took the blue line bus around the northern part of the island….a 2 and ½ hour ride.

     

                                      We passed acres and acres of gardens and plowed fields.

Malta is a big vacation resort due to its picturesque location, rich culture, and regal architecture….Europeans flock here in the summer.

We passed many hotels, restaurants, and sidewalk cafes that cater to vacationers.  

The bus took us along the scenic rocky coastline with big sea waves due to the day’s high winds.

                       The cities we went through were a mixture of ancient buildings and new high rises.

Our bus returned us to Valletta just as the sunshine finally came out.

We spotted the 16^th century, St. John’s Cathedral  within the walled city before returning to the port.

Larry and I enjoyed a few minutes at one of the 17^th century walled cafes….trying to warm up.

The ship security was rolling up the welcome mat when we arrived back at the final boarding time of 4:30….WHEW!  We had just made it!

We rushed down to the hot tub and jumped in before joining our friends, Maria and David, on the back deck to watch the Amsterdam maneuver out of the tight docks.

                                  The sail away gave us a view of other sites to visit in Malta.

Malta was added to our list of places to revisit. Nothing could have made this a more fabulous day!