Month: May 2016

Today, ironically on U.S. Memorial Day, we decided to go to the National War Museum.  The War Museum is housed in Fort St. Elmo, the fortress at the tip of Valletta, guarding the entrance to the Grand Harbor.

We rode the #13 bus to Valletta and entered the city through its main gate.  Nearly every time we’ve been to Valletta there has been a guy sitting in the shade of the gate playing accordion.  We also saw this guy sitting on a bench playing one evening as we strolled around Balluta Bay.  We sat on the next bench and enjoyed his playing that night, and we enjoy it every time we see/hear him.  So here’s our favorite Maltese accordion player.

We strolled all the way down Republic Street, rather like a spine of the peninsula, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the tourists.  We’re feeling like old hands getting around Valletta, or at least knowing where things are and recognizing places.

We arrived at Fort St. Elmo, and after wandering around a bit, we found the entrance to the War Museum.  I was actually quite interested in seeing the inside of the fort.  It has been such an integral part of Valletta’s history, and indeed Malta’s, too, that I thought it was important to take a look.  There was a watch tower built on the site as early as 1488.  Over time, the watch tower was enlarged.  When the Ottoman Turks arrived unopposed in Grand Harbor in 1551, the Knights figure out they need to build a much more significant fortress at the entrance to the harbor, and they did just that.  Fort St. Elmo became the scene of one of the most bloody battles in the Great Siege of 1565 when the Ottomans returned, hell bent on taking Malta.  Fort St. Elmo was under siege for 28 days, being bombarded by the Turks’ canons.  It eventually fell.  But, the Knights endured in other battles of the siege and eventually the Turks departed Malta.  There is still a little chapel in the fort, the Chapel of St. Anne, where the last stand occurred, with the chaplain and the few remaining Knights in the fort were killed.  This little chapel was tucked away in the walls of the fort.  The carvings in the stone around the altar were fantastic.

After the Great Siege of 1565, the Knights reconstructed and improved the fort and built the city of Valletta on the peninsula, further protecting the fort from a landward invasion.  After the arrival of the British in the early 18oos, the fort was further reinforced to accommodate larger and larger canons and guns.  And, during WWII, the fort was an important place as from the signal room deep in the bastions, the Brits figured out the trajectory of incoming enemy bombers and sent the gun battery the position coordinates for the guns.  Fort St. Elmo was the first thing the Italians bombed in June 1940, which started the 2 years of relentless attacks endured by the people of Malta.

The museum was spread around various buildings throughout the fort so we covered a lot of territory.  The fort is really huge and the views from the bastions are fantastic.  But the fort is interesting in and of itself with all its various buildings and tunnels through the cavaliers, the places below ground where the troops lived.

I thought the displays in the museum were really well done.  As I mentioned, each time period was housed in a separate building and you followed a numeric order around the fort.  Each display provided information about subsequent periods of time from pre-Great Siege through Malta’s entry into the European Union.  There was one poster that said the following, which really impressed me:

This tiny little island, 17 miles long and 9 miles wide, has endured so much over the centuries, and yet it still thrives.  As the locals will tell you, that is the Maltese spirit, that of survival.  It’s very impressive.

As we walked through history, we eventually came to the displays dealing with WWII.  I don’t think most people know what happened here in Malta during the war.  I only know a little, but it is so difficult to understand how the Maltese survived those years.  While we’ve been here, Christine and I both read the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, The Kappillan of Malta.  Although it is a novel, it provides some of the best storytelling about the history of Malta, especially its descriptions of life in Malta during WWII.  Some of it was so difficult to read, heart-wrenching, that I had to stop and rest because I couldn’t emotional take any more.  But for anyone interested in reading a historical novel about Malta, this is the book to read.

The Siege of Malta began in June, 1940 and it pitted the armies and navies of Italy and Germany against the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.  As soon as Mussolini declared war, the bombing started in Malta.  The Axis resolved to bomb or starve Malta into submission, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island. Malta was one of the most intensively bombed areas during the war. The most significant bombing was in and around the Grand Harbor, especially the Three Cities where all the dockyards were.  In just 2 years, there were 3,343 air raids from primarily Italy, but then aided by Germany, with 15,000 tons of bombs dropped on the Maltese Islands.

There was so much danger and destruction that multitudes of people sought shelter in catacombs, in fortress bastions, in caves, and in underground air raid shelters.  Thousands of people living in squalid conditions for over 2 years, in near starvation.  Food was scarce because of the success the Axis had in bombing and torpedoing supply ships.  To make food last as long as possible, Victory Kitchens were set up so the all available food could be prepared communally in order to limit waste.  Christine’s mother worked in a Victory Kitchen.

At the start of the bombing, there apparently were only 3 WWI era Gladiator biplanes on Malta.  These became known as Faith, Hope and Charity.  They were no match for the Italian planes, but these 3 planes did enough to deter lower incoming planes.  We saw some film footage of how a long bomb was tied underneath the fuselage of the biplane and once in the air the bomb was set loose.  Hard to believe these rickety old biplane could take off with a heavy bomb strapped on.  Also, the biplanes were equipped with only rifles and shotguns, as the Royal Air Force wasn’t interested in equipping them early in the war.  Only one of the biplanes survived the war, and Faith was on display at the museum.

There was a display on the story of the HMS Illustrious, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier that was bombed in 1941 and was just able to limp into the Grand Harbor.  While in port, she was bombed again.  This story was prominent in The Kappillan of Malta book and so I was moved to see photos and see remnants from the ship.

There was also a video telling the story of Operation Pedestal, a large convoy of supply ships and an oil tanker sent from Gibraltar to supply the starving Malta.  Over the course of 6 days, the convoy of 14 ships was relentlessly bombed and torpedoed.  Ultimately, only 5 of the merchant ships made it to Grand Harbor, including the all import oil tanker, SS Ohio.  It was hit directly several times, was on fire for much of the time, and was near sunk when two of the merchant ships, one on each side, helped the Ohio into the Grand Harbor.  Malta was within a couple of weeks of surrendering to the Axis powers and, without the success of these ships getting to Malta, the outcome of the war might have been quite different.  Badly needed fuel for continued air force and navy operations was the vital commodity in the convoy, and its arrival was a turning point in the war.

For all it endured during WWII, Malta was awarded the George Cross by King George.  We saw the reenactment of this ceremony last month in Valletta.  After seeing the WWII displays in the museum, this reenactment ceremony is now even more meaningful to me.  The George Cross is part of Malta’s flag and it is a tremendous symbol to the Maltese.

This was a really good museum and being within Fort St. Elmo made it all the more interesting.

After that, we walked up Merchant Street to a café at Upper Barrakka Gardens and sat under a big shade tree enjoying the view of the harbor while eating lunch.  We had originally planned to also visit the Lascaris War Rooms, where the British strategized their naval operations during the war, but we had had enough war-related stuff, so we took the bus back home and kind of crashed.  We then met Carol for a drink at Peppi’s, just down the street.  Carol is always fun to be with and one never lacks for conversation with Carol.

It was a meaningful day and rather poignant.  Thinking of Christine’s mother Rose having lived through all the air raids and bombings during the war is unsettling.  I don’t know how anyone did it.  But, I say, thank God for the Maltese and their resilience.  They have had quite a history.

We had signed up for another Heritage Malta event, a Heritage Trail tour around Gozo.  What better way to learn some interesting things about sites in Gozo than with experts who have worked to renovate and keep historical and archeological places preserved.  But our challenge was to be in Gozo by 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  This meant being on the #222 bus by its scheduled arrival time at our stop of 7:04, and then catching the 8:15 ferry in Cirkewwa.

So out the door we went at 6:55 a.m.  The bus stop for going north is just down the block so no worries being there in time.  But, the bus didn’t show up until about 7:20.  With an estimated travel time of about 50 minutes to Cirkewwa, I was fearful we’d miss the ferry and then be late for the start of the tour.  As we were getting on an already rather full bus, a nice gentleman stood up to give Christine his seat.  Lo and behold, it was Carol’s husband Joe.  What a surprise!  How nice to see him.  He’s such a dear man.  He talked with Christine about a visit to the cemetery where some of the Caruana and Chetcuti family are buried.  Joe has agreed to take us to the family chapel at Addolorata Cemetery.  So that quick conversation ended as Joe left the bus in St. Julian’s to go to work.

After that, I was sweating bullets about the time.  A seat was available next to an older woman who got on at our stop with 2 other people she was traveling with.  We smiled and exchanged a few words.  Later, I saw her on the ferry, so now I know why she looked at her watch every 2 minutes.  I was getting more and more anxious and the bus was getting more and more crowded.  What this did was slow the bus down.  We have 3 especially steep hills to climb on the bus and with a loaded bus, the bus crawls up these steep hills.

We did get to Cirkewwa at 8:10, so everyone on the bus raced across the street and in to the terminal.  Fortunately, we made it in time and we were off for the 25 minutes ferry ride to Mgarr, Gozo.  We had met an expat from the UK, Rich, who was now living in Gozo, at our Ghar Dalam event.  We learned that he was a volunteer with Heritage Malta and Wirt Ghawdex, Gozo’s heritage keeping organization, so we asked him about where to meet for our Gozo tour.  He said there would be a greeter with a sign outside the ferry terminal.  Well, out the door of the terminal we went looking for a Heritage Malta greeter.  We didn’t see anyone, asked a couple of people if they knew where we should meet for a Heritage Malta tour, and got no help.  I had read that one of the tour stops was to a restored boat at the Mgarr Harbor, so we asked a taxi driver where that was.  He pointed us across the harbor and down a road along the harbor.  Off we went to the Latini boat location.  It took about 15 minutes to walk there, but we didn’t see anyone.  So, we walked back to the ferry terminal, another 15 minutes.  As we were getting to the terminal, Christine spotted Rich, and so we headed over to him.  And wouldn’t you know it, the tour guy didn’t make the 8:15 ferry from Cirkewwa, and so the start of the tour was delayed until he arrived.  Go figure!

Eventually, about 30 of us piled into a bus and headed to our first tour stop, the Latini boat across the harbor.  This boat is an important part of navigation history in Gozo.  Although the boat itself is not all that old, originally built around 1930, these types of boats were very important in Gozo as a means of getting produce to market in Valletta and bringing back supplies.  The name of this type of boat is dghajsa tal-latini, and this boat on display is the last surviving one.  Also known as the Gozo boat, this is a dghajsa on steroids!

The boat moved both cargo and passengers, but maybe not at the same time.  Picture this boat with cows standing in it!  Our tour guide did say that all things, including livestock, were moved in this boat.

One of its unique features was its sails.  The Latini boat gets its name from the type of sails, lateen sails, it used.  These lateen sails were Roman in origin and could be found around the Mediterranean, especially in Egypt.  There are two masts in the Latini and when the sails are hoisted, they rather look like butterfly wings.  Wind power was the only way this boat moved.  Its an iconic image and even a town in Gozo has this image on its town crest.

The boat on display was originally built by a Caruana, and it was renovated by the original builder’s sons.  Also, I was amazed to learn that during WWII, the British commandeered this boat and sailed it to Alexandria, where it was used to move cargo around the British fleet.

Our next stop was St. Cecilia’s Chapel. Probably built in the late 1400s or early 1500s, this is the oldest surviving chapel in Gozo. Dedicated to St Cecilia, patroness of sacred music, it functioned intermittently as a church until 1644 when it was declared unfit for the celebration of mass and deconsecrated.  After that, it was used in multiple ways, including as a barn.

This small stone church is the best example of the many unaisled chapels that once dotted the countryside of Gozo.  Like other late medieval chapels it is a plain cube except for the slight pitch of the roof. Its floor measures seven by seven meters, nearly a perfect square. It is divided into four bays by three slightly pointed arches rising from wall piers to hold up the shallow pitched stone roof. At the entrance, three steps lead down to the chapel floor which is about a meter below ground level. The only light source inside is a single rectangular window over the door.  In 1613, a neighboring tower was built which afforded some protection to the farming community around the chapel.

During its renovation by Wirt Ghawdex, in order to structurally support the chapel’s main wall which was deteriorating badly, an adjoining small stone building was constructed in such a way that its arches support the chapel wall.

One interesting little tidbit is that over the years, people carved images into the chapel walls as a way of seeking blessings and protection.  So, as you look around the chapel, you can still find small images, rather like petroglyphs, carved into the wall, especially boats by fishermen asking for safe passage.

Next to the chapel were some lovely little farm fields and we were surprised to see that one was growing palm trees.  It looked beautiful.

Then it was off to ir-Rabat, or Victoria, and the Citadel.  As are many fortified cities, the Citadel is visible from far away as it sits at the top of a limestone hill.  This area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age.  The Phoenicians and then the Romans further developed the city into an acropolis.  During Medieval times, the settlement was turned into a castle known as the Gran Castello.  This area became too small for the growing population, so the suburb of Rabat began growing outside the castle walls.  During the control of the Aragonese, the Ottomans invaded the area in 1551 and took 5,000-6,000 people from the Citadel as slaves.  Then the Knights took over and the Citadel was enlarged and bigger, better bastions and gunneries were built.  But over time, the Citadel deteriorated and was pretty much in ruins.  An extensive renovation has been undertaken for the past couple of decades, and is still going on.  There is so much construction going on that I found it to be a detraction to the historical feeling of the place.

One thing for sure is that the view from the bastions of the Citadel are spectacular.

We toured the gunpowder magazine, which was recently renovated.  Then we toured the grain silos, which were quite interesting.  The Knights had dug these huge grain storage silos directly down into the limestone.  Three of them have been found and renovated.  They are vast vase-shaped openings having a narrow neck and wide bottom.  When the British took control in the 1800s, these grain silos were converted into water reservoirs.  To get to the silos, one has to walk hunched over down this long, dark tunnel through the limestone and then you enter a silo chamber.  It was all pretty dark, so photos weren’t very good, but it was quite something to be in these chambers.

We then walked around the bastions.  There are various levels so lots of stairs were involved.  But the views were great.  During our tour it was noon and the cathedral bells were ringing, a special Corpus Christi day, so the bells rang for a long time and there were, what sounded like, some cannon shots as well. During WWII, this massive stone fortress was used to shelter people and many, many small square rooms were dug into the limestone.

Here’s a bit of video that recorded the church bells.

After our Citadel tour, we walked back down into Rabat.  We were more than ready for a sit-down and lunch, so we persuaded our guide to break then, and not wait for the next stop.  Christine and I sat in a café in Independence Square.  We had been in this square during our last visit to Gozo.  After lunch, we were to meet up with our tour group in St. George’s Square.  Before everyone arrived, St. George’s church doors opened so we took a quick peek inside.  What a beautiful church!

The church, which is now a basilica, was built between 1672 and 1678.  It was commissioned by Grand Master Wignacourt, the same guy who built some of the garrison watch towers that you’ve seen photos of in earlier posts.

Onward our tour went to the Ta’ Kola windmill.  I really liked this place.  It was interesting and I learned about what it was like to be a miller.  The Knights had lots of windmills built around Gozo.  Bread was the major food consumed by the Maltese and so the Knights had windmills built to ensure that flour was available for making bread.  Ta’ Kola was built in 1725.

The miller rented the windmill from the Knights, and later the local government, but the windmill was essentially passed down from father to son so the same family would perform the milling operation for generations.  Farmers would grow wheat.  When there was a harvest and wheat to be milled, the miller would create a sound from the top of the tower to indicate that milling would be done that day.  Farmers brought their wheat, it was weighted, and then milled communally.  The farmers would then receive whatever amount of flour they were owed by weight.

The grinding mechanisms were located at the top of the tower.  I can’t imagine how they got those huge grindstones up to the top.  The wheat would also be hauled to the top of the tower and fed into the grindstones.  The milled flour would be bagged and lowered down to the ground. The grindstones were powered entirely by wind.  The top of the windmill tower was also able to be revolved towards whatever direction the wind was blowing.  There were six windmill arms that were covered in cloth to catch the wind which then turned the grindstone mechanism.

The miller and his family lived in the building surrounding the tower.  This was an entirely stone structure and so it was pretty rugged living as the walls and floor were hard, bare stone.  The miller had to be both a carpenter and a blacksmith because he had to do all the maintenance and repairs required to keep the mill working.  His community depended upon him and his mill.  Also, weaving was required in order to make the sails for the windmill arms.  The last miller to live in and operate this windmill was there until 1987.  These types of windmills essentially became extinct, so it’s great that this neat place is being preserved.

Our final stop on the tour was the Ggantija temples, Ggantija translated as Giant’s Tower.  It got this name because of the size of the stones used in building the temple.  Because they were so big, it was thought that giants moved the stones.  The Ggantija temples are the earliest Megalithic temples in Malta.  There are two temples built side-by-side and enclosed within a wall.  The temples are built in the typical clover-leaf shape, with inner facing blocks marking the shape which was then filled in with rubble. This led to the construction of a series of semi-circular apses connected with a central passages.  Archeologists believe that the apses were originally covered by roofing. The structures are all the more impressive for having been constructed at a time when no metal tools were available to the natives of the Maltese Islands, and when the wheel had not yet been introduced. Small, spherical stones have been discovered. They are believed to have been used as ball-bearings to transport the enormous stone blocks required for the temples’ construction.  Items found in and around the temple demonstrate the use of personal decorative items.  And, the animal bones found indicate there may have been animal sacrifices occurring.  But, as with all the other temples in Malta, we really do not know why these temples were built or how they were used.

And so our tour came to an end and we returned to the ferry terminal.  We were smart earlier in the day because we bought our return tickets this morning, having learned from our last trip to Gozo that the terminal is a crazy zoo of disorganized lines trying to buy tickets and get through the turnstiles.  We were able to get through the turnstiles with relative ease and were happily on the ferry for our 25 minute ride to Cirkewwa.

And then to the bus stop.  Our time there was a bit easier than last time, since we kind of knew the drill.  Our bus came within about 15 or 20 minutes and we got seats.  But then, a near fight broke out between a passenger trying to board and the bus driver.  The driver really lit in to this guy about not having paid for tickets for his group, or something.  The driver stormed off the bus after very heated words were exchanged.  The driver called for a bus monitor to come, but that didn’t cool things down any.  There was a shove, and I thought fists were going to fly.  I couldn’t believe how they were yelling at each other.  The monitor finally got the passenger away from the driver, who got back into his seat.  Some people left the bus and Christine and I wondered if the driver would be in any frame of mind to drive safely, seeing how angry he was.  But, we stayed on and off we went.  Fortunately, there were no further problems, but wow, was it scary there with all the “in your face” yelling that had gone on.

We were very happy to get home, kick off our shoes, have a beverage and something to eat, and relax for the rest of the evening.  All in all, it was an interesting and educational day and we saw some neat things.

Christine and I love walking up and down all the narrow streets in Sliema, or any town or village in Malta for that matter.  For her, it is quite nostalgic.  For me, it feeds my snoopiness.  They don’t call me “the neighborhood watch” for nothing.  I love catching glimpses through windows and doorways of life in Malta.  And, once away from the more modern and busy tourist areas, one can walk the narrow streets, see all the Maltese houses of character (realtor speak for original external architecture), and really get a sense of what life might have been like decades ago.

When we visited Malta in 1985, I saw a poster in a shop that was “the doors of Malta.”  I wish I had bought that poster as it really pulled me in.  This trip, I’m making my own poster in a sense, because I’m photographing Maltese doors, but more interestingly, the il-habbata, the striker, or door knocker.  I am in love with the doors and their knockers.

The main door is what catches your eye first when looking at a house.  Historically, the front door was always manufactured in two separate parts in a way that each part would open by turning towards the inside on its hinges, and is closed shut by the right hand side overlapping a little on the left side.  The material used was always thick red-deal wood (Scots pine) and the door was artistically manufactured with panels and plinths, and more often than not with a weather board at its lower part.  The door is painted the same color as the balcony above the front door.  On each part of the main door there would be a handle in the form of a knocker (habbata) or a rounded knob.

Most of the houses along the street have one, two or three steps up to the front door.  The one step houses do present a bit of a trip hazard as you’re walking down the narrow sidewalk as the step juts out onto the sidewalk.  You can tell when an original old Maltese family lives in the house because the sidewalk in front of the step will be wet where someone came out with a bucket and rag and washed the steps and entrance to the house.  You don’t see this so much now, but that is one of my memories from 1985, walking down the sidewalk seeing older women bending over washing the steps.

Inside the front door is often a lovely bit of hand-painted Maltese tile, about 2 feet in depth, between the front door and the inner glazed door, called an antiporta.  Behind the panes of glass of the antiporta a lace curtain might be found hanging, which one often also sees hanging inside the windows on either side of the front door.  This is one thing I like to see during my snooping.  I love it when one side of the front door is open and I can see the gorgeous tile and the lovely lace from the inner door.

The door knocker, the striker, il-habbata, is typically brass.  There is a matched pair of knockers, one on each half of the door.  The most traditional Maltese knocker is that of a stylized dolphin having fleshy lips.

The Maltese dolphin has also evolved into two fish kissing.

Another very common knocker is a lion’s head.

Then there are these figures that remind me of Yoda from Star Wars.

And then there’s the big Yoda knockers that are really ornate with large figures hanging from a rod through Yoda’s mouth.

It seems like there are hundreds of different knockers in Malta and I find at least one new style on every outing along the streets.  Here are some of the many and varied knocker styles that have made Malta famous for its il-habbatas.

Sometimes, there are no knockers, but if not, then there’s likely to be a beautiful doorknob or some kind of decorative door panel.

For palaces, like some of the noblemen’s residences in Mdina, one would go all out and buy terrifically artistic door knocker.

So there you have it – Maltese doors and door knockers.

When we were on our around Malta cruise, the Hera II stopped for two hours at the Blue Lagoon on Comino.  It was such a beautiful spot, but we did not partake of the wonderful water and swim, nor did we explore the island.  So, Christine suggested we do just that and spend a whole day on Comino.

Comino is the smallest of the 3 Maltese Islands and there are only 4 fulltime inhabitants now.  It’s a pretty desolate place and has been used for prisoners, housing for quarantined people, where misbehaving knights were sent, a place where monks lived, and a hiding place for corsairs.  There are many caves both on the island and around the coastline, so it was a good place for anyone who wanted to hide.  The land is pretty barren, but there was an attempt at agriculture, and up until the 1950s, there were upwards of 800 fulltime residents.  Now, it is a tourist destination and daily, large numbers of tour boats land at the Blue Lagoon, like we did, and hundreds of people swarm onto the island.  We did discover that there is one hotel on the island, the Comino Hotel and Bungalows, and apparently it is only open a few months out of the year when temperatures are warmer and the sea is swimmable.

We took the #222 to Cirkewwa, which is now a very familiar route and we named all the places we have visited as we went up the coast.  We went all the way to the Gozo ferry terminal, but went off to a side quay where we bought tickets for a roundtrip boat ride to the Blue Lagoon.   We thought we knew which little ferry boat we would be on, but shortly a different boat arrived.  This one was a large, open-air boat with seats around both sides.  About 20 or so people, including two young families, one with a toddler, boarded  And we were off.  As soon as we passed around the Gozo Channel Ferry coming into the terminal, our boat roared away, bouncing over the swells in the channel.  We zoomed across the water and big sprays of water were soaking everyone along the sides and on the back of the boat.  One really big spray hit this young man right in the face and he let out a big scream.  I think the guy driving the boat was having a really good time getting us all wet.  Christine was hanging on and trying to give herself some support so that her bottom didn’t smack the bench every time we slapped down from a swell.  While we were hanging on for dear life, the little toddler on her daddy’s lap was shrieking in delight, clapping her hands and loving the bouncing up and down and water spraying.  Before we knew it, we were rounding the point and slowing down to enter the Blue Lagoon.

Once off the boat, we wandered around looking for a good spot to park ourselves.  What I knew from walking around when I did a little exploring when Hera stopped at the lagoon is that, other than the very crowded umbrella and chair areas, one had to find a spot on the rocks well above the lagoon, not a very comfortable thing to have to do, and then there was the problem of how to get down to the water when swimming beckoned.

After wandering around for quite a while, we decided to descend down this circular set of stairs cut into the limestone to check out the “beach” area, as it is known.  The hand railing had recently, like maybe a few hours ago, been painted bright blue, and so we got paint on our hands.  We got down the stairs, talked with the guy taking money for the umbrella and chairs (20 euros for 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day), and then debated the expense.

We walked and tripped up and down the “beach” for a while trying to decide which chairs would be ours and finally parked ourselves at water’s edge.

Christine had done a little researching about going to the Blue Lagoon and learned that going early in the day is best, before the crowds start arriving with the tour boats at around 11:00.  So, we were in our beach chairs by 9:45 and practically had the place to ourselves.  It was beautiful!  Before long, the Blue Lagoon beckoned and into the cold water we went, but once in, it was wonderful.  We swam to the other side, thinking that maybe we would get out onto the “beach” on the other side, but the stones in the water made that not terribly attractive.  So, we paddled back across the lagoon.

We had fun watching people arrive and doing just what we did, walking up and down the rows of chairs trying to decide where to park.  For the morning, everything was in the shade.  By mid afternoon, though, there would be no shade, even under most of the umbrellas.  These chairs were on a small strip of limestone set at the base of a cliff, not the smooth kind of limestone, rather the porous, sharp-edged kind that made walking quite challenging, and absolute torture barefooted on one’s way from chair to water.  And all the chairs were crammed together to maximize every inch of useable space.  The umbrellas were set in square stones with a hole in the middle and a rope from the edge of the stone was tied to a prong in the umbrella to prevent it from collapsing in windy conditions.  I must say, they had all this very well organized.

We were really glad we rented the chairs and umbrella (we avoided sunburn!) and we kicked back and relaxed and did essentially nothing, other than people watch.  As it got more and more crowded, we had lots of people to watch.  We particularly found humor in the various reactions people had to the cold water.  We saw a myriad of facial expressions.  Little kids are a delight to watch in the water and we enjoyed them immensely.

For lunch we walked up the stairs and across the cliff to the area of food trucks.  We had chicken BBQ on a baguette and chips.  After lunch, we went back to our chairs and continued our people watching.  By now, all the chairs had been rented and the lagoon was full of people.

One of the things we had planned to do was go exploring on Comino.  But, we had a hard time getting motivated to do that because we were so enjoying being at water’s edge and being mesmerized by the sounds of the water and the lovely colors as the light swells rolled on to the beach.  Eventually, we climbed back up the stairs and went for a walk.  We were interested in finding the hotel and checking it out.  We walked along some paths and then got on a dirt road.  We met up with 2 women who were also looking for the hotel because they wanted a good cup of coffee, not the food truck variety.  We walked with them for a while and learned they were Dutch from Holland, and that they were staying in a hotel about 4 doors down the street from us.

We walked by a road that indicated a dive center, but kept going.  There was no hotel sign there, so we kept walking.  After a bit farther, I turned around and saw the Comino Hotel down the hill on the road we had passed.  We all turned around and walked to the hotel.  This place was in a lovely setting.  There are two parts to the hotel, one being some bungalows which were a 10 minute walk to the next bay.  But the hotel had a very large outdoor restaurant, a pool, a tiny little beach and all this was on a beautiful little bay.

We picked up some literature on the hotel (Christine really wants to stay at the hotel!) and she got a cappuccino to go.  The time task master (guess who) wanted to get back to the lagoon for a swim before we had to start packing up.  So back to the lagoon we went.

After another lovely swim, we dried off in the sun and then packed up.  The last ferry from Comino departed at 5:00.  I thought we’d better get to the dock a little early because I figured there would be a rather long line to get on the boat.  And there was, but we boarded the boat with no problem.  Others were going to have to wait for the ferry company to send another boat to pick up the remaining ticketholders.

As part of the return trip to Cirkewwa, the ferry boat motored close to some of the caves around Comino, and we even went half way in to one of them.  We also motored into Crystal Cove, where the Hera had also stopped.  Again, we both said how fun it would be to kayak around Comino.  We will kayak, I just don’t know when and where yet.

We arrived back at the Cirkewwa ferry terminal after a much nicer boat ride on the return trip.  Our arrival was in between Gozo ferries, so I was hoping that the bus stop wouldn’t be jammed packed.  It wasn’t, but the digital time display showing arrival times of the various buses, changed the time of our bus 4 times in about 5 minutes, so we were fearful that it would be another long wait at a bus stop.  During our wait, we chatted with a couple from Serbia.  Malta is quite the tourist destination from all over Europe. Happily, it wasn’t a long wait, and a #222 came along.   We got seats on the bus and enjoyed the ride home.

When we got home, we decided to drop our stuff in the apartment and get some takeaway from Mr. Maxim’s Café next door, and go sit at water’s edge for dinner to conclude our wonderful day at the beach.  It was lovely hearing the water lapping on the rocks and we basked in the glow from our luxurious day on Comino.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was researching things to do around Malta, I was on the Heritage Malta website.  Heritage Malta is the organization preserving and protecting all the historical, archaeological and museum  sites on the islands.  Currently, there are 23 sites open to the public, and hopefully we will have visited most or all of them.  On their What’s On schedule, I noticed Ghar Dalam Under a Full Moon.  Ghar Dalam is a cave and museum, and so I was intrigued by the idea and purchased tickets.

Since the event was from 7:30 to 9:30 in the evening, we decided to tack on a visit to nearby Marsaxlokk in the afternoon and then get ourselves to Birzebugga where Ghar Dalam is.  We left the flat at about 1:30 and took the #13 bus into Valletta for transfer to the #85 bus to Marsaxlokk.  We had visited Marsaxlokk with Eve and Michaela and had had a nice dinner there.  During that visit, the vendor stalls had all closed by the time we arrived.  So this trip, we knew we would have a chance to stroll along the quay and see the market stalls.

We arrived in Marsaxlokk a little before 3:00 and wandered up and down the quay.  It really is a very colorful harbor and we enjoyed looking at all the boats and looking through all the vendor stalls.  We especially liked seeing all the Malta lace items on display, which were considerable.  And there were stalls selling Maltese food products.  Honey is a big item.  The original name of the island, although not known for sure, may have originated from the Greek word meli, honey.  The Greeks called the island Melite, honey-sweet, possibly due to Malta’s unique production of honey; an endemic species of bee lives on the island.  There is also some notion given to the name deriving from the honey color of the limestone used in buildings.

We had quite a bit of time to kill and we had some concern about when and where to eat dinner.  It’s not uncommon for restaurants to close around 4:00 and then open up again for dinner starting at 7:00.  Since we needed to be at Ghar Dalam by 7:30, that meant an early dinner.  So, first things first; we sat at a quay-side café and had something to drink.  It was a very pleasant spot and we enjoyed watching all the people going up and down the quay.  After an hour or so, we decided to ask for menus, and fortunately, the café wasn’t closing and we could eat an early dinner.

I ordered a pizza and Christine ordered a tuna steak, which we figured we both share.  Since Marsaxlokk is a fishing village, and the menu had the tuna steak on special, Christine decided it was the thing to do at a café in Marsaxlokk.  And it was delicious!  I must confess that I haven’t eaten fresh tuna steak much, but this was really yummy and we really enjoyed it.

After dinner we decided that, since we still had about 90 minutes before our event, we would walk to Ghar Dalam.  It was only about a 30 minute walk.  We checked Google maps for a route, and off we went.  We walked through a couple of streets in Marsaxlokk and found lovely hand-painted house name plaques on several homes.

Very quickly we were out of the village and overlooking both sides of Marsaxlokk Bay – towards Marsaxlokk and towards Birzebugga.

In between the two villages, and their large industrial complexes, is stunning farmland.  It was a beautiful late afternoon for a stroll in the country and we really enjoyed ourselves.

As we were following the Google map, the country lanes became narrower and narrower with each turn.  At one point, we were tramping through some very overgrown places.  We spooked a bunch of sheep in a field and some guy leaning on a stone fence in the middle of the field just stared at us.  And then, we ran in to a dead end.  A large gate was crossing the track and we couldn’t get through.  That guy must have known that and he just watched us keep going to the dead end and then have to back track.  A  woman sitting in front of her little house asked us if we were lost and pointed us towards where we would eventually meet up with a road.  We didn’t mind the extra walking, though, since it was such a nice evening and so pretty.

We did  kind of scramble down the little farm track in the country lane photo above as it was steep.  We weren’t quite sure where it would take us, but we finally did end up on the main road from Marsaxlokk to Birzebugga.

We walked along the bay and then up a street.  We always enjoy seeing houses and their decorations.

We found our way to Ghar Dalam, and we were still 40 minutes, so we sat outside and enjoyed the cool breeze and the surroundings.

The program was two talks by scientists about the cave, museum, and gardens.  Ghar Dalam (don’t pronounce the Gh) is a natural, waterworn cave in the lower coralline limestone.  It is situated in the north-east bank of Wied (Valley) Dalam.  The cave stands 15.5 meters above sea level and is 144 meters deep, but pubic access is only through the first 70 meters.

Ghar Dalam is the oldest of Malta’s national monuments.  The Pleistocene mammalian fauna found in it reached Malta from the European mainland at the time of the glacial period of the Ice Age, about 200,000 years agao, when land bridges existed between Sicily and Malta.  The Mediterranean Sea depth was considerably lower at that time.  These land bridges provided a pathway for the European fauna in escaping the unfavorable climatic conditions of Europe, when most of its northern and central regions were covered with ice sheets.  The ice sheets never reached Malta but the effects of the Ice Age on Malta were considerable.  Malta had a Rain Age!  The abundant rain of the Pleistocene period caused floods and rivers, which excavated most of the Maltese valleys.  At Wied Dalam the river gradually eroded its bed into a subterranean tunnel until it finally reached and penetrated the tunnel’s roof.  There are actually 2 caves, one on either side of the valley.  Loads of Pleistocene animal carcasses, clay, pebbles, stones, soil ad other debris were sucked and deposited in this cavern.  Human remains dating back 7,000 years ago have also been found.

I was never a very good student of prehistoric history and don’t know epoch and eras and ages.  The displays in one of the museum rooms provided really good information about all this.  One display was in the form of a clock face and showed in terms of clock hours when things were happening on Earth.  It struck me that humans appear at only about the 4 minute mark where one hour represents 50 millennial years.

It was interesting to hear about some of the findings.  Hippopotamus and elephant remains were found  One of the museum’s claim to fame is its Victorian display cases of the thousands of animal bones and teeth found in the cave.  These cases are unique because of the arrangement of their incredibly similar items all wired on the display boards.

There is also a project underway between the museum building and the cave entrance to renovate the gardens and have only indigenous plants.  By this time, it was getting dark, so it wasn’t possible to see much of the gardens, but the speaker talked with great passion about how important this project is.  Then, after some refreshments, we finally went to the cave.

The interior of the cave was lighted with spotlighting shining on various features.  I imagine things are a little easier to see when some sunlight is entering the cave mouth.  The speaker did shine his flashlight on various geological features and talked about them.  There were some remains of stalactites and stalagmites.  And there was an interesting wall pillar, a stratigraphic formation, showing all the various layers and levels of findings that have been excavated over the years, i.e., the different layers where the bones of various fauna were found.

We learned that during WWII, over 200 people made the cave their home.  All over Malta, people lived in caves during the war due to the intense and relentless bombing occurring many times a day for at least 2 years.  I’m planning to post a WWII piece because it is really important to understand what Malta went through during the war.  We also learned that the British military used the cave to store equipment.  This is one of the reasons the stalactites and stalagmites were broken, which was done to enlarge the space for equipment.

After the event, we then made our way to the nearby bus stop and returned to Valletta on the #82 bus.  We passed some villages that were either having a festa, or were preparing for their festa, as we saw churches and streets adorned with colored lights.  Looked a lot like Christmas.  Back in Valletta, we and lots of other people, were waiting for the #13.  I was surprised at the crowd since it was nearly 11:00 p.m., but then Christine commented that the younger crowd was all heading towards Paceville for their Saturday night out.  As we moved from Valletta through Sliema, the bus got really crowded, and we had to kind of push our way out the door at our stop.

So, all-in-all, an interesting afternoon and evening excursion, but we probably liked our pastoral walk the best today.  We do love being out in the country seeing the fantastic dry stack stone fences and all the beautiful farm fields and vegetation.

We had enjoyed our fireworks night cruise with Hera so much that we decided that Hera was the boat we wanted to take on an around Malta cruise.  We booked with Hera, although the trip date choices were limited.  I suspect since it is not the summer season yet, Hera doesn’t do this trip every day.  We read some review comments that weather may often cause a change in route (not going all the way around the island due to wind and high swells) and sometimes the cruise is canceled.  Since our choice in cruise dates was limited, we had to take a chance with the weather and just pick a date.  Fortunately, it was a very fine day with little wind on Wednesday, so no worries about the weather.  We also opted for no pickup, since that was so stressful the night of the fireworks.  So, on to our trusty #13 bus for the short ride around the front to the ferries side of Sliema.

We boarded the very nice sailing vessel Hera II and staked out our seats on the second deck on the right-hand side of the vessel so we would be on the land side.  I would estimate about 80 or so people were on board, but there was room for everyone without too much problem with having a little personal space.  Two Italian couples were near us.  They were entertaining even though they were speaking Italian and we couldn’t understand their conversations.  They certainly were having a good time.

We departed Sliema at about 9:20 and headed out Marsamxett Harbor and around the end of Valletta.  I just love looking at Valletta.

We continued on down along the eastern, southeastern side of the island.  We haven’t done much touring in this area and so the sights were new to us.  There was a colorful little town, Xghajra, close to the shore that looked pretty.  We passed by a large water storage area.  Water is such an important commodity in Malta and water is tanked in as well as converted from seawater.  The shoreline along this area isn’t cliffs and so the hills slope down into the sea.  There is some limestone edge visible.  One thing I don’t remember from our 1985 trip is how hilly Malta is.  The island is very hilly.

We rounded the southeastern end of the island and began seeing some of the limestone cliffs.  There is a peninsula called Delimara that gives you a flavor of what will be in store on the western side of the island.  I was interested to see Delimara because I read about a nice swimming area called Peter’s Pool that I though we might check out.  However, from looking at this area from the sea, it looks as though it would be quite a challenge to get to.

The next area was Marsascala and Marsaxlokk, two fishing villages.  We have been to Marsaxlokk and I was surprised to see that the harbor of this very quaint, picturesque village is far from the harbor entrance.  Also, even though Marsaxlokk is one of the most famous tourist attractions, it is ringed by a huge power plant on one side and a huge shipping port on the other.  I guess it is a good thing that the actual village harbor is tucked back in away from the heavy industrial images.

We saw something interesting near the Marsascala Harbor.  The boat pilot, Alex, who was doing a very nice commentary about what we were seeing as we went, pointed out something in the water.  They looked like a bunch of metal structures, like cages.  And, that’s exactly what they were – tuna pens.  This was an area where live blue fin tuna are penned after being caught.  They are fed fish and kind of fattened up and will eventually be sold.  Most go to Japan and become sushi.  I had never heard of this practice of tuna penning before.

Next, we sailed past a shipping port, the Malta Freeport, in the village of Birzebbugia.  From afar you can see all the huge cranes used to load and unload cargo ships.  Whenever I see these things, to me they look like huge chairs for giants.  We’ll be going near Birzebbugia on Saturday evening for a Heritage Malta event we signed up for.

Once past Birzebbugia, we’re now starting to go up the western side of the island and the cliffs are now in abundance all the way up this side of the island.  Most of the cliffs are many hundreds of feet tall, and some are essentially 2-tiered, with a slope from the top of the first set of cliffs up to a second set of cliffs.  I posted photos of this sloping farm land between the sets of cliffs in the Dingli cliffs post.

The geology of the cliffs is awesome with all kinds of patterns and colors in the limestone.  Although there isn’t much in the way of tides in the Mediterranean, so there isn’t a lot of erosion caused by the sea, what there is an abundance of in Malta is wind.  The limestone has been raked over by wind so most of the areas on cliffs seem quite smooth.  And where there is some protection from the wind, the limestone is bumpy and there is vegetation growing out of the rock.  I especially enjoyed seeing birds gliding along the cliffs.  I think I saw the indigenous bird, the Maltese Blue Thrush.  The western cliffs apparently is the only place this bird exists.

We passed by the Blue Grotto caves and saw the little luzzus full of tourists motoring out from Weid iz-Zurrieq to enter these phosphorescent caves.  As you might recall, when we went there with Eve and Michaela, it was too windy for the boats to go out.  That wasn’t a problem today.  I hope we will be able to do that one day, maybe when Eve is here visiting in June.

We then passed by Qrendi where the two temples, Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, are.  We visited those the same day we hiked the Dingli cliffs.  And we saw the Hamrija Watchtower that we walked out to when we were visiting Mnajdra.  Also, this is where you can see the little islet of Filfla.  This rock was used for bombing practice during and after WWII, so the islet is half the size it once was.  It is now a protected nature reserve.

The pilot tried to get fairly close to the cliffs and so we spotted a couple of surprising things.  One was a person on a ledge about halfway up a cliff, and the other was a ladder hanging out on a ledge.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!

And then came the Dingli cliffs.  The patterns in the rock are beautiful and we marveled at all the caves, cut-outs, ledges, holes, vegetation and the sloping farm fields up from the top of the first set of cliffs to the second set of cliffs.  That is a long way up!

After Dingli cliffs came a little village right at the sea edge, Mtahleb, where apparently one can get the best fish dinner in Malta (per Alex, the pilot).  There was an interesting little house there as well.

We then passed another reverse osmosis water plant, this one creating a little waterfall.

Then the pilot had a lot of fun taking us into a little cove where there were some caves.  He asked us if we’d like to go into a cave, and of course, we all said yes.  He then proceeded to carefully pilot the sailing vessel, masts and all, under the cover of a rock overhang.  I suppose one might call it a cave, and in fact, the entire boat came into the shade of this cave overhang.  It was quite a trick.

Then back out into the sea.  We came upon some interesting coastline.  One place had very cool limestone.  It almost looked like the stone had been quarried, and there were some really large boulders lying about.  Look for the guys sitting under the point in the Smooth Limestone photo to get a sense of the size of the limestone.  I took a telephoto shot of some steps carved into the limestone which were really neat.  It was a really beautiful area.  And then it became very different with these large boulders sitting tenuously up a hill.  Then, it was different again with what almost looked like sand, but it was limestone.  All very interesting in close succession along the coast.

Northward, to the northwest section of the island just before the Marfa Ridge, are three of the very few sandy beaches on the island.  Golden Bay has been developed.  Its neighbor, Ghajn Tuffieha, is one of our favorites, and the last is il-Gnejna, a favorite of the Maltese.  The walk down to Ghajn Tuffieha is quite a hike, as is the hike back up.

Then around the very northwest end of Malta, the Marfa Ridge, and I saw the Red Tower.  Makes me happy every time I see this structure, don’t know why, but I really like it.

Then we are crossing the north end of Malta heading to Comino and the Blue Lagoon.  The Blue Lagoon is probably the most popular destination for both the Maltese and for tourists.  You can only get there by boat.  There are only a handful of fulltime residents on the island, but a lot of people go daily to this place.  It is beautiful and picturesque.  The Hera spent 2 hours there, so we could swim and explore the island a bit.

Yes, an idyllic spot.  Did I mention that it is probably the most popular destination in Malta?

Because the area in mostly lagoon, and all the sand is at the bottom of the lagoon, there is no beach per se, and all the perimeter is limestone. There aren’t very many places to sit or lie on your beach towel.  Space is at a premium right around the lagoon.

But we enjoyed our time at the Blue Lagoon and want to return for a longer stay.  What we’d really love to do is kayak around all the area since there are lots of caves to explore and big rocks to paddle around.

We then spent 45 minutes a short distance from the Blue Lagoon in a place called the Crystal Cove.  Some of the people on the boat were having fun jumping off the boat railing into the water.

By now, it’s about 4:30 and time to head down what is called the urban coast of Malta, the northeast and east sides.  All of this area is quite familiar to us because we’ve walked a considerable amount of it.  I’ll put several photos here with captions.  Hopefully, a lot of these places will seem familiar to you, as well, because I’ve posted about them in large part.

And so we arrived back to Marsamxett Harbor and the Sliema Strand.  It was a great boat tour and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Malta is such an interesting island, full of history, geological contrasts, and beautiful scenery.  Exploring the island from many vantage points adds to its allure.

 

 

 

Today we again we went to Valletta, this time to visit St. John’s Co-Cathedral.  When we visited Malta in 1985 and toured this church, it was the most over the top church I had ever seen and I remember being dumbstruck by it.  On this visit, my reaction hasn’t changed any at all.  It is a gaudy church, but a fantastically beautiful place.  You would never guess what’s inside by looking at the outside of the church.  It is a very solid-looking, plane exterior giving no hint of what you’ll find inside.

St. John’s Co-Cathedral, so named because there already was a Catholic cathedral in Malta, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina.  Therefore, to pass muster with the archbishop, St. John’s was eventually named co-cathedral.  When originally built between 1572 and 1577, commissioned by the Grand Master at the time, it was a very austere church with modest interior decorations.  It was the new conventual church of the Knights of St. John.  They had originally used St. Lawrence Church in Vittoriosa, but as Valletta became the new home to the Knights, St. John’s became their new church.  Initially modest, a century later, in the 1660s, Grand Master Cotoner (the guy who built the bastions of the Cottonera Lines), decided that this church should be fancier and showier than churches in Rome, so he commissioned a complete interior makeover in high Baroque style.  Mattia Preti was the architect/artist who did the makeover, and wow, did he make this church a showplace!

The ceiling is called a barrel vault, I imagine because of its curve.  The ceiling is divided into 18 panels, 3 sections across 6 vaults, which Preti painted depicting events in the life of John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Knights. Interestingly, the figures painted into the ceiling next to each column initially appear to the viewer as three-dimensional statues, but on closer inspection you see that the artist cleverly created an illusion of three-dimensionality by his use of shadows and placement.  We sat for a long time looking up at this illusion trying to decide whether it was a flat painting or a sculpture.  Also noteworthy is the fact that the carving of all the wall decorations and statues was all undertaken in-place (in-situ) rather than being carved independently and then attached to the walls (stucco). The Maltese limestone from which the Cathedral is built lends itself particularly well to such intricate carving.

The whole marble floor of the sanctuary is an entire series of tombs, housing about 400 Knights and officers of the Order.  We couldn’t see the crypts below, but in addition to the 400 Knights buried under the floor, many of the Grand Masters are buried in a crypt under the high altar or in the altars of their langue chapel.  I just love the floor of marble tombstones.  Unfortunately, most of the floor is blocked off, so I had to admire it from afar.  However, around the edges where we could walk, there were several interesting parts of tombstones that I was able to photograph.  I don’t know why, but I’m so fascinated by all the skeletons and skulls in these marble tombstones.  We saw a similar floor in marble tombstones at St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church.  At St. John’s, I wish I could have gone around and looked at all 400 of them.  The marble designs are so interesting and the intricacies in the marble artwork is amazing.

St. John’s has many side chapels, several down each side of the main nave.  The side chapels are for each Langue of the Knights.  There were 8 langues: Germany, Italy, France, Provence, Anglo-Bavarian, Auvergne, Aragon and Castile (which includes Leon and Portugal).  Each contained wonderful paintings over their altars, fantastic statues, columns, lots and lots of gold wall decoration, and beautiful ceiling paintings.  There is an aisle connecting each of the chapels down one side or the other so that you can look down the entire length through all the archways between the chapels.  It was a beautiful view.  Each chapel in its own right is an amazing collection of artistry.

The high altar and sanctuary are beautiful with a huge sculpture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.  The organ pipes are on display on both sides of the chancel.

Every inch of this church was covered in some kind of artistic creation.  There were sculptures in marble, wall carvings in limestone, paintings, columns, decorative features, you name it – you could find it.

St. John’s has a sacristy and an Oratorio room, used by the Knights for private worship, which contained its most prized possessions, one of which is a painting by Caravaggio titled “Beheading of St. John the Baptist.”  I wasn’t able to photograph this painting, but here is a copy from an online source.

Caravaggio was famous for a painting technique called raking light.  I don’t really know what that means, but some of the items on display were really interesting in terms of the effects of light and dark that I found quite moving, almost like the paintings were photographs.

Here’s a little video of the interior of St. John’s.

We’ve been to a number of churches this trip.  Two of the most famous are La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and St. John’s Co-Cathedral here in Valletta.  While both churches were eye-popping, the feeling I got being in each was totally different.  In La Sagrada, it felt very spiritual and Gaudi designed it to that maximum effect.  In St. John’s, the décor almost makes it difficult to feel anything but overwhelmed by the details.  It was ostentatious and overpowering.  Although incredibly beautiful artistically, I didn’t find much sense of spirituality.

After our visit to St. John’s, we wandered down Merchant Street where vendors were set up in stalls down the middle of the street.  We browsed a bit and then found our way to St. George’s Square and the Grand Master’s Palace and Palace Armory.  You will recall that the day of the infiorata (all the flowers in the square), I had gone up to view the display from the palace balcony  and got a peak at some of the palace. Christine missed out on that and so she wanted to at least see the palace courtyard.

After walking around the courtyard, we decided to tour the Palace State Rooms.  We had to buy combined tickets that included the Palace Armoury, neither of us were very interested in that part, but seeing the State Rooms was what Christine wanted.  Unfortunately, the most significant room was closed for renovation, the Tapestry Room.

The State Rooms are the show piece of the Presidential Palace sited at the heart of Malta’s World Heritage capital city of Valletta. The Palace itself was one of the first buildings in the new city of Valletta founded by Grand Master Jean de Valette in 1566 a few months after the successful outcome of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. The Palace was enlarged and developed by successive Grand Masters to serve as their official residence. Later, during the British period, it served as the Governor’s Palace and was the seat of Malta’s first constitutional parliament in 1921. The palace today is the seat of the Office of the President of Malta.

What is glorious about the State Rooms and Parliamentary hallway is the artwork.  The paintings were just lovely, especially in the hallway because the scenes depicted early Malta and we had fun trying to figure out where the scenes were.

In the Grand Council Chamber was a collection of historic paintings all around the perimeter of the room, the top third of each wall, depicting the story of the Great Siege of 1565.

Parliamentary Corridor had wonderful paintings.  Much of the work was done directly on the stone.  The