Our second to last day in Malta, yesterday, was spent fussing about luggage, starting to pack, and doing some visiting. Here’s an update.
We’ve been a little stressed about our luggage situation. I spent what seems like hours looking online for the checked and hand baggage restrictions for our return trip. We fly Air Malta to London, and then Delta (but really Virgin Atlantic is the operator) to Detroit and Delta to Binghamton. Air Malta has very restrictive rules for hand luggage and so Christine’s wheeled computer bag will not pass muster as it is too wide. We think my wheeled hand bag will pass (we hope beyond all hope). Air Malta has both size and weight restrictions for carry on luggage and with my wheeled bag and a large backpack, I probably wouldn’t be allowed both pieces, like the problem we had in London with British Airways. So we spent a long time looking at the fees associated with various options of either buying extra weight for our bags or buying a second checked bag for one of us. We went round and round. And, to complicate things, Delta/Virgin Atlantic have different rules. Also, since we booked the two legs of the trip separately, we don’t know if Air Malta will be able to check our bags to our final destination and are likely to have to retrieve our checked bags at Heathrow and then check them in a Delta. We’re in a quandary. There’s no scale in the flat, the neighbor wasn’t home to ask if he had one we could borrow, so Christine dashed off to a store to buy one of those handheld luggage scales. We though that we’d have better luck figuring out our best/cheapest option if we actually knew how much our stuff weighed. And yes, the scale did help and we have made our decision. We’ll be using Christine’s wheeled computer bag as her second checked bag and will stuff it full of things leftover after we both have packed our suitcases and are at no more than 20 kg each. Moral of the story – don’t pack so much stuff to begin with!
After our packing dilemma, it was time to go on a visit. During our visit with Mary Caruana on Monday, we learned who was handling Mary’s affairs. This is a dear friend of Mary’s, Dora, and with the help of the nursing officer, we got this woman’s contact information. Christine called Dora Monday evening and Dora was quite happy to hear from Christine. When Dora visited Mary after our first visit, we learned that Mary had very excitedly told Dora all about our visit. Dora invited us to her house in St. Julian’s Tuesday afternoon.
We met Dora and her husband Joe and it was such an interesting meeting. We learned a lot more about Mary and Dora’s relationship with her. She respects her as if she was her mother, and Mary relates to Dora as if she was her daughter. Clearly, Dora is very devoted to Mary and that gave us a great sense of peace knowing that Mary is well looked after. What was very surprising is that we learned that Dora also knew Christine’s grandmother Rosina, and would visit her in the nursing home through the Legions of Mary organization. We’ve had more interesting connections to people in Malta than we ever thought possible.
Dora took us on a tour of her house, which they bought, renovated and enlarged some 9 years ago. Dora is also a master needleworker and all over her house are displays of the very fine needlepoint tapestry, embroidery, cross-stitch, and crochet and lace work that she does. Really beautiful work. We really enjoyed getting to know Dora and Joe a little and it was so nice to meet them. They were very happy that we contacted them. Christine exchanged contact information with them and Dora said that she would keep us posted on Mary’s health and status. And Lou, Dora knows all about you from Mary.
After our visit with the Urpanis, we walked back around Spinola and Balluta Bays probably for the last time this trip. We get a little teary when we say stuff like this. But on to visit cousin Carol and her husband Joe.
Carol has really been having a very difficult time with her back. Shortly after we arrived she somehow injured herself and has been suffering ever since. She feels badly she was unable to do more things with us. However, she has been very helpful in all ways during our stay. We spent an hour trying to tell her of all our movements over the past couple of weeks since we last saw her. It’s hard to get a word in edgewise with Carol. But we had a lovely visit with Carol and Joe and we told them how much we’ve appreciated getting to know them. It establishes a very strong connection for us to Malta, and we hope to visit them again in the not too distant future.
Today, Wednesday, our final day in Malta has been spent packing, cleaning up the flat, getting checked in on our flights, and, of course, going to the beach one last time.

We walked around past Exile Point to the sea side, and to use Eve’s word, we were very wistful. We have gotten so used to our little routines, like sitting on the rocks enjoying people watching and seeing all the boats go by. Today was an especially busy water day because this is a national holiday in Malta, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul is celebrated in the town of Nadur in Gozo. This feast marks an important event in the calendar of Maltese popular customs and traditions. It is a country harvest and folk festival as well as a religious holiday. It dates back even further than the arrival of the Knights of St John in 1530. The festival is named L-Imnarja, a corruption of the Italian ‘Luminara’ and means festival of light. It is named after the bonfires that used to light up the festivities in the towns of Mdina and Rabat.
We swam a couple of times and again the water felt so delicious. The water is teaming with life and Christine really likes looking at all the fish. We then walked back around to “our” rocks and Christine had one last swim. This is where the Maltese ladies on jellyfish patrol hang out and the woman who helped Christine translate some Maltese words. It nice that we struck up a rapport with these locals and they wished us a bon voyage. We got teary during our last few minutes before packing up and walking back to the flat.
We spent the rest of the day getting organized and packing. We don’t want to leave!
We’re heading to Peppi’s across the street for a pitcher of sangria and a Maltija pizza for our last meal in Malta.
This has been a fantastic trip. We’ve seen so many beautiful and interesting things, met so many wonderful people, had a great time with Eve during her 2 visits, learned a whole lot, walked through a great deal of history and Malta, had loads of fun, had only a couple of misadventures, and just had a great trip. This has been an adventure, one that we will relish for the rest of our lives.
And so the sun sets on our Maltese adventure.

We’ve had a grand time! I wonder where our next adventure will take us?
