Malta - ding ding!!
Our first time in Malta, so as our feet touched the ground we chalked up country #93 on our list and gave a little cheer.
We weren't scheduled to arrive until mid morning, so we enjoyed the sail into Valletta harbour from our verandah, curious about this city about which we'd heard some good things.
The city looked fascinating with a wealth of golden stone and no skyscrapers.
We had plans to go to the island of Gozo today, and simply hoped that we'd see some of the city as we drove to the ferry. Perhaps this is somewhere else we need to come back to?
We had been eyeing that crane up, wondering about the giraffe markings. As we came closer to it, we smiled because yes, it had indeed been camouflaged as a giraffe!
Photographs taken from a moving coach are never the best way of capturing a landscape of tightly packed streets in a surprisingly modern urban environment and so it was only when we left the city behind that I had a chance to record the scene through which we were driving. We learned that everything here is built of, or built on limestone, a soft, porous rock which crumbles easily.
The landscape appeared dusty and Svetlana explained that a tourist tax charged to all visitors has been used to fund an eco project to manage vast quantities of waste. It sounded rather like a simple landfill project, but was described as an opportunity to stabilise areas by covering and planting them to prevent erosion.
We were nearing the ferry terminal as she explained about the challenges of building homes from a porous material: mould. For centuries people here have left gaps in their walls to allow air to circulate and as we passed some older houses, we could see a hole in the wall above every window.
Sadly, the gate to the ferry closed as we arrived. We'd missed the departure and had to wait another forty five minutes for the next one. Whether that was a factor in the way the rest of the day panned out, we'll never know, but it was disappointing, to say the least.
Sitting on the ferry for twenty minutes gave us time to puzzle over the Maltese language a bit. Curious, isn’t it?
30 letters, we learned and from the little we heard spoken, remarkably different from any other language we're familiar with.
My immediate impression of Gozo as we drove from the ferry terminal was that it was so different from Valletta. Here was a classical panorama. We were headed for the citadel and the cathedral firstly and soon arrived at a bus station in a bustling, small town
It was here where things began to go awry. Rather than wait for everyone to be off the bus - there were about twenty of us today - Svetlana set off at quite a pace through the narrow streets leaving those of us who'd chosen to sit further back to catch up with her. It was hot and sticky and we had no idea how far we were going or what we needed to look out for. Not much fun.
Unsurprisingly, the citadel is on a high spot and the approach was up a fairly steep hill, though the entrance itself was up several flights of steps. One of our party asked if there was a lift or a more accessible entrance. By now it was early afternoon and the sun fierce. We were advised that yes, there was a lift but that we shouldn't use it because we might get stuck in it. Hmmm. On learning that we'd have just fifteen minutes here then, I decided that my post-Zagreb knees were not up to that steep climb in this heat and that I'd wait here. I handed my camera to my Hero then, who took a few pictures to show me what I missed.
The Cathedral
The Courtyard
Another corner of the courtyard
In such a short time, there really was no chance to see most of the features and no sooner had the last person in our group disappeared from view, the first one reappeared at the top of the steps. I was grateful to my Hero for stepping up like that and glad I hadn't made the effort myself!
From here, we returned to the bus station the way we'd come and climbed back on board. Svetlana did a head count and…oh dear. We were two people short! Whilst we sat patiently on the bus, thankful of airconditioning, she ran back to the Citadel in search of her two missing charges. Twenty minutes later they returned with her, full of apologies for having lost their way.
Next stop was for lunch in a pretty harbour town where we enjoyed some traditional Maltese dishes and a glass of local wine in interesting company. I watched those enjoying a swim in the cool water and wished I could have joined them!
Our post lunch destination was Ix-Xaghra where we were going to visit a Unesco World Heritage site. Driving into the village, we noticed the decorations all out in place for an upcoming festival.
There was also a windmill at the bottom of the street, opposite the entrance to the Ggigantija Temples, where we were going to begin in the museum.
From the moment we entered the modern exhibition, we were enchanted by the wealth of neolithic artefacts, beautifully displayed and well explained. These had been found in the nearby temple and a map showed their background.
This, for me, was the highlight of the day. Not only could we wander around at our leisure, viewing the things and reading about them ourselves, which really suits me better than having to stand and listen. But we could also take things at our own pace, so I could take photographs, stand and read and enjoy the cool airconditioned museum!
I loved these finely carved stone figures in particular.
This one was highlighted as special: “two corpulent figures”. But really the artefact that caught my eye immediately was a small shard of pottery
To think that repeat pattern of finely drawn birds had been created in neolithic times was quite extraordinary and I was delighted that we'd been able to see it.
But we didn't have all day and there was still the temple to see, so we set out along the walkway and hoped we were going in the right direction!
Along the way, I was pleased to be able to take a photo of the pricky pear cactus we'd seen so many of as we drove here this morning.
Finally we reached the temple - in not that good condition because of the qualities of the stone from which it was built, but nevertheless, quite exceptional because of the size of the stones and the way in which the construction had been made.
This was the final stop of our tour and from here, we made our way through the gift shop and out to our waiting coach.
From here I was able to take a photograph of the wonderful view, possibly similar to that from the Citadel? I have no idea! We climbed on borad and headed straight off to the ferry terminal for the journey back to Valletta.
Unsurprisingly, we missed the 5pm ferry and so waited for the 5.30. It seemed to be the story of our day. Thankfully we were back on board Voyager by 7 for a 7.30pm sailaway and after a quick shower and change, were more than ready for a drink!
Today we have a sea day, en route to Civittavechia, after which we’ll have a port every day for the next week or so. Blog posts might be a little sparse then…but will appear eventually!
