Malta Bound
After spending a lovely week with Rita's parents in Germany we are taking off on a three week adventure to Malta and Southern Italy.
My Dad was the first in our family to visit Malta. Unfortunately, he was sent there during WW11 from 1940 - 43. He along with everyone else living and stationed there were put under a 29 month siege by the Axis regimes and suffered terribly. It took my Dad until his mid 80's before he could talk about his time there. Rita and I will be going voluntarily for much more enjoyable reasons: to soak up the warm weather, explore its historic cities and take in the scenic beauty of this tiny island.
And Malta is very small island being only 27km x 14km (17mi x 9mi). But due to its central location in the middle of the Mediterranean it was always a much fought over prize in times when sea vessels could not sustain long journeys without stopping to resupply water, food and fuel. The island has been ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French and the British from 800BC to 1964AD when the Maltese were finally able to rule themselves for the first time since prehistory.
Today, Malta is occupied by tourists as they flock to the island for its mild temperatures, historic cities and stunning natural scenery.
We arrived in Valletta at 23: 25, 45 minutes late, and by the time we got our bags and made it through to arrivals our driver that we had ordered was nowhere to be found. We made our way to the taxi stand and 20 minutes later we arrived at our accommodation. Thankfully, our landlady was waiting for us and showed us around the apartment and how everything worked. By the time she left we were exhausted and went straight to bed.
Woke up to a hazy day. The wind had carried sand particles from Africa and it looks like fog. Rita having coffee taking in the wonderful view from our lower balcony. The building across from us is a Catholic Monastery and according to Rita, the nuns sing hymns starting at 07:00. Vittoriosa, one of the "Three Cities", is in the foreground across the Grand Harbor.
Rita locking our front door as we leave to explore Valletta. Our apartment is very modern and quite unique as it is the only one in the building and is on four floors, not including the two balconies. There are 86 steps inside the building to access all the floors. Thankfully, there is an elevator. We are in the heart of the walled city and only a few minutes walk from anywhere.
Looking down at the Saluting Battery where a cannon is fired every day at noon with great ceremony over the Grand Harbor.
Most of the streets in Valletta are very narrow and many buildings have the traditional Maltese balconies. This street also has a British style post box to add some color.
Valletta is Malta's capital and was built by the Knights of St. John on a peninsula that's only 1km x 600m and is fully encompassed by its protective wall. Most of the buildings we see today are still from the 16th and 17th centuries.
My Dad was the first in our family to visit Malta. Unfortunately, he was sent there during WW11 from 1940 - 43. He along with everyone else living and stationed there were put under a 29 month siege by the Axis regimes and suffered terribly. It took my Dad until his mid 80's before he could talk about his time there. Rita and I will be going voluntarily for much more enjoyable reasons: to soak up the warm weather, explore its historic cities and take in the scenic beauty of this tiny island.
And Malta is very small island being only 27km x 14km (17mi x 9mi). But due to its central location in the middle of the Mediterranean it was always a much fought over prize in times when sea vessels could not sustain long journeys without stopping to resupply water, food and fuel. The island has been ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French and the British from 800BC to 1964AD when the Maltese were finally able to rule themselves for the first time since prehistory.
Today, Malta is occupied by tourists as they flock to the island for its mild temperatures, historic cities and stunning natural scenery.
We arrived in Valletta at 23: 25, 45 minutes late, and by the time we got our bags and made it through to arrivals our driver that we had ordered was nowhere to be found. We made our way to the taxi stand and 20 minutes later we arrived at our accommodation. Thankfully, our landlady was waiting for us and showed us around the apartment and how everything worked. By the time she left we were exhausted and went straight to bed.
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