Malta

 Yesterday morning, we landed in Malta.  What a beautiful port!  Across from us in the harbour were 3 peninsulas that stuck into the harbour, and they had buildings, obviously from the past.

It was hard to get all 3 from where we were, but this is sort of what it looks like, as we were leaving.

 

We didn’t have anything planned for Malta, and the city of Valletta, but as we were going to walk into town, a cab driver talked us into having him take us around.  It sounded like a plan.

So he first took us down to the south end of the island to the town of Marsaxlokk.  We wandered the harbour there for a bit, with lots of goodies to purchase, if we wanted.

It’s a busy harbour.        

                                

Saw this ice cream truck that had a cute name.

After we left there, he took us to the Blue Grotto.  Lots of different caves to explore, if you were on a boat.  It was a great view, even from the top.

At the top of the lookout point, this guy was there with his falcon.  You could hold the falcon if you wanted, or he would demonstrate its flight, etc.  I just took a picture.  Cool.

Next, our driver took us to the town of Mdina (that’s not a spelling error).  Apparently it’s the island’s former capital.  It’s known for being a walled city, and it certainly was.

All for fortification in ancient and medieval times.  And to get into the city, you had to cross a bridge, of course.

After this visit, our drive dropped us in the centre of Valletta, the current capital of Malta.  He told us the country has about 600,000 people.  It claimed independence from Great Britain in 1964.  Their main meat is rabbit and seafood (saw lots of these on menus).  Valletta is also a walled city, as we found when we explored a little.

At least they made steps in here.  A little easier to get up and down steep streets.  Loved the cafe tables and umbrellas set up here.

                    

Even found an old telephone booth from the past.  Pretty rare these days!

This was a view from inside the wall looking over part of the harbour.  Our cruise ship is down there on the inside, so you can’t see it from there.

After walking up and down steps, we decided to sit down and have a small bottle of their local lager.  It was quite good.

We made our way back to our ship, which was a good walk, but all downhill.  We could have taken this elevator down, but then we’d miss part of the city.

It would be a good thing to take up though if we were coming from the ship.  From the bottom, you just walk along the wharf.

Another great day.  We left Malta around 5:45 pm and we have another Sea Day today.  I probably won’t post a blog unless something really interesting crops up.  Our next stop is Naples, Italy.