Malta - part 5

We spent the rest of our time in Valetta just walking around. The city is supposed to be famous for its palaces, but I didn't see any. We walked to the end of the peninsula until we had to stop at a fence outside of Fort St. Elmo. Why they ever canonized that stupid muppet, I'll never understand. We couldn't go in or even walk around it. It probably looks cool from the water, but all we saw was the ugly backside of it through an ugly chain link fence. The ugly fort has been the ugly home to Malta's ugly police academy for decades. I never saw Mahoney, Hightower, or Tackleberry. Or that guy hat makes the weird noises. Bummer.


Since we couldn't visit any forts, here are some pictures of them and others of the harbor areas. The one across the harbor in this picture is Fort Ricasoli.


This is called the Grand Harbour. The right side of the picture is the south side of the peninsula looking back towards the rest of the island. I believe that Fort St. Michael is on the left of the picture, with Fort St. Angelo just out of the picture to the left.


More of the same. I was surprised that we didn't see many boats out in the harbor. We did see a small fleet of tugboats pulling some oil contraption-looking thing into the harbor. That's always exciting.


Fort Ricasoli again. I think they are missing a money-making opportunity by not allowing people into the forts. Although it would probably cost a lot to staff them and make them safe for tourists. Who am I kidding? This is Malta. They don't have to be safe. I think most of Europe's historic sites would be considered safety hazards in the US. Falling rocks and debris, slippery and uneven surfaces, perilous winding castle stairways? Who cares? It's history!


Here you can see some of the massive defensive walls that surround Valetta. They had to be able to withstand attacks by the Ottoman fleets. Of course, when British-run Malta was attacked by air raids during WWII the walls didn't help too much. Apparently there was a lot of damage during the war.


This is the opposite side of the peninsula looking out onto Marsamxett Harbour. The blob on the left is the island that houses Fort Manoel. Behind it is other parts of this fairly densely populated area around Valetta. In the distance you can see a high-rise building. This is in the area of St. Julians, where we stayed.


These are some of Valetta's defenses on the north side of the peninsula.


And here are more of the modern buses that roam around Malta. They really varied is design and age. You can see a fairly modern one in the background on the left. I think they take what they can get. When you ride the buses (or buy almost anything) in Malta, you might want to have exact change ready. They are loathe to part with their own change for some reason. Sometimes they just won't give you any. Steph had an encounter with one of the bus drivers who refused to give her a fairly large amount of change she was due. This, despite the fact that he had a large collection of change that he had collected sitting next to him. I've seen in to a lesser extent in Italian cities too. And in Paris. Some people just look at you like you are the worst person in the world because you don't have anything smaller than a euro.


After lunch and walking around in Valetta, we headed back towards St. Julians. Some of us got off the bus early in order to walk around what I think was St. Julians Bay. We headed down along the water. This area doesn't have many beaches. They have some, but most of what they have is like this. Rocky areas with ladders every once in a while.


So, I had never swam in the Mediterranean before. And this may have only been a bay that opened into the sea, but it was close enough. So I took my shorts off and put on my gigantic swimming trunks that I had in my bag, gave my shirt and sandals to Sarah, and dove in. I sensibly tested the water first and, despite being November, it was warm enough for me.


I swam for quite a while, not caring if others had to wait for me. It was really nice, but as I went farther towards the sea (not hat I got too close to it) the water seemed to be getting a little rougher. Or maybe I was just getting tired. So eventually I made my way towards one of the ladders and ended my Mediterranean journey.


Which led to this outstanding picture of me and my giant shorts, having just conquered the sea. After that, we walked all the way back to our hotel. After I took a shower, the girls decided to go to the pool. So I decided to stay dry. Apparently they were out of control. The lights weren't on and they were acting like kids. Early the next morning, with only a very short time before we had to leave for the airport, the girls all decided that they needed to swim in the sea as well. So they ran down to one of the little sandy beaches, jumped in, acted like kids again, jumped back out, and ran to get ready in the hotel. That was good. You shouldn't pass up a chance to swim in the Mediterranean.


I'm pretty sure this picture was from the inside of Joey's cab back on Gozo. Steph was in the front, trying to keep Joey in line, while Sarah, Lara, Mary, and I (with my poofy hair) were crammed in the back.


And here was our last view of Malta as we flew back to Italy, the land of jobs and papers and symposiums. Our stay was too short.

Malta - part 4

On our second full day in Malta we stayed on the main island and went to the capital city of Valletta. I was really looking forward to this part of the trip and I really wanted to see some forts. Malta was given to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (or Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller or the Order of Saint John or whatever else you want to call them) by Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530. Then in 1566 the Grandmaster of the order, Jean Parisot de la Valette, built the new city on the Xiberras peninsula. This was just after the Siege of Malta (1565) by the Ottoman Empire (which I mentioned in a paper about Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent about nine years ago). The knights were outnumbered by about 45,000 to 8,500, but they managed to hold on for a victory. The Ottomans had around 30,000 casualties and the knights had 2,500 (while their civilians had 7,000 and their slaves had 500). After all of that Jean de Valette decided to build a new city with better defenses. So there are forts all around the area including Fort Saint Elmo (on Valletta), Fort Ricasoli, Fort Manoel, Fort Saint Angelo, and Fort Saint Michael. But were able to go into any of them? No. I was quite depressed. I should have known since the guide book didn't really mention much about them or about how to get into them. So all I got was some pictures from across the harbours.
Now, on with the pictures...


Here are some of the walls of Valletta. These were facing the rest of the island and were on the left as we approached the city. I don't know if the entryway to the fort was raised up or if they dug huge ditches around the walls, but it was quite a drop. Actually, it's probably just due to the hilly terrain. I read that some of the bastion walls of the city are 153 feet tall.


Sarah proudly stands in front of her new boyfriend on the approach to the main gate. I think it was the gold that attracted her. We saw a few older gentleman on this day wearing even more gold jewelry than this. Mr. T is really popular there.


This is Triq Ir-Repubblika, or Republic Street. It is the main road that runs straight from the main gate to Fort Saint Elmo. Along it are many important sights, including one of our destinations, St. John's Co-Cathedral.


St. John's Co-Cathedral is very plain and understated. Yeah right. It was overwhelming. The Baroque decorations are so ornate.


It was built between 1573 and 1578 by the Knights of Malta.


There are eight chapels on the sides that are dedicated to the patron saint of one of the order's eight sections. There are chapels for the Anglo-Bavarian section, Provence section, France section, Italy secion, Germany section, Auvergne section, Aragon section, and the Castile, Leon, and Portugal section. Each one had symbols of that section in the decorations on the walls. You can kind of see above the double eagle that, I think, was the symbol of the German section.


The rear of the church. It is a little pricy to get in, but you get to listen to the headphones to learn about different sections and works of art.


The reason that it is a co-cathedral is because...well...I don't know why. At the time that it was built there was already a cathedral (St. Paul's) in the old capital of Mdina where the Archbishop resided. I guess this church just joined it, rather than taking its place.



The floor of the cathedral is full of knights of the order. Each one has decorations that might show where he was from or how he fought and died.


Neat.

Malta was home for a short time to Caravaggio. He was made a knight before he had to leave, probably for killing a man in a brawl. The cathedral has two of his famous works. Here is The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the most famous thing in the church.

And here is St. Jerome. I loved how realistic they are and the use of light. That's all I'm going to say. I am not an art historian.

So, Malta is also famous because St. Paul was shipwrecked here. So there are mentionings of St. Paul all over the place. The original cathedral in Mdina is St. Paul's and was supposedly on the sight where St. Paul met the Roman governor Publius. St. Paul's Shipwreck Church was quite nice. It looked more like an old theater.


Right across from the church was Tarsus Men's Wear. There werre countless references to Paul on the islands.

The buildings in Valletta and the rest of Malta were interesting. Most of them had little rooms protruding out from their walls as seen above.

The next posting will show some of the views of the forts and harbours from Valletta.

Malta - part 3

Our trip to Gozo ended in the town of Victoria. It is the largest city on Gozo with a population of 6,414.


Here is an aerial view of the city from Joey's helicopter. The coolest thing about the town, and the place where we spent all of our time, was the Citadel.


The church was interesting. I think it looked more like a theater than a church. But this was nothing compared to the one we would see the next day in Valetta.


The church has a trompe-l'oeil dome similar to the one we saw in Rome. I think it was at St. Ignatius. This one seems a little brighter though. Trompe-l'oeil means trick the eye. It's just a flat surface with a dome painted on it. They probably didn't have enough money.


This odd looking reliquary houses the bones of St. Lucidae, or something. You can see her ribs and various other bones through her clothes. Neat.


Here are some views from the walls of the citadel.


Some of the town outside of the citadel walls.


Sarah and Lara out at the edge of the wall, probably taking selfies.


Brad has me brainwashed. As soon as I looked down and saw these cannons I realized that I must have my picture taken looking into them. These cannons must be here in case the Gozitans get restless and decide to storm the citadel.


Some of the walls within the citadel. Everything looked so green there.


Sarah getting attacked by the wind. It was quite windy there. That is why my hair was so poofy. I wasn't trying a new look.


Brad's influence. My own style.


Sarah rides the cannon to victory. Or Victoria, while Steph, Lara, and Mary (and I) take pictures. We are very easily entertained.


Our bus technology is lightyears ahead of their's. At least they decorated it in Ohio State colors.


I really wanted to check out their lending library. I felt drawn to it. Oh well. The sign on the left shows a little bit of the interesting Maltese language that is a mix of Italian, English, Arabic, and Swahili. I think.


The inside of the buses we took didn't do anything to improve our impressions of them. Most of them sounded like they weren't going to last long. But, then again, they've been running since the 1940's so they might just keep going.
We took this bus back to Mgarr Harbour, our time with Joey having sadly ended. The ride back wasn't quite as exciting because it was pitch black out on the water.
Our journey would continue the next day in the capital of Valetta.

Malta - part 2

The next stop on our Gozitan adventure was a windmill. The excitement never stops.


Joey dropped us off so he could go do some "thing" and would pick us up in a bit. Above, Lara, Steph, Sarah, and Mary stroll through town looking like a bunch of ruffians. The locals hid in their homes so as not to catch the attention of these street toughs.


We discovered that this very old windmill was not quite in working order anymore. It is now the Ta Kola Windmill Museum, or some such nonsense.


Apparently, up until recent times bread was the main food in Malta. The average meal involved bread and maybe a little something to go with it. I'm not sure what they drank. The water at our hotel was not drinking water. We had to buy water bottles like savages. We were really roughing it.


The next place Joey took us was one of the highlights of the whole trip. He drove us down into this hole in the rock with a little lake at the bottom of it. We went out onto a boat while Joey waited for us, paid the boatman, and headed out towards a little hole in the rock wall.


The water was really clear. If we had time I would have liked to jump in. But we were on a schedule. Joey's schedule. I think he probably had a few other day-long fares around the island and he was just taking turns dropping off one group and picking up another. And the rushing around actually wasn't bad. We had a lot to see and not a lot of time in which to see it.


Sarah and Mary take their positions while the ancient seafarer waits. Actually he wasn't ancient at all and I think he was rather bored with the while arrangement. It was just a way to make some extra cash. But he was cordial enough.


We headed toward the hole and saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel went through the rock hillside...


and out into the sea.


He's too late. See! The Cliffs of Insanity! I am probably the millionth person to say that, and the third in our little group.


The water was incredible. It was so blue and we could see quite far down underwater.


It looked delicious like blue Kool Aid. I wanted to drink it, but I figured that it might be a bad idea. I'm not even sure if I like blue Kool Aid.


Here is the Azure Window. We couldn't go under it because of the threat of falling rocks. Our boatman told us that it won't look like that for a whole lot longer because quite a bit of rock falls from it pretty often.


Plan your next vacation now, folks. Here in the distance is the beautiful, and aptly named, Fungus Rock. This is as close as we got.


After the boat trip, Joey took us to a seaside town for some seafood (chicken for those with allergies). He kind of hid at a table eating as well. He knew everyone on the island. I have a feeling that he does this every day, gets free meals for bringing in tourists, and isn't so much doing this for us, but instead is just running errands and dropping us off when it's convenient.


We would have one more long stop after lunch in the town of Victoria. We first walked along the bay and got some after lunch ice cream, then were whisked away by our tiny, bossy but kind, Gozitan driver. After "dropping off a thing for a horse", that is.