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.