Malta

When embarking on a world cruise such as this, one irrefutable fact is that the itinerary has already been decided for you and too bad if you do not want to visit any of the places earmarked or they don’t live up to your expectations. Of course, on the other hand, it may be the case where the confirmed itinerary takes you to a place that hasn’t previously crossed your mind to visit and, on arrival, the place totally blows you away. Valletta Malta just happened to do this.

Again it was an early morning arrival so on waking it was with some excitement (trepidation?) that I pulled the balcony curtains apart. Immediately in front of me was a sea of limestone – limestone walls, limestone buildings, limestone churches, limestone palaces, limestone shops and limestone fortresses. I love limestone and the whole of Valletta appears to be made of it. Imagine the best parts of the Rocks area in Sydney, but magnify it 10000 times and you may get some idea of what I am taking about.

Malta (population 360,000) a tiny dot of an island in the Mediterranean Sea, has a long and chequered history. She has some of the earliest archeological remains in this area, dating back to about 4000BC. She has been captured by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, the French, the British and, after a very vicious battle, held off the Turks. Any wonder that her people are a tough, proud race. The Maltese Cross originated here. She became a republic in 1974.

After a slow start to the morning – we had breakfast to eat and washing wars to negotiate – we alighted the Arcadia and found ourselves in a picturesque harbour full of ships of all sizes. In each direction, rising high above us, was the most magnificent limestone wall. Built in 1565 by the Knights of St John to fortify the city and harbour, this wall wove itself for kilometres along the coastline. With the city of Valletta peering tantalising down at us from the summit, we made our way to an extremely handy lift that whisked us up the 80 metres or so in record time.

Emerging from the lift, we immediately fell in love with the place. We had stepped into a limestone land of arresting, centuries old shops, monuments and attractions accommodating a modern, English-speaking society. Indeed, complete with eftpos machines, universal Wi-Fi and the omnipresent British pubs – we suddenly realised we really were now in Europe.

Having decided beforehand to just take it easy here – we forfeited actually entering any of the museums, cathedrals, galleries and other attentions on offer and just spent our time wandering the streets and browsing the shops. With a photo opportunity at every step and magnificent views at each street end, the hours passed quickly. Amongst our wondering, we managed to find that quintessential little European cafe where I had the choice of slightly thick or very, very thick hot chocolate!

Malta of all our stops so far – is the first place we definitely want to return to.

It’s now a few days later – we have just passed the Rock of Gibraltar and are about to turn right at the Atlantic Ocean. The weather is now 20 degrees cooler than it was last week. The moment we left the Suez Canal, the temperature plummeted. Whereas before in the Red Sea the average temperature was 35 degrees – here in the Mediterranean it now averages 15! Next stop will be Lisbon, Portugal, before Southampton, where our next adventure will begin.

https://darmatravels.com/