Malta

This morning we arrived in Valletta, Malta. It is a beautiful island with a population with about 400 000 people, and has some very ancient walled towns that date back to the Roman era. It was hot, but at 28C it was about 6 degrees cooler than what we have been experiencing recently and so felt very comfortable - it was however extremely windy.  After breakfast we met our guide who was to show us around the island for the morning. We started off getting a view over the bay and looking on to the hilltop town of Valletta. Then we drove on to the ancient archaeological temples at Tarxien, which were only discovered by accident in the 1950’s by the farmer who owned the land. They date back to between 3600 and 2500BC which makes them the oldest buildings ever discovered, older than Stonehenge and older than the Pyramids of Giza. They are a UNESCO world heritage site and there are plans to develop the site into a much bigger tourist centre as it is such an important archaeological site.

After that we went on to Mdina, which was the capital of Malta from antiquity until the medieval period. This is where Game of Thrones, The Count of Monte Cristo, Troy, and World War Z among many others were filmed. In fact tomorrow our guide has been told she won’t be able to access the town due to filming. It is such a picturesque medieval town with winding alleyways, sandstone buildings and wooden enclosed balconies which are typical of Malta. I took so many photos there - they have beautiful doorways, coloured doors and very detailed door knockers that were a photographer’s delight. 

We then visited the Mosta Dome, also known as the Miracle Church of Mosta. In 1942 when Malta was being heavily bombed (as it was a strategic outpost for the Allies), a bomb fell through the dome of the church and it skidded across the floor while there were more than 250 parishioners present. A second bomb hit the facade of the church - and yet by some miracle, while the people were frantically praying in the church, both bombs did not go off. It was hailed a miracle and both bombs were later diffused by the military and dropped into the sea. Next the the Vatican, Malta is considered the next most Catholic place on earth with more than 360 churches for its small population living in 122 square miles. The churches are also very beautiful as each town competes to have the best church and the local inhabitants spent much money on their church.

We got back to the boat by lunchtime, and after lunch we set out again on foot to explore Valletta. We wandered around the streets and then we visited St John’s Co-Cathedral, a church rich in history as it was the church of the Order of the Knights of St John. The Grand Master and the Knights donated gifts of high artistic value and as a result it is a very fine Baroque church filled with art works, notably the Caravaggios - the main attraction being the glorious painting ‘The Beheading of St John The Baptist’. It is a fine example of his chiaroscuro technique which we use in photography today.

We set sail at about 6pm in strong winds for our next stop which is Trapani in Sicily. The strong winds are making the movement of the boat very noticeable, I do hope it dies down as it is actually a bit bumpy. We all enjoyed Malta very much and I would like to come back and spend more time here.

This is a view of Valletta as we sailed in early this morning, I liked the golden light. I have added extras of Adam photobombing a pic of Gavin and I, one of the chapels in the church of St John Co-Cathedral, another of the old fort, and a contre jour mono image of Valletta.

Its been a full and busy day and I have not had time to look at journals today - I am now off to bed as I am very tired!