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DigitalQuixote > Valleta: In Mdina, and in Valleta, there are two great churches. If you make it to Malta, make sure you see them. To be honest, I can't remember which of the two is pictured here ... the one in Valleta I think, but I'm not sure. In any event, it is easy to see the mixture of cultures in these photos.
DigitalQuixote > Mdina: Now Malta is a quiet corner of the world, just trying to stay out of history's way. And a delightful place to visit. Mdina is the well preserved ancient capital of Malta dating back some 1,100 years. It is impressively restored, clean, and in early mornings and late evenings devoid of tourists. I loved simply wandering around. The golden walls reflected the suns light in a way that made the old city seem to glow. Very very cool!
DigitalQuixote > Rabat: Malta has a "Club Sandwich" culture due to the fact that they've been conquered by just about everybody. Starting from the bottom, in 5000 BC man arrived in Malta. Then came the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and the Romans. In 60 AD St. Paul was shipwrecked here. Then came the Arabs, the Normans and the Swabians (Germany). Next came the Angivins (France) and Aragon (Spain). The knights of Malta gave the Island Country a brief break. Next and almost finally came France (again) and Britain. Almost finally because then came World War II and Malta had the hell bombed out of it. In 1964 it was granted its independence and in 1974 it became a republic. There is no manifestation of this cultural mash up as vivid as the Maltese language. Combining elements of Phoenician, Roman, Arabic (a lot of Arabic actually) French, German, Spanish and French yields a language sounding more like Klingon than anything. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. You can play various Maltese phrases and you'll see what I mean. I found the Choose Malta website to be the best "single" information source for visiting Malta. Recommended.
DigitalQuixote > Rabat: By far, my favorite place was the Saracen city of Mdina, the ancient capital of Malta. Across a small bridge, the more modern Rabat (photo to the left) was dressed up with bunting for the coming Easter parades. It was a quiet, peaceful, and a cool respite from the warm spring day. We had a good lunch in a small restaurant. The only other diners were a group of Maltese young people. We toured catacombs where soldiers hid during the bombing of the World Wars.
DigitalQuixote > Three Cities: I am standing on a fortification in Valleta looking east. The sunset is at my back. We didn't really have time to explore everything we might have wanted. We didn't get to walk around in the Three Cities for example. But we explored Valleta thoroughly. Mdina and Rabat, too. We visited the fishing village of MarsaXlokk, and the north coast from Sliema to St. Julians where we had diner one night. Sea Urchin spaghetti, yum!
DigitalQuixote > Three Cities: I am standing on a fortification in Valleta looking east. The sunset is at my back. We didn't really have time to explore everything we might have wanted. We didn't get to walk around in the Three Cities for example. But we explored Valleta thoroughly. Mdina and Rabat, too. We visited the fishing village of MarsaXlokk, and the north coast from Sliema to St. Julians where we had diner one night. Sea Urchin spaghetti, yum!
DigitalQuixote > Three Cities: I am standing on a fortification in Valleta looking east. The sunset is at my back. We didn't really have time to explore everything we might have wanted. We didn't get to walk around in the Three Cities for example. But we explored Valleta thoroughly. Mdina and Rabat, too. We visited the fishing village of MarsaXlokk, and the north coast from Sliema to St. Julians where we had diner one night. Sea Urchin spaghetti, yum!
DigitalQuixote > Valleta: Imagine my surprise to find a fleet of Rolls Royces and Bentleys lined up in the street one evening. Earlier in the evening Dan & I had visited an exhibit of Terra Cotta Warriors at the local museum. I have seen them in Xian China by the thousands, but this exhibit was fantastic; small; intimate; personal. It closed at 6:00 and we headed to dinner at a small restaurant next door. During dinner the arrival of the President of Malta and a tourist trade delegation caused quite a stir. Lots of Tuxedos. Lots of "little black dresses!" And a dozen and a half, more or less, of these interesting and unexpected cars. Is this a great country, or what?
DigitalQuixote > Sliema: While on Malta, we stayed in Sliema. It's a nice ocean-front sort of area. Nice restaurants, apartments, hotels, but it's very quiet. And it's about 20 minutes from Valleta by bus. Maybe next time, I would stay in Valleta. Now I digress. It had been 6 weeks since my last haircut. Same for Dan. We found an English-speaking barber and got good, quick, and in expensive haircuts. While there, we read an article in the local paper about a murder that occurred in front of our hotel the day we checked in. Americans and Russians were suspected of a political slaying. So my friend Dan was quizzing the barber whether it was drug related. "No, I don't think so." Dan asked if drugs were a problem on Malta. "No, not many drugs here." Dan followed up - where would you go to buy drugs? "Don't you be buying drugs here!! Very dangerous," the barber replied. In retrospect we realized the barber must have thought Dan wanted to buy drugs and was asking where. Maybe he worried that we were the Americans sought in the killing. We spent our remaining time here wondering if we would be arrested when we arrived at the airport to leave for Florence at the end of our stay. Obviously we weren't! Now I un-digress (if that's a word.) I suppose bad things happen anywhere. While here on Malta, I felt great about being here. I felt safe. I felt welcome. I felt I could eat the food without risk. I could communicate in English just fine, thank you.
Valleta: In Mdina, and in Valleta, there are two great churches. If you make it to Malta, make sure you see them. To be honest, I can't remember which of the two is pictured here ... the one in Valleta I think, but I'm not sure.

In any event, it is easy to see the mixture of cultures in these photos.
DigitalQuixote > Valleta: In Mdina, and in Valleta, there are two great churches. If you make it to Malta, make sure you see them. To be honest, I can't remember which of the two is pictured here ... the one in Valleta I think, but I'm not sure. In any event, it is easy to see the mixture of cultures in these photos.
Valleta: In Mdina, and in Valleta, there are two great churches. If you make it to Malta, make sure you see them. To be honest, I can't remember which of the two is pictured here ... the one in Valleta I think, but I'm not sure.

In any event, it is easy to see the mixture of cultures in these photos.
See photo in gallery
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