Malta 2024

Now how did we happen to end up choosing the country of Malta for a visit?

It initially started as an idea from watching a documentary about a top Maltese soccer player, who competed in the English competitions but owned a seafood restaurant needing help in his homeland to improve it.

Rabbit is the national dish of Malta

He talked lavishly about the lifestyle on the island, somewhere he wanted to return to and settle, plus during the show, there was much shown of the island, which looked quite beautiful, so the germ idea of visiting Malta started.

There is a lot to enjoy in Malta

In amongst all this, Rob was asked by my sister Kerry, to travel with her as part of a 70^th birthday present to herself, which involved some travel in Portugal, France and Italy, including a cruise through the Mediterranean terminating near Venice.

So over time a convoluted plan evolved where Rob would do some initial travel with my sister, leaving me to travel alone to Malta, staying for 4 nights, including acting as ‘tour’ guide on my last full day for Rob & Kerry, when their ship berthed for a day in Valletta.

When the cruise ships arrive in Malta
it gets VERY busy in Valletta

Valletta is the capital of Malta, a small island only 27 kms long and 14.5 kms wide, and has a population of ~500k.  It has been inhabited since 5,900 BC and being located where it is, was colonised by the usual suspects of Phoenicians, the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, the Normans and Spanish.  The French also took over for a small while before it became a British protectorate.

If you look at the map below showing tiny little Malta’s location in the Mediterranean, its strategic location is evident in the event of major conflicts, as was the case during WWII when the Germans and Italians bombed the island constantly, killing 3,000 civilians, but the island bravely resisted and was never taken.

Malta - the tiny island located in strategic position in the Mediterranean

This lead to a very hard earned reputation of being the ‘Gibraltar of the sea' and also lead to the population as a whole being awarded the George Cross by King George the V1 after WWII, the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry.

When you arrive into Valletta and see the massive walls built for protection from attackers, you certainly get a sense it certainly is a fortress island.

Thick and massive fortress walls of Valletta

Defence battery protecting the harbour at Valletta

A bit of a historical summary of Malta to kick off with:

• has been inhabited since 5900 BC
• the island was colonised by the Phoenicians, the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, the Normans, Spanish… so you can see Malta has been quite popular over thousands of years.
• the island was given to the order of St John who repelled the Ottomans from conquering it.
• then the French took over for a short while before Malta became a British protectorate.

Our route map in Malta

You may have noticed looking at the route map above how little I/we actually saw of Malta over 3 full days. This being despite being quite busy and not including visiting some of the islands nearby like Gozo, also a part of Malta and its rich history.

Valletta as the current capital has an old section of the city and where I stayed.  It is full of narrow laneways and built on top of a hill, reinforcing the fortress approach that is Malta.

Much of my time was walking to various locations in the city like:

• the upper Barrakka Gardens
• The Barrakka Lift
• Cathedral
• City Gate
• LOTS of delightful small alleys and roads
• Taking a ferry across to opposite shore to visit the '3 Cities'

Boat harbour of Birgu

Church in Birgu

More of one of the '3 Cities'... Birgu

Also tried the local buses to venture to the coastal town of St Julian and enjoyed walking along the coast admiring many old buildings and exceptionally clear water.

The harbour front of St Julian

Back onto the bus this time to reach Marsaskala, a fishing town, again rich with all the sites you would expect in fishing focussed area.

Fishing harbour and surrounds in Marsaskala fishing village

Inside the harbour of Marsaskala

How they move furniture in/out of buildings
without lifts in Malta... clever

The buses were easy once the route plans were worked out and each trip only cost Euro 1.50, and if you were back on your bus within 2 hrs, you could return from whence you had departed… great system.

Another beauty of using local buses to get around on, was enabling an opportunity to see and feel how the real Maltese live, there houses, local shopping areas and their vocally active interactions with each other.

After practicing on the buses the day before, when Rob and Kerry arrived at the Barrakka Gardens, it was a short walk to the central bus terminal for our trip west to Mdina, a walled fortified city and the original capital of Malta.

Upper Barrakka gardens - Valletta

Historical structures in Upper Barrakka Gardens

The Barrakka Lift takes passengers from
the ship berths up to the gardens

Its history spans ~3,000 years, originally being settled by the Phoenicians around 800 BC and continued with various conquerers until the Order of St John moved the capital from Mdina to Valletta.

It was busy with visitors but still very pleasant to follow our noses down more narrow alley ways into large squares before disappearing down another alley again.

It is known now as ‘The Silent City’ and its believed only 90 people now live within Mdina on a permanent basis.

One of the gates into Mdina... the 'silent city'

Entering Mdina

Walking through Mdina

One of a few squares in Mdina

The very narrow alleys were a
delight to explore

There are many elegant buildings throughout Mdina

Back in Valletta and with only a few hours before Rob & Kerry’s ship was due to depart, we found ourselves outside the most visited destination on Malta, St John’s Co-Cathedral, with both an interesting history and highly ornate internal detail.

The outside to St John's Co-Cathedral is quite plain but inside was an absolute wow of ornateness

It is just so lavish inside the cathedral

The crypt in the cathedral of St John in Valletta

Its history relates directly to the Order of St John, a medieval Catholic military order involved in the Crusades who were gifted Malta by King Charles V of Spain in 1530, who then turned it into a fortress island and built the stunning cathedral.

Inside the cathedral is adorned with masses of gold decorations and tapestries, much of which were created during the Baroque period.  There is also a famous painting by someone called Caravaggio… ’The Beheading of St John the Baptist’, painted in 1608.

The painting of the execution of St John

Malta was a very pleasant surprise, and a country we may visit again to explore, the rest of what the island has to offer and to again enjoy the company and interactions with the warm and very friendly local people.

The people of Malta are very friendly and casual

CLICK HERE for more photos of Malta 2024

Look out for the next post to follow shortly where I travel to Italy to meet up with Rob and Kerry.

Go well!