Malta

For the last part of our trip, we stay on the small island of Malta. It used to be under the rule of Great Britain but became its own republic in 1974. I think it's actually closer to Africa than it is to Italy.

The first day, we took it really easy and just wandered around a little bit. We loved the stripes of different colors in the sea.

The area we were staying in was by St. Paul's Bay. It is where they believe that St. Paul got shipwrecked on his way to Rome to face trial as documented in Acts.

These were apartments and garages built under the main road.

For lunch, we stopped at a little cafe near our hotel. One of the main Maltese dishes is rabbit. Gavin was brave enough to try rabbit spaghetti.

The view from our hotel room.

It is a huge beach community, with most of the tourists coming from Great Britain.

We saw these all over Europe. People would hang Santa with a ladder off of their balconies. It was meant to look like Santa was going to their house, but sometimes it looked like Santa committed suicide.

The area we were staying in was the more residential/summer home area, so it was pretty quiet. It picks up during the summer months because it has a lot of clubs and music bars. We were a little bit away from the main area on Malta, called Valletta, so we took a bus tour of the island to go there.

Our bus tour included a free bout tour of the harbour.

Our tour guide on the boat said that the steps here were built shallow so that knights wearing armor would be able to walk up the steps. If they were too steep, the knights would lose balance and tumble down the stairs.

The Valletta Waterfront, which is a new area with shopping and restaurants.

This was the ferry we took from Sicily. We had no idea that it was hollow underneath like that.

Valletta

They used old cannons as riggings along the coast line.

After the boat tour, we hopped back onto the bus to visit Mdina.

This is an ancient Roman aquaduct. I love the cars parked underneath it.

Mdina is the old capital of Malta and is a walled city on a hill in the middle of the island. Only about 300 people live within its limits now. They believe it was first inhabited around 300 B.C. It is believed that the Apostle Paul lived here for some time after his shipwreck.

They are also well known for their glass and there were several beautiful piece for sale.

The streets were really narrow with tall buildings on either side. There isn't a ton to do there as it is mostly private residences. There is some shopping, some restaurants, and a couple of museums about the knights that used to live there.

Mdina was Gavin's favorite part of Malta. He was a little upset that we were ending our adventure in Malta until we visited Mdina.

St. Paul's Cathedral in the city center.

The view of Valletta and the sea from Mdina.

Part of the city wall. It's about a 25 foot drop.

The Maltese country side.

The village of Rabat, which is considered the suburb of Mdina. The name Rabat actually means suburb in Arabic.

Gavin standing by the defensive walls of the city with Rabat in the background.

The front gate of Mdina.

The view of Mdina.

This is the Mosta Dome. In 1942, a bomb dropped on a congregation of about 300 people, but did not explode.

The next morning, we had an early flight back to Bristol to begin our journey home. We were on the wrong side of the plane to get the whole island, but we got a good part of it.

Our flight back to Bristol was really cloudy, but the clouds broke for a minute over a snow-covered mountain. I think it's the Alps because I know we flew over France at some point.

When we landed in Bristol, we got a rental car, went back to the Marriott that we've been staying at the past three month and picked up the rest of our luggage. We then drove to another Marriott right outside of Heathrow Airport. We both had early flights the next morning. Mine left first, but was delayed in taking off. First, they switched planes right before we boarded, so some people had tickets for seats that didn't exist on the plane. Then, someone who was on the flight was sick and we needed to get permission from air control to fly with them on board.

We both made it safely. Gavin landed before me and was able to get our luggage together so we could get through customs. After another taxi ride, we were finally home.