Valletta and Mdina - Malta

I'm not sure who our travel agent is, but I'm exhausted!

Today we arrived in Malta, and our tour was a bus ride around the island.  Malta is a small country (archipelago w/three islands) with about 7,000 years of history and about 500,000 inhabitants.  Since it's Good Friday, we saw about 30 of them.  Most offices and shops were closed today - in fact, our tour guide admitted that she was supposed to have the day off.  Maybe I was supposed to have the day off, too.

Valletta, the capitol of Malta, is one of the most concentrated UNESCO sites in the world.  It is situated on a peninsula with large and small harbors on both sides.   And its more-than-500-year-old fortress was built by the Knights of St. John and by the Moors...it's impressive.

Everything here is built out of the same limestone - quarried from the middle of the island nation.  Small town after small town interconnected along the main road, and we finally had a stop at Dingli Cliffs.  A tiny chapel greeted us and pointed us to the cliffs for a fantastic view.

 Do you see that bit of land out in the middle of the picture?  It's a small rock island.  It's only about half the size it used to be...soldiers during WWII used it for target practice.  Today it's a bird and fish sanctuary.

Beautiful wildflowers covered the open spaces all around the island.  I love the wild snapdragon.

But, eww...there were snails everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.

We drove on to Mdina.  Mdina used to be the capitol, but when Valletta was built, all the businesses left to go there, so Mdina is called the Silent City because it got so quiet there.  We followed the walls around the city to the main gate.

Another small town with a main road full of shops and small plazas.  Most were closed, but still really pretty.

One of the churches inside the walls.

One store that WAS open.  How could you NOT name it that?  Or maybe how COULD you?

We left Mdina and headed back to Valletta.  But first, a stop in a craft village.  Malta is know for it's glass making.  Here's one of several huge bins of marbles.

It's like a candy store!

This church is in the town of Mosta - just outside Valletta.  It has the third largest dome in Europe with no supporting columns.  During the war, it was bombed.  The bomb was meant for a factory not too far from the church - but hit the church instead.  The bomb came right through the dome, hit just past the altar, but did not explode.  Wow.  Here's the dome today...

it IS massive.

Valletta is perched on a high point that you get to via an elevator.  I suppose you could walk up to it, but if I did that, I'd miss the ALL ABOARD!  At the top is a large park/piazza - and the view is incredible.

We found a little cafe and had some lasagna and a beer.  I wanted gelato, but then saw this sign.

Of course, they were closed, so gelato it was!  And, yes, CDH, there's ALWAYS time for gelato!

Tomorrow Greece!  And a private tour on Zakynthos.