The Craftiest Workshop

This small island south of Italy was our second stop on our vacation in February 2020. The four of us flew to Malta after our week in Egypt. Egypt was booked as a guided tour but our stay in Malta was not. We planned in advance to visit a few things after researching online and reading a tour book from the library. We had no set agenda otherwise.

I had never heard of Malta before we started planning this trip. Chris mentioned it as a second stop saying he always wanted to go there. I just wanted to get out of Fort McMurray so I was game for anything.

Malta has been inhabited since 5900 B.C. It is in the middle of the Mediterrenean Sea and has lended itself well to being a strategic Naval base for whichever country has ruled it. Malta has been ruled by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, the French and the British. It became a British colony in 1813 and is now an independent republic under the Commonwealth and the European Union.

Malta is predominantly Christian (95%) with most people being of the Roman Catholic faith (94%). People speak English and Maltese (a mix of Arabic and Italian).

Malta consists of three islands. The main island, Gozo and Comino.

Weather

The weather in Malta is perfect for tourists. We visited in the coolest month with average temperatures of 16°. The hottest months are July and August where temperatures average 32° before humidity.

We experienced a really windy day while we were touring. We were on the top deck of a double decker bus and the wind was so strong I could barely breathe but I was also laughing quite hard.

Plants and trees

The countryside is kind of sparse with greenery. There are small copses of trees and bushes. Palm trees line some streets like in California. Chris enjoys taking pictures of trees imagining himself cutting them down and creating something out of them.

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Interesting architecture

The building are made of stone with wooden window frames. They often have wooden doors, small balconies and colourful windows.

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The cross or Maltese cross finds its way onto many of the buildings. People also create mini shrines to Jesus or the Virgin Mary.

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Some of the drainpipes we encountered were made of terracotta.

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There are walking streets in Valetta that have steps. These steps are made so that you don’t have to lift your foot very high. Knights in full armour could not bend their knees very much so the steps had to be made this way. The steps in the forts were the same.

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Forts

Nine forts protected the two most important harbors in Malta. This is a diarama of Fort St. Angelo which we visited. It dates back to the 12th century.

The fort is situated to in the Grand Harbour or the Port of Valetta.

After 1530 the Order of St. John took the fort over as it’s military headquarters. During WWII the Royal Navy used it as its headquarters. It took 69 direct hits during the bombing. It continued to serve as the Royal Naval headquarters until 1979.

Although it is only used today as a tourist attraction, there continues to be a Knight living at the Fort. Here is his bio. There are about 100 knights and dames of the Order of St. John living in Malta and 13,500 worldwide. To be a full knight, one has to take a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. He is the only full knight on Malta and there are only 55 full knights of the order in the world.

Mosta Church

We visited Mosta Church while on our hop on hop off bus tour. Outside the church are large statues of saints; Chris took a photo of St. Matthew and St. Thomas. This church is well known because a bomb pierced the dome of the church during the war but the bomb did not detonate. It is also the third largest rotunda dome in the world. Inside the church are alcoves with beautiful statues and art.

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During WWII, Malta was the most bombed place on earth. There were 3343 air raids, 2357 hours under air raids and 154 days and nights of sustained bombing with 6700 tonnes of bombs.

This church has a well preserved bomb shelter underneath it. It was not a really large shelter but still had a room for the priest and small altar.

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Other Shelters

There were over 800 bomb shelters in Malta during the war. After the war they were closed down and a few were reopened as tourist attractions. Chris and Dale visited a larger shelter.

Here are some of the pictures taken in this shelter.

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Mdina

This ancient walled city was built on a plateau. It was, and still is, home to Malta’s noble families.

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The view from the city walls was beautiful.

Carnival

We were in Malta during Carnival. It is celebrated each year for the five days before lent from Friday to Shrove Tuesday. There is a parade each evening with very colourful floats. People dress up in elaborate costumes, have late night parties and do lots of eating and drinking.

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We did not have the opportunity to visit all of the main island of Malta nor the smaller islands of Gozo and Camino. We plan to return to Malta, perhaps for an extended stay, as it is a beautiful country and we greatly enjoyed our visit.