Malta

Malta was a very pleasant surprise. We actually got up at the crack of sparrows - in fact thats almost literal as there has been a wee sparrow travelling with the ship.. alighting here and there over the last two days.. I digress... we got up early to watch the ship sail into the incredible Valletta harbour. Its a very narrow gap for such a large ship, but the harbour itself is quite vast and surrounded by beautiful buildings. It was a quite spectacular entrance.. We docked and then had breakfast.

On leaving the port area there is a lift to take you up the side of the walls - if you prefer, you can walk, zigzagging up the heavily fortied walls - but we decided to save our energy and use the lift. After being stung for €40 in Santorini for the cable car, €2 felt like a bargain. Once up in town we were completely bowled over by the beautiful stone buildings and mostly by the fabulous jutting out balconies... I took sooooo many photographs of balconies (and door knockers). 

We thought we would look for the sunday market. We set off in the right direction but in fact got completely waylaid by the Agotti botanical gardens.

Lovely gardens - empty of tourists, full of fantastic cacti - massive huge tree like cacti

and lots of other flowering plants and bushes. A very calm space with fabulous views across the city and also of the incredibly thick city walls. 

We wandered back into town back to the throngs of tourists... there were lots of ornate statues many comemorating military events or people.

The streets were crazy busy - given there was only one cruise ship in - still it wasnt too bad- nice wide boulevards - balconies galore.

. lots of shops so we turned of the main drag heading as usual down the backstreets where sometimes the treasures are hidden. 

This wasn't so much the case this time but plenty more ornate stonework and balconies and some very pretty snickets. 

We stopped in a very pretty street for coffee and beer. We found 'The Pub' where Oliver Reed drank himself to death felt like a bit of a macabre landmark so we didn't go in. 

We walked across the town. Its set out in a grid so very easy to navigate and down to the sea. There was a service happening in the big cathedral so we didnt intrude. Eventually we walked slowly back up, zig zagging the streets to the big square by the Barracka gardens. 

By chance I spotted a poster for an exhibition which was in a fort like building on the other side of the square.

We went to investigate and found an amazing collection of portraits on display done by Lorenzo Agius. Agius was reknowned for taking photographs of famous people particulary in the 90's. This was very much our era so it was really interesting.

All the 'Trainspotting' mob were there and many different celebrities... in those days there were real celebs...

Jack Nicholson, Tilda Swinton, Madonna, Jude Law and many more, posed interestingly, often for magazine covers

it was a good find and rounded off our Malta visit perfectly.

Once back on board we spent an hour relaxing in our cabin before standing on deck as the ship serenely sailed out of the harbour and then we got ready for the cheese and wine evening... before Dr Fred had to do a late stargazing session. Because of the stargazing we ate alot of cheese but didnt drink much wine... a pleasant enough experience.  

Dr Fred had pushed for a later session so the the second sitting diners could come. Eventually the entertainment manager agreed but unfortunately it was quite cloudy and all we had was an almost full, and still very bright moon. The stars were very illusive so Dr Fred did a completely impromptu talk about distances in space... how the greeks measured it, and how astronomy developed. We couldnt tell if people were interested or just too polite to leave 🤣🤣🤣 however over the next day Dr Fred got alot of positive feedback. We were going to finish the wine but we were so tired we didnt even do supper club.

Two sea days ahead