Day 11 September 19 - Valetta Malta

We have almost docked in Valetta and have an early morning excursion. Hopefully it will be an interesting day albeit a hot one with temperatures 30+ C.

View from the ship. You can notice one cruise ship already in the channel. Apparently it docks on one side and our ship on the other side of the channel. We will have to take a little ferry across the 400 m inlet.

Valleta to the left of our ship.

View to the right of our ship.

Panoramic view of what I can see from our veranda including the Norwegian cruise liner docked on the other side of the channel

Here are a few pics taken from our veranda after coming back from our excursion today. Our excursion took us around the coastal area of the island and we did make several stops for photographs along the way including a fishing village where the smell reminded of driving through Mooring Cove when the fish plant was open. We have some great photos to share from that but I am having trouble with the computer, the flash drive or something today as it isn't cooperating. But I will work on it today and perhaps tomorrow with a sea day I can post some.

As you can see all the buildings are made from limestone and there is a huge quarry on the other side of the island that we drove by today. Also you can see some agriculture land where the fences to separate them are also of limestone used for that reason as well as protect the crops from wind.

There are lots of fortifications around the island for sure. The only fence other than limestone was around what was an airport in World War 2. The old barbed wire still goes around the top. The British owned the island so planes would stop there for refuelling and carrying out raids.

We finished off the day with a dinner and show. For dinner Gladys had an Arugula Salad followed by a Pork Duo while I had a Cobb Salad followed by Chorizo Linguine. Both were very good and we couldn't decide which dessert so Gladys had Biscuit Croustillant and I had No Sugar Added Blackberry-Anise Nougat Glace. We asked the waiter if we could have the 3rd one - Sticky Toffee Pudding - between us & he agreed. We will just have to do a little extra walking once we get home. lol

P. S. I will add some photos tomorrow. :-)

All three were excellent! We couldn't choose 1.

Me with a bit of Valleta in the background.

Entrance to the harbour of Valletta.

More of the Harbourside.

More of the fortifications around the harbour and town.

Street view.

Narrow streets - they drive on the opposite side of the road from us. Goes back to being owned by England years ago.

Some unusual fishing boats in the harbour at Marsaxlokk - one of Malta's fishing villages.

Another fishing boat. You wouldn't say people went fishing in those for sure. This is my favourite of all the boats I saw. See the name on the seat. lol

Fancy looking fishing boat.

A view of the harbour at Marsaxlokk.

Some more boats.

Gladys standing by one of the boats.

They do have bigger boats!!

And excursion boats too!

Baked sweets at the market near the pier in Marsaxlokk. Yummy looking!

Busy market area catering to tourists.

Market photo.

Catholic Church in Marsaxlokk. Malta is predominantly Catholic and every town has it's church which is the central part of the town. Some very magnificent buildings for sure. This is the closest we got to one but it wasn't open to view today.

Massive limestone quarry - photo don't do it justice as I took it from a moving bus.

Another view of the limestone quarry from the opposite side.

Malta is known for its fireworks. In this photo you can see a lot of small buildings scattered around. It is actually the largest fireworks company on Malta. They have many small buildings in case of an explosion. That way they would only lose one small part of the company. 

Greenest spot of the island. Notice a castle in the distance.

Fences in Malta - this is what separates tracts on land on the island.

Mdina - walled city in Malta with around 100 residents living there. But 1000's of tourists go through there each day. Photo taken from a bus gives best view we had.

Entrance to Mdina.

Ride around Mdina - we didn't have time to do it.

Street in Mdina.

Another narrow street.

Some vehicles here too.

Gladys posing with a guy who stands still.

Inside the walls of Mdina. Notice the axe on the left.

Taken as our cruise boat was leaving port. Norwegian cruise liner with 3900 passengers aboard docked across from our boat.

Another shot taken as we were leaving. Seems like a little bunch of trailers near the water. There is a restaurant there as music was playing.

Another view for the ship as were are pulling away. Amazing architecture from this well fortified town of Valetta.

Malta in our rear view mirror tonight!