Last of Malta, Rabat and Gozo

 Rabat is the city that grew outside the fortress walls of Mdina, as with all walled fortification in Medieval times many people wanted to live there and when they were not allowed within the walls they built homes on the outside. Today Rabat is a city of about 12,000 while there are only about 80 full time residents in Mdina. Like the rest of Malta it is a city of historical value, narrow streets and many churches that depends on the tourist trade. Malta is a very religious country and many homes have some kind of Christian statue or plaque as a symbol of the owners belief.

Rabat is home to the Catacombs of Saint Paul and Saint Agatha and they are a major attraction. Catacombs are under ground man made burial complex’s, consisting of passages, galleries and burial chambers carved into the rock. The catacombs under both St. Paul’s and St. Agatha’s in Rabat are extensive.

Under ground burial tombs.

Rabat was heavily bombed during WWII and both the British Military and the Maltese government advised the citizens to build under ground bomb shelters. Already being able to access the underground catacombs below the churches the residents built an extensive underground system of tunnels and bomb shelter chambers.

Heading into the bomb shelter tunnel!

One of the bomb shelters - there were dozens of chambers like this along both sides of the tunnels. 

A home made pick used in the bomb shelter construction!

Malta has grown on us, after a cold start and maybe not knowing quite what to expect, sunshine and warm weather certainly improves one’s attitude. Our first day here when we went to Valletta, it was cold, windy, rainy and incredible busy.Every time we go int Valletta it is incredibly busy. So the nicer weather and getting out of the city to see the country side and some lass crowded places was great and we can see why people come here in the numbers that they do.

There are some things that still awe me. Just about any place, where you have a clear view of the sky line there are construction cranes. Literally hundreds across both Malta and Gozo. One guy said the money is from Russians, another said it was from Dubai or maybe some from China. They both said that a lot of the high rises that are already completed are half empty. 

You also see at a minimum two church steeples, and I have not made my mind up whether there are more convenience stores or ride hail cars like Uber and Bolt. Both are prolific and lots of eating places, not only in the major tourist areas but the side streets and residential area as well.

We took the fast ferry to Gozo and then a hop-on, hop-off bus around the island. The fast ferry takes 45 minutes to cross and holds 300 passengers. We had a 10:45 reservation and at 10:30 there were probably 350 to 375 people in line to get on. By the use of Loreen’s elbows and ability to work us through the crowd we made it on when it was about half full, whew!

We did make a mistake with our hop-on, hop-off tour, we did not do any research on where we wanted to stop, I guess I thought it would be like in the cities, you see a nice stop you get off. So around the island we go, listening to the  historic talk and just tripping along. Loreen’s thought was well let’s go around and then take a second bus and stop at a couple of places. Well the bus trip was three hours, only goes one way mandatory our ferry ride back was in two hours, so not great planning, but still a good day. 

Gozo has pretty much the same history as the main island, both in time eras and the types of occupation. One thing different that happened on Gozo was that at one time after the occupation by an Arabic army all the inhabitants, some 5,000, were captured and taken to what is now Libya as slaves. 

Gozo is much greener than most of Malta,

And has nicer vistas in some places. 

There is a large agricultural industry on Gozo, which there is not on Malta. Apparently Malta was over farmed with some crops that have depleted, what soils it has, of most nutrients.

A nice dairy farm, smelt just like the ones in the Fraser Valley!

One thing both islands have in abundance is prickly pear, a common naturalized fruit in Malta. Harvested from August to October, they are eaten fresh or used in jams and liqueurs.

Gozo is not a large island, only 14kms long and 7.5kms wide. It lies about 6pm from Malta at the closest point and the residents of both islands have petioles the government to establish some means for vehicle traffic between the two. Only way to travel between them now is by air or ferry. Feasibility studies have been conducted on both a bridge and a tunnel. I did not find any costs for the tunnel option but a Chinese company has offered to build the bridge, cost of +/- one billion. The article didn’t indicate what they would get in return. 

Gozo, like Malta has a great number of churches, some with a legend like this one!

This is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Ta’ Pinu. Ordered destroyed in 1575 by the Popes delegate, the first blow to the facade broke the workers arm leaving the people and the authorities to decide that the church should not be destroyed. After it was fully restored

 some people have heard voices instructing then to do certain things and at least one of the church fathers here was able to heal people. So now it is a national shrine that many people from around the world come here to pray.

And there are some that are just pretty,

I can’t say that Malta is a pretty place but it is fascinating, both in its history and how it attracts so many visitors. It has blue waters all around it and in the harbours.

We were told that Malta has reasonable marina fees, so the place is full of yachts of all sizes, makes and places of registration.

This one, named the Leona, is worth €60 million, and is owned by a member of the Saudi Arabia Royal Family.

We took a last walk about over to the St Julian’s area. It is more modern than either Valletta or Sliema and caters to the tourist trade with many hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and casinos. It has some major hotels chains like Marriott and Weston's

Loreen at the Weston! 

The area has many beaches, but not the kind I am used to.

This is a pretty typical beach in most of Malta, although both islands do have a few sand beaches, we just didn’t get to one. 

And as elsewhere throughout Malta construction is on going, this amongst the hotels and casinos in St. Julian’s 

With that said, our trip is ending two weeks early as we say goodbye to Malta on Monday morning. Our 13 day Heart of Greece Tour with 4 day Aegean Cruise has been cancelled. We knew last week that the 4 day cruise portion was cancelled as our ship Celestyal Discovery (and its sister ship) are stuck in the Middle East, specifically in the Persian Gulf, and cannot get back to Greece through the Strait of Hormuz. Our tour company offered credit for a future trip, or a full refund, or continue with the land tour and they would fly us to the island of Crete for four days (we’d be in a hotel with meals and tours of the island included). We were happy to accept that offer as we are in Europe and our flights are booked from Malta to Greece and then from Athens back to Kelowna. But late yesterday afternoon we heard from the tour company that they have cancelled the whole trip - apparently most people opted to rebook or cancel. So we had to go ahead and cancel our flights from Malta to Greece and then from Athens to Kelowna and rebook a new flight home from Malta. We decided it would be too complicated to put together another two weeks on our own touring Greece. Maybe we can book it again when this world seems a little less crazy!

 

 

Easter in Malta, plus other things!

A NOISY, VIBRANT, JOYFUL CELEBRATION

Easter Sunday morning church bells started early and continued until noon, it was almost like the three or four churches in our neighbourhood were trying to out ring each other. There were also the cannons firing at the Saluting Battery in Valletta as part of the ceremonial and religious celebration of Easter Sunday and the fireworks on the harbour front. Then we heard a marching band and caught the traditional Easter procession with the “Risen Christ” statue coming by on our street. Of course, we had to go out to watch and become part of the procession. People were throwing confetti and balloons from their balconies. It was a festive crowd.

First came the officials of the church, 

then a marching band,

then eight men carrying a statue of Jesus.

Then around the corner to the church where the procession ended were the guys that were tasked with running the last block up the street with the statue to symbolize the resurrection, and into the church!

These guys were good, not only did they run up the street, but up a flight of stairs and into the church, after spinning it around in the street a half a dozen times! 

Valletta, the capital of Malta is within the walled city first constructed in the 16th century by the Knights Hospitaller. Originally established as a religious order to supply medical aid to the crusades, they soon had to establish themselves as a military force for their own protection. They built Valletta to defend Malta from an Ottoman invasion. 

Valletta is the smallest capital city in the European Union and the most southernly capital. During WWII it was in British control and was bombed heavily by the Italians. 

Although Valletta was recognized as a World Heritage site in 1980 and named the European Capital of Culture in 2018 we found our day tour of Rabat and Mdina to be extremely interesting. 

It is an ancient fortress city on the west side of Malta, originally established as a stronghold by the Phoenicians the city and fortress has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, the last by the Knights of Saint John in the 1550’s. The whole are is an archeological site, just dig down a meter or so and you find the ruins of the last civilization that was destroyed and built over. As there has always been a water shortage in Malta, unlike other fortress cities, there is no moat, just a really deep ditch now turned into a garden walk.

It has a few plazas, mostly at church sites and the larger streets are wide enough for vehicles and horse drawn carriages.

The main entrance 

But many streets are just about wide enough to walk down 

Maybe one of the most interesting parts of the day, at least to me, was a tour of St. Peter’s Monastery Museum. Established in the year 1455 by the pope, it is the oldest female monastery in Malta, and continues on the original site. The monastery not only had professed nuns but was also accepted and trained novices. At one point in the past there were 50 nuns and novices living here. It had its own gardens, kitchens, worship rooms and work areas, as the nuns produced every thing they needed.

I wonder what they made in this room?

Dormitory and their own place of worship 

Today the monastery is occupied by one nun, who has disobeyed the church to remain at the monastery. Apparently there is a rule that when there are less than four nuns in a monastery they are to be reassigned to a different location. This nun refused to leave as instructed and stayed there to turn the monastery into the museum it is today.

Rabat is the city that grew outside the fortress walls of Mdina.