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.

 

Malta

Malta, a little Sicily and Italy, maybe a little Cyprus, a bit Middle East or a bit North Africa, some British, it seems a complex country. 

Malta is a small group of islands located between Sicily and North Africa in the Mediterranean. The islands cover about 316 square kilometres, about the same size as the surface coverage of Okanagan Lake, with two of the islands Malta and Gozo being inhabited making it the eighth most densely populated country in the world. Malta now ranks as Europes most over crowded tourist island.

This street was like this from start to finish, on a non-busy tourist day, only one cruise ship in!

Malta has been inhabited for about 8,500 years and has been at some point in time occupied by just about every major civilization from the Mediterranean and Europe. Civilizations like Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece, Rome, Arabs, Spain, France and England. This history of so many different peoples is reflected in the diversity of the islands, in the art, cuisine and architecture. 

Older house architecture versus some of today’s 

The last occupation of Malta was by the British from 1800 until 1964 when Malta achieved independence. Malta then become a Republic in 1974 and joined the European Union in 2004. British influence is still visible throughout, although the religion here is predominately Catholic there are a number of Church of England churches and at least one cathedral here. One of the fascinating things, to me, is the electricity. In the flat we stay at, all the electrical plugs are the three pronged UK style, while all the appliances, lamps, tea kettle, toaster, etc., are the two prong European style! So everything has an adapter from UK to EU!

Malta doesn’t have much of a resource base with limited agricultural land, no lakes or rivers and no major industrial manufacturing. Water could be major issue here, although there is some sub surface water the majority of the water supply is from desalination. Because Malta is located in such a busy shipping lanes of the Mediterranean any kind of a sea disaster could produce an oil slick that hampers the desalination processes. Currently the potable water storage capacity is only a few days. The water is potable but they recommend you don’t drink it. We buy all our drinking water.

Pretty much everything has to be brought in from Europe, primarily Sicily and Italy. Malta produces around 20% of its food needs. Malta exports limestone and salt and they have electronics, textiles and pharmaceuticals production, but the main economical drivers are tourism and foreign trade. Lying in the busiest shipping lanes in the Mediterranean, Malta serves as a large trans shipment point. Malta seen over 4 million tourists in 2025. During the summer as many as seven moderate size cruise ships can be in port on some days. We just walked the walled city of Valletta, with only one cruise ship in port and I would not want to be here on a seven ship day!

Malta also has a movie industry with films such as both Gladiator films, Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, being some of the latest ones to be made here. It has a lot of old forts, sea walls, castles and churches to accommodate different types on movies.

There are two deep water inlets here where the greatest population density is. The shallower one has a lot of smaller fishing boat ferry and yacht traffic on it. In fact it seems like at least a third of it is a marina with lots of big yachts. 

 The other deeper inlet (The Grand Harbour) is where the large transport and cruise ships can be docked. 

This is looking across the bay to the walled city of Valletta, built by the Knights of the Order of Saint John. Originally built as a walled fortress that took 15 years to complete, today it is a bustling place of stores, coffee shops, churches and other tourist attractions. The two churches that you see, on the left an Anglican, on the right a Catholic spent a few years and who knows how much money attempting to have a higher spire than the other. First started by the Anglican Church when it built a new bell tower that was just higher than the top of the spire on the other church. Apparently the Catholic Church erected the white cross on the top of its bell tower to make sure it was the higher of the two!

Malta, or at least the area we are staying in and wandering about in is full of construction cranes, I counted 23 visible from one spot along the shore line. Apparently, as in other second world countries, the funding is coming from offshore, again it’s rumour is a lot of it is oligarch funded.

Some newer high rises and apartment/condo blocks

A bit of old with the new.

This is a common site all over Malta, closed in balconies above door ways. It is a holdover from the 200 years of Muslim occupation here. Apparently, or so our walking guide told us, these were built so if the lady of the home was at home alone and someone came to the door, she could go out on the balcony and discretely peek through the opening to see if it was someone she could open the door for or not.

After a bit of research, they are indeed a hold over from Muslim times, but the purpose was also to allow air to circulate into the upper rooms of the home. I like the first story the best.

Before we came to Europe we checked all the weather forecasts and Spain was supposed to be wet and cold and Malta warm and sunny, it has been the opposite. Malta has been very cool, rainy and windy. The one tour we have taken, the guide told me it is the worst spring he has seen for years and they had a bad winter also. Malta can get some hail or sleet but apparently they had snow in one area just recently, which never happens. We keep busy walking and exploring the neighborhoods and cities close to us. The island is very religious and most everything will be shut down over Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but the weather is to improve next week and we have some tours booked and a day trip to Gozo (the other inhabited island) so will be able to get some more tales and pictures then.

Santiago de Compostela

Although Santiago de Compostela is known for the cathedral and shrine to St James, it is much more than that today. Paio , the first person to come to this place found the burial place of St. James, and that was all that was here, just the grave site. Today, it is a bustling university town and sees the convergence of several camino routes, bringing thousands of pilgrims to town yearly.

It is now the Capital of Galacia in northwest Spain with a population of around 97,000 in the city proper and 177,000 in the municipality. It is home to the University of Santiago de Compostela which was started in 1495 and is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation. The university has around 2,000 teachers and up to 45,000 students. A local statement on the economy in town is: “pilgrims in the summer, students in the winter”.

The economic drivers are tourism, the university, forestry, automotive and telecommunications. 

The language here is interesting as the people speak Galacian, not that I would have noticed, other than some of the signs were not quite Spanish to me and Keenan picked up some difference. Our walking tour guide explained that yes, Galicians speak a different language than pure Spanish, it is a blend with Portuguese! 

We didn’t visit the new town, but spent our time in the old town area around the cathedral and university areas. Once away from the cathedral itself and the pilgrim crowds the old town is fantastic, with narrow little streets, lots of shops not just selling tourist items, cafes, bakeries, markets, etc.

Typical street

No car traffic here!

Just enough room.

Mm! Another bake shop!

The cathedral itself is very old, having been started in the year 1075 and completed in 1122. It  has been added on to a few times after that but the main construction ended in 1122. I have visited lots of these grand old Cathedrals and other similar structures around the world, and as always ask my self how did they carve a stone statue like that on the top of the spire that is 10 or 12 or more stories in the air.

No hard hats, steel toe boots, or maybe not even a safety line, with a hammer and chisel I guess!

These ones are even higher!

This building is a convent for Benedictine Order of Nuns. The building was built from 820 to 830 and converted into a convent in 1499. 

The nuns here run a bakery that sells to the public. Through the door on the left side is the menu of the products:

On the right is a wooden window and a bell to ring to call the nuns. As the nuns themselves are usually elsewhere, you must be a bit patient until one gets there. They open the window, you place your order and within a couple more minutes she is back with your goods.

Tomorrow back to Madrid where we say goodbye to our guide and translator and then onward on our next adventure in Malta!

Getting closer!

Day Eight- A Brea to Villamaior, 16.5 km took 6 hours, a slower day with lots of steep descents and ascents, up to 200 metres up and down, on a nice hot day they kind of play you out! And we stopped twice for 30 minute breaks.

There were not a lot of people on the path today, most were either in front of us or behind us. We kept leap frogging the same six all day, and had a nice visit with a retired RCMP officer from Halifax. Small world as he had been stationed in Squamish for a while and was acquainted with an old RCMP friend of ours from Dawson Creek.

It was a different kind of a day with not many farms or villages, but a lot of time through the forests. 

It was a long day and there were not a lot of “cutesy pictures”, but some that were of great interest to me cause of some of my past work. So today let’s talk about the life of a eucalyptus plantation. 

Eucalyptus is one of the main economic drivers in Galacia. First introduced in the late 1800’s it really took off in the 1990s. Although eucalyptus is used in both medicines and perfumes, it is primarily used in the pulp and paper industry here. Eucalyptus covers about 400,000 hectares and makes up 28% of the forest in Galacia. It was kind of an educational walk for me as I was able to look at all aspects of the plantation, start to finish.

New plantation

Mature stand

Machine faller working

Strip logged after being felled

Processing to take the branches off and cut to optimum length

All processed waiting for the trucks. 

Now isn’t that just a scintillating bit of information! Pretty much the same process at home unless it is really steep ground. 

Onward again tomorrow, it will be our last day - just 9 to 10kms.

Day Nine- Villamaior to Santiago de Compostela took 2 hours as we were hustling along!  It was mostly downhill into the city, and our first day of misty light rain on our walk in, plus a nice breeze. Oh well, as this is supposed to be rainy season, we lucked out pretty well. Couple of cutesy things along the walk. 

A Nativity just hanging out on a tree!

Roadside worship place

Whew, we made it! Still a couple of kilometres to the Cathedral and our hotel, but feels so good to have made it here. I wondered a lot about whether my wonky old knees would see this through, so I had a little conversation with them every morning. “You are really doing good, you should both be really proud”! Perked them right up for a couple of hours.

Loreen and Keenan don’t seem to complain much, well Keenan keeps says she is getting tired of having to shout at us cause she thinks we are both deaf! I don’t know what she is talking about!

The Cathedral entrance were we went to mass

From a different side, what a building.

We all received our certificate of accomplishment for meeting the requirements of hiking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela: