Day 30: Valletta/Malta

We were up early to watch our arrival in Malta, and had breakfast in the Panorama Buffet. It was not cold, but it was very windy, which made it impossible to sit out the Panorama Terrace. We checked the weather for the day; just like yesterday in Messina, the forecast was for increasing clouds and rain by the afternoon. That worked out well for our tentative plan, which was to spend the morning outside and the afternoon inside. 

Entering the harbor at sail in

Lighthouse at entrance to the harbor

The Destination Expert on board had shown photos and discussed something entirely unknown to us. In fact, in two prior visits to the island, we’d never heard of this. The Tarxien Temples consist of a complex of four megalithic structures built between 3600 and 2500BC, making them the oldest free standing structures on earth, even older than the pyramids. How had we missed this fact? 

Underwater repairs underway

Gearing up for underwater welding 

Traditional Maltese fishing boat called a luzzu

Fountain at Upper Barrakka Garden

Naturally, once we heard about the Tarxien Temples, seeing them became our burning desire for the day. For once; Maps.me failed us; it did not contain public transport information for Malta. Luckily, our cellular internet speed was more than enough to be able to use Google Maps to figure out how to get there using the local bus system. We left the ship, climbed up, up, up to reach the town of Valletta on top of the city walls, and found the main bus terminal. We had no idea that Malta had such a phenomenal bus system. There was excellent route information and signage at the terminal, though we already had the information we needed from Google Maps. 

Valletta bus terminal

Excellent signage at the bus terminal

We paid €1.50 each to ride around the large harbor to the closest stop to the Temples, only a four-minute walk away. Unfortunately, just as we got off the bus, the skies opened and it rained heavily for a few minutes. Fortunately, a man selling flowers from the back of a truck let us stand under his canopy so we didn’t get any wetter than we already were. Eventually, it slowed enough that we walked the rest of the way to the Tarxien Temples, where there was a small building in which we bought tickets. 

Tarxien Temples are located down a non-descript side street

Most of the complex was covered with a huge canopy, not to provide us refuge from the rain (which it did, very nicely), but because the rock on Malta is sandstone, which is easily weathered. It was far larger than what we had thought it would be. The oldest structure, the easternmost temple was built between 3600 and 2500BC.  Only the lower part of its walls survive, but it is still possible to see its concave facade and five chambers. 

The other three structures were built between 3150 and 2500BC. The south temple featured prehistoric art, including relief sculpture depicting spirals and animals and the remains of a large human figure wearing a pleated skirt. The large number of animal bones discovered in these temples, most of which were found stored in special niches indicates that animals played an important role in the rituals that took place in the Temples. 

The complex was discovered in 1913 by farmer Lorenzo Despott, and the site was extensively excavated between 1915 and 1919. Small scale excavations have been carried out since then to the present day indicated that the complex was far larger and more complex than originally imagined. Most impressive is that these structures were carved and placed prior to the Bronze Age, without the use of metal materials. Bones and other rocks were the primarily means of carving, and the blocks were likely rolled into place using a series of carved stone balls, wedges and levers. 

Door to a temple


Tarxien Temple complex

Intricate spiral carvings found at the site 

Temple altar 

Having seen the actual complex, we next wanted to visit the National Archaeological Museum.  We walked back to where the bus traveling into Valletta would stop, checking out a couple of small grocery stores along the way. One featured only refrigerated and frozen food in long cases; another one, across the street, offered other types of packaged food and produce. The buses on the island are fantastic, running every few minutes. We traveled back to the main bus station and walked less than 10 minutes to the museum. 

Neighborhood store selling just refrigerated and frozen food

Not only do they eat rabbits...

The National Museum of Archaeology houses a large range of artifacts dating back to Malta’s Neolithic period (5200 to 2500BC) up to the Phoenician period (8th to 6th century BC). It contains the best numismatic displays we’ve ever seen. The entire collection is housed in the baroque Auberge de Provence building, originally built for the Provençal Knights of the Order of St. John in 1571. 

All of these dates are mind boggling when one comes from a country with about 400 years of recorded history!

Age of Malta temple complexes relative to other ancient sites

Museum info about Tarxien complex


Typical architecture

They are very big on door knockers for their very big doors 

This was just the outside display at one store

Ornate door knockers

In the time we’d been away, Valletta’s streets became packed with weekend shoppers undeterred by the weather.  Christmas decorations were already being put up, and we saw a large nativity scene that had, in previous years, been displayed in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City and in Bethlehem. It featured the usual manger scene with some extra Maltese characters. 

Weekend shoppers in Valletta

Maltese manger scene

With a few extra characters

Maltese fishing boat

Sleeping off a hangover?

Haven’t quite figured this one out yet

Putting up Christmas lights in Valletta 

It was raining gently as we made our way back to the Pacific Princess. We took the glass elevator from the Upper Barrakka gardens down to the waterfront to save time, and reboarded the ship tired and cold and wet. We stopped in the Panorama Buffet for some hot liquids and soup, then rested for an hour or so until dinner. The ship was staying in port tonight until 10pm, and a local group of musicians and dancers performed two folkloric shows, at 6:30pm and 8pm. We were so tired that we ate quickly and made it to the 6:30pm show. 

The music performed sounded a great deal like polkas or Eastern European gypsy music (there were two accordions), and the other instruments included a bass made of a bucket and stick with a string, an oddly shaped guitar and a hammer percussion instrument. The eight female dancers wore traditional clothing. We had no idea what to expect, and came away thinking it had all been great fun. 

Local folkloric show musicians and dancers

And then we collapsed into bed. I uploaded photos to this post until I was falling asleep. Captain Slight made an announcement that we were in for several hours of rough weather until we reached the Adriatic Sea, and we wanted to get some sleep while the ship was still docked and stable. 

Day 21: Valletta, Malta

With our arrival in Valletta, Malta not scheduled until 1pm today, this was another quasi-sea day.  Despite that, we were up early and in the Windows dining room when it opened at 8am. I ate lightly, just toast and OJ, because I knew we’d most likely be eating lunch in that dining room when it opened at 11:30am (and we were). We had a busy morning scheduled, and started by swinging by the Shore Excursions desk to see if we had cleared the waitlist on a Naples excursion we’d like to take (no luck).  

While we were there (in the atrium), we also stopped by the dining reservations desk to see if there were any openings for Teppanyaki, the Benihana-like hibachi table restaurant. It had been booked solid all cruise long, but- surprise!- there were two cancellations for the seating at 5pm tonight. We booked them, and though that shortened our time in Valletta to just a few hours, we’d been there before and would be again in ten days. 

At 10am, Cruise Director Dave (from Mexico, and one of the top five CDs I’ve ever cruised with) held a’Behind the Scenes’ session about the three different departments on the ship. They are exactly the same as on Princess: the Deck Department, the Technical Department and the Hotel Department. Then immediately afterward, the captain, the chief engineerand the hotel director did a Q and A session.   Both of these were held in the Galaxy of the Stars Lounge and were extremely well attended. 

When this...

...and this are the views from your table at lunch,

Life is good! :-)

As predicted, we did go to lunch in the Windows dining room and watched from our window as the Norwegian Spirit entered Valletta Harbor. The view of the beige stone walls surrounding the city’s old town is unparalleled. Malta really is one of the most unique places to visit in the Med. We went up to the open decks behind the buffet to watch the pier-side arrival activity, and settled into loungers in the sun to wait for the ship to be cleared by the local authorities. The sun was hot and the air temp was just a tad chilly and the combination of the two nearly put us to sleep. 

It took a while for the ship to be cleared and it was just after 2pm when we finally walked off the ship. We wanted to be back on board by 4pm to get cleaned up for dinner, and that didn’t leave us much time at all. We simply walked around a bit, and sat at an outdoor café for a beer and Pellegrino (frou frou fizzy water).  

The glass elevator to the top of the wall and the old part of the city. 

The old warehouse area next to the pier has been converted into restaurants and high end residences. 

These are the texts we receive everyday when we take our phones off Airplane Mode as we come into port.  

Back on the ship, we got ready for our early dinner. Teppanyaki is a very popular restaurant and we were lucky to be able to enjoy it. The dining charge is $29pp plus a 20% tip, which we felt was worthwhile when compared to the cost of Benihana in Hawaii (because you know we never splurge like that at home). 

We are currently listening to live music in the Galaxy Lounge and using the local cellular network to internet wildly before we sail at 9pm. We haven’t had high speed internet access since we were at the Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace Rd. three weeks ago. One day soon, possibly before we fly to Dubai, we are going to have to spend a few hours somewhere that has high enough speed WiFi for us to do the many updates our iDevices need. Luckily, so far none of our financial apps need updating, because it’s always an issue when we are prevented from accessing them until the update is complete. 

Also at 9pm tonight is another show by the Beatles Tribute band on board. We have really enjoyed the live musical entertainment on the Norwegian Spirit. 

Today’s port of Valletta, as well as Messina, Sicily tomorrow and Naples the day after that will be repeated on our Pacific Princess cruise. We have tentative plans in place, but know that what we don’t see this time around we can get to next cruise. This flexibility is certainly welcome after three busy weeks. 

Day 7: Valletta, Malta

Today was another of the virgin ports for us, and a one-time-only port to boot. We were I was determined to get an early start and make the most of it. To that end, I tucked G into bed early last night, with the admonition that he'd had almost a week, and it was high time to get on a schedule. It worked; we slept long and deeply and were up and in the Panorama Buffet well before the Pacific Princess was docked in Valletta harbor at 7am. Go us!!

 

 

 

We had both done some reading yesterday about today's port and at first glance it seemed small enough (just 20 miles long) to do several things in 9 1/2 hours, but the reality of being here is quite different. The roads are narrow and winding, the speed never more than about 30 miles per hour and the traffic in towns is heavy (though there are supposedly fewer than 10000 residents). We decided to pick one major thing for the day and spend the remainder of our time here exploring the walled city of Valletta. It worked well. 

 

 

As we walked off the ship, we were immediately given information on the Hop on Hop off (HOHO) bus that comes right to the port. There are two different companies running HOHO buses; we chose the CitySightseeing Malta bus for 10€ per person for the entire day. As further proof that to do the entire island in one day is too much, the HOHO bus company has split their routes into a northern route (the medieval town of Mdina and several other stops) and the southern route (we chose to stop at the fishing village of Marsoxlokk and the caves of the Blue Grotto). Though we caught the first bus of the morning, we did take a brief lunch break at the Blue Grotto and returned to Valletta around 3pm, allowing just enough time to explore the walled city. 

 

 

 

 

Our weather today was perfect but sticky. We both wore slacks not knowing if we would venture into any churches or temples but shorts would have felt very welcome. We sat on the top deck of the HOHO bus and plugged in the ear buds they supplied to listen to the narration about the various sights we were seeing. Malta was first settled in 800BC by the Phoenicians and many structures and walls here date back hundreds (even 1000) of years. What is believed to be the oldest free standing structure on Earth is in Malta. Never have I ever seen so much stone!  There are multiple huge stone fortress walls surrounding Valletta, but even more all around the island. And there are miles and miles of stacked rock wall fences...everywhere!  They divide crop land and vineyards and properties and exist for who knows what reason. And all the walls and stone are the same honey-colored rock that is found in quarries around the island. 

 

 

 

 

 

We got off the bus in the fishing village of Marsoxlokk simply to walk around and take some photos of the colorful fishing boats bobbing on the water, and then reboarded the next bus 45 minutes later to go to the Blue Grotto. This is one in a series of caves set into the island's southeastern rocky cliffs right on the ocean with luminescent blue and blue-green water. After we disembarked the HOHO bus at the Blue Grotto stop, we walked down steep ramps and stairs to a somewhat protected cove where we boarded small wooden boats holding about 8-9 people each. Tickets were 8€ per person, which seemed a bargain but I wondered, as I boarded this sharply rocking little boat, if this was going to be one of our more ill-conceived ideas. Once we were seated, it was bouncy but not horribly, and we made our way out of the little cove into open ocean and around the tall rock cliffs into the first of the series of caves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was very beautiful, and not claustrophobic because there were large openings out to the ocean so I never felt trapped. This was supposedly best done in the morning light and by getting an early start, we had perfect light. There were probably 7 to 8 caves in all, and lots of water crashing on the rocks which, to us sitting in this little boat, seemed thunderous. I started feeling a little green on the return but stayed strong because I knew I had to climb back up out of that rocking boat onto the dock. Luckily I had no issue with that but others weren't as fortunate. Of course, as soon as my feet hit the dock G wanted to climb steep steps through a tunnel back up to the top of the cliff and that I could have done without, at least immediately, but I even managed that too, feeling green and dizzy and a smidge winded by that point. 

We had a little time before the next HOHO bus was scheduled to arrive, and stopped at a little cafe called Il Grotto and G had a local beer (Cisk) and I had a local wine (Pjazza Regina) and the consumption of wine immediately following the rocky boat ride and the climb back up the cliff made me positively light headed   G must have felt the same, because when the next HOHO bus arrived, we waved it on and ordered a second round and little cheese pies and settled in for another 45 minutes until the following bus came.  

 

The most astonishing thing about Malta was not the walled towns nor the castles nor forts nor churches, it was their use of rabbits as a main source of their food. I thought I heard the words 'spaghetti with rabbit sauce' when I was listening to the audio tour while on the bus but felt certain I was mistaken. Spaghetti with rabbit sauce?  It couldn't be!  But when we stopped at the cafe I saw for myself that I had not misheard. Rabbit is used in several dishes on Malta. And all I could think of was the three darling dwarf (because I was allergic to them and couldn't tolerate anything larger) bunnies we've had during our marriage:  Louie, Lou 2 and Lou Too. I would die of starvation a hundred times before I could eat rabbit anything, and especially spaghetti with rabbit sauce. To add insult to injury; the gift shops even sold dish towels with rabbit recipes printed on them. Outrageous!

 

Say it isn't so!!!!!

And speaking of gift shops, we stopped at several until G found a cap he liked (for only 3,50€), because the 321 he already has are simply not enough.

When the next HOHO bus arrived, we boarded and once again rode on the top level back to the port. We had time then to take a glass elevator (thankfully) up to the top of the Valletta city wall for 1€ each and spend an hour exploring up there. This wall is huge and there is a maze of tunnels and bridges and steps around and through it and, in some ways it's like Dubrovnik but looks even older and is a completely different yellow-ish color. Malta reminded me not so much of Italy, not even southern Italy, from which it is not very distant, but more like Morocco or Tunisia, which are even closer. It seemed a lot more North African than European, and very medieval and reminiscent of Crusades and knights and Ottoman Empire battles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, oh the stones. I've never seen so much stone!

We reboarded the Pacific Princess around 4:15pm, hot, sweaty and tired. Showers went a long way toward reviving us and we were on the Panorama Terrace for our gorgeous sailaway out of the walled harbor.

 

 

 

 

 

We were starved by dinner time, but there were no really special regional items to choose from on tonight's menu. (Have we exhausted them?  I wonder...). Instead I had the gazpacho, a garden salad and the always available salmon which is very much like my favorite embarkation day salmon on other ships. For dessert, a new (to me) Norman Love coconut mousse with dark chocolate was offered and I simply couldn't resist. It was incredible and I wish I could have ordered that mousse by the gallon and enjoyed it every night for the rest of the cruise. I felt entirely righteous ordering it, too.  I had totally obliterated my daily fitness targets:  steps, cardio and flights of stairs. It wasn't hard to do in Malta. Sunset was on our side of the Club Restaurant tonight, and we had just sailed past the neighboring 32-square mile island of Gozo when it occurred. I'm so happy we once again have sunsets to enjoy!

 

 

Tonight's entertainment included production show Cinematastic in the Cabaret Lounge (loved it) and we followed it up with TV theme show trivia with Deputy Cruise Director Mike in the Pacific Lounge. We didn't compete, of course (we disqualify ourselves because we cruise enough to know at least some of the answers simply due to longevity), but TV theme show trivia is always a lot of fun. Like G says, spend a weekend watching MeTV and you'll catch a majority of them. 

At 10:30pm, I am tucked into bed. G is still out and about but he knows I am waking him at 7am tomorrow morning. It's a sea day and he could sleep in, but the next day's port is Livorno, Italy. We have a very early excursion and I am not going to let him backslide. It the absence of Douglas Pearson, I have to be G's conscious and roust him early. 

And, finally, I have to share with you my stupidest mistake of the week. Yes, I know it's only Monday but I really doubt this one will be topped. After formal night two nights ago, G asked me to send his formal shirt to the laundry. So last night, after I took my contacts out and was ready for bed, I filled out a form and grabbed what I believed was his shirt he had left on the chair in the cabin, placed it in a laundry bag and handed it to our steward Ionut. When G stepped out of the bathroom, I told him that I had sent his shirt to be washed. He asked if I had removed the studs?  Studs?  I didn't recall seeing studs, and I told him he must have already removed them. He opened the closet door and pulled out his formal shirt with the studs still attached. "What did you send to the laundry?" he asked. I was at a loss. What had been in that bag? I thought it was his shirt. At that moment there was a knock at the door. It was Ionut with the laundry bag. Earlier in the day he had left mistakenly left two pillowcases on the chair in our cabin. With my contacts out I assumed they were G's shirt and sent them out to be washed and had even checked the 'starch' box. Ionut asked if we were certain we wanted our pillowcases starched. Um...never mind. 

How soon before I'll be allowed to forget that one?  Not soon enough, I'm betting. 

Welcome to my world.  ;-)