Malta

Today we docked at Valetta,  the capital of Malta. 

Denise and I were booked on the Island Panoramic tour, which was basically  a  tour of the island by bus.  What I learned  was that Malta is not a very big island and that it's almost completely  urbanized.   The guide  would say things like "We are now leaving village  X and entering  village Y", but there was no green space  between the 2 'villages'.

Our first stop was a place called  Marsaxlokk, which was a fishing village. The fishing boats were all painted bright colours and there was a Sunday market where  the were selling a variety of  things, including  fish.

Malta gained independence from Britain  back in 1964. But there's  still a few things around that remind you of Britain.  They drive on the left. They all speak English  (as well as Maltese) and signage is almost  completely  in English.   They also have red telephone boxes and Costa Coffee and  even an M&S (sadly it was closed on Sunday). 

We had a couple of photo stops  at various beauty spots, including the city of Mdina, which was the capital until 1530.

Finally, we stopped at Mosta, to visit  the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, which is also known  as the miracle church because  a bomb came through the dome during WWII while there were hundreds of people inside praying  - but the bomb failed to go off. If you  look closely at the photo  of the dome you'll see an area where the paint is not the  same, which is where the bomb came through.  They keep a replica of the bomb at the back of the church.

The outside of  the building  was also used in the filming of Game of Thrones.

Then it was back to the ship, where we had a superb meal at the grill where we cooked our own meat on a hot stone at the table.  After that we went to the chocolate extravaganza event that was being held on the pool deck to get dessert.