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The approach to Valletta was spectacular - welcome to the Middle Ages. The buildings are built with a pale golden limestone and the city has a very colonial feel to it.
The island is small, 17 miles long and 5 miles wide. There are no rivers, lakes or mountains; just gentle rolling hills which meet the coast at Valletta in fairly steep cliffs.
A walk round the old battery with its many memorials to soldiers and sailors of all nationalities gives a real feel for the chequered history of ownership of Malta through the centuries. You get a sense that this is very much at the crossroads of Africa and Europe.
Where Naples appeared scruffy and uncared for, everywhere in Malta is clean, well maintained and exhibits a real sense of pride.
The highlight of our day was catching the service bus to Mdina - bus drivers are maniacs! Mdina was like walking into a time warp. This beautiful walled settlement dates back to the Bronze Age and was later settled by the Romans. The Normans took over the building of the settlement in 1090. No motorised traffic is allowed in the walled city. Strolling through the narrow lanes in the sunshine was idyllic and the peace contrasted with the chaos of Naples.
Before we visited Mdina we strolled through the small village of Rabat where we stumbled on a beautiful bar/ restaurant set in a magnificent baroque Palazzo - the Palazzo Xara Hall and were made so welcome. A tea and a coffee were 2 euros, but the least we could do was give the owner a good tip for the use of his wifi to catch up on emails and send replies to the family.
Wifi is proving easier to find than we had expected - all the cruise terminals so far have had free wifi and there was a wifi zone in Valletta opposite a very quaint, dated Marks & Spencer! It is a sure sign that wifi is available when you see members of the crew with their phones/ laptops on their day off!
We have cracked the wifi bit - free wifi in the cruise terminals and outside Phone House so far as well.
The only downside was the ambulance greeting the ship's arrival - 2 down in the first week - cruising is such a high risk pastime!!
We set sail heading south east for Port Said through a traffic jam of "parked" merchant vessels; trade is obviously very depressed.
How did we spend our evening? In good company, enjoying good food and wine. Much too early to retire at 10.30, table 67 of the Oriental Restaurant adjourned to the Pacific Lounge for Name that Tune!!! We were disturbingly better on the 60s music - short term memory goes first, they say. Fortunately younger members of the table carried us through the 70s and 80s - 25 out of 30 was not a bad score but not good enough to win the bottle of wine.
We noticed the embarkation in Malta of 3 or more athletic looking short haired gentlemen of military bearing. The security detail is on board ready for the passage through the pirate infested waters south of Sharm el Sheikh. More of this later.
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