Arrived in Malta late yesterday after a whole day travelling – thanks to check-in requirements and delayed flight. Matt and Kat met us at the airport- great to have this time with them.
Flying in, Malta looked flattish with land rising up out of the sea, straight cliffs and very dry landscape – reminded me of a giant puzzle piece sitting in the sea. It’s hot, humid and dry, with what I think is a “peaches and cream” palette – most buildings are of those hues with a few blues and pinks here and there. Typically Mediterranean style buildings and landscape then vast expanses of deep blue sea all around.
Today we slept-in – luxury after all those early starts and then spent several hot hours wandering the streets of Valetta – the capital city. It’s an ancient fortified city – very picturesque narrow alleys, old stone buildings and ruins, some very steep streets and relatively quiet – most shops etc shut for Sunday!
The country is and looks old with evidence of modern progress here and there possibly due to new investment by the EU to which Malta is a relatively new member. The roads are exceedingly bumpy which is maybe why the speed limit is never more than 70km/h. Tonight we experienced a bit of real Maltese culture at a bread festival in one of the nearby townships – not quite what we expected but fun to see.
Comments
Comment by Gwen on 2008-09-14 18:47:43 -0700
Hi – thanks for the blog site again which in a ‘senior moment’ I deleted. You are certainly packing a lot in or maybe it is just because I have read it all in one sitting. We dont have ANY such exciting news at this end.
