Back from Malta

Finally some time to write about our time in Malta and some of its highlights.  We last went to Malta some 30 years ago.  This time it wasn't until we went to Mdina and Valletta that I could remember much of it.  But one thing hadn't changed - the driving.  Drivers fitted one of two categories.  Either they were Nervous Nellies and drove at 15mph, unconcernedly holding up huge queues of traffic, or they drove like Italians on weapons grade coke.  Either way their antics were matched only by the absolutely appalling state of the roads.  Combined with the general run down appearance of the island one could be forgiven in thinking that Malta was a developing country rather than an EU one.

And the Malta buses:  colourful, scary and ancient.  One driver told us that the oldest in the fleet was built in 1944!  But they are British engineering at its best: agricultural, unreliable but able to be fixed by any blacksmith with a hammer and a forge, and probably designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  We don't build 'em like we used to...thank God.

But if this is negative the counterpoint is the History starting with the temples 1000 years older than the Pyramids.  Veryan kept complaining that they didn't tell you much about them or the people who built them and we soon realised after a visit to The Malta National Museum of Archaeology  that was because no-one has a clue!

Malta has seen waves of invasion and occupation: the Romans, Arabs, Knights of St John, Normans, Turks, French and most recently the British.  The Germans and Italians tried in 1942 but failed.

The oil tanker SS Ohio entering Grand Harbour at the end of the famous Pedestal convoy in 1942, battered but unbowed, and lashed to two destroyers.  The Pedestal convoy helped save Malta.  British ships and men lost in Operation Pedestal were about the same as the Falklands' War but the operation occurred over only five days. This image became one of the iconic images of WW2. 





The heroic defence of Malta resulted in a national George Cross bestowed on Malta by King George VI and is still displayed in the upper hoist of the Maltese flag.  To tell the history of Malta in a blog would be both presumptuous and beyond my capabilities so I won't try.  But it's pretty amazing.

And the Roman Catholic Church is pre-eminent.  Malta is devoutly Catholic although there is an Anglican Cathedral, courtesy of the Brits, in Valletta.  The smallest villages have some of the grandest churches.  Huge they are and of a style that looks like a cross between Italian and Spanish Baroque.

Finally you can't talk about Malta without mentioning Valletta and Grand Harbour.  Truly one of the greatest maritime views in the World.

I took lots of pictures of everything with my new Canon Powershot G11 which handles like a compact and shoots like an SLR.  Its low light performance is truly outstanding.  All the interior shots were hand held without flash.  You can see the pictures by following the hyperlinks or go to Flickr.

Back