Valletta, Malta

Valletta: View As We Arrived

What a great looking old (and new) city. We didn’t dock until 10am so after sleeping in – again – we had a leisurely breakfast then went to the top deck to watch the ship going into port. The pilot boat came out to meet us and drop off a pilot so we knew we were in good hands. While there we took part in the “Marina Links” golf (putting) contest. If you get a good enough score they give you “Big O” dollars you can spend on memorabilia.
The city of Valetta is the capital of the small independent nation of Malta, 92 km south of Sicily. Valetta is Malta’s largest city developed by the Knights of the Order of St John. St.  John’s ambulance – Maltese cross – are you making a connection??? The Maltese people are a mixture of many Mediterranean cultures but the proximity to Italy shows its influence as many speak Italian.

The old city is walled with limestone. The dock is lined with taxis, buses and horse drawn carriages to take people to the city. We chose to walk the 20 minutes UP to the city in the 90C heat (whew).  We then visited the Archeological Museum, St. John’s Co-cathedral (being Sunday it was, however, otherwise occupied- so we could only have a quick peek in) and the Royal Palace Armory. The palace sentries were standing very still – saw slight movements – tickle, tickle! The Archeological Museum is built on an actual dig site and they left old staircases when they built the building. They have these visible with glass over so you can get the idea and see the actual structures below.  

The Sleeping Lady of Malta

Malta has an interesting history – both archaeological and modern. Many war memorials are evident. In case you are unfamiliar with WW2 history, Malta played a major role in the European war theatre. In fact, the George Cross was awarded to the collective people of Malta. It is the civilian equivalent to the Victoria Cross. This medal is awarded only for acts of the greatest heroism or the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.

The Armory

We walked down some side streets – very narrow with many having the household laundry airing on lines suspended outside a window. 

Narrow Street in Valletta

After exploring some narrow side streets in Valetta we then headed back to the air conditioned ship for lunch and another round of golf (we now have 5 Big O points!). On our way back we purchased a bottle of the Malta soft drink “Kinnie”.  As it was warm we have it in the fridge cooling for a later trial. It is supposed to be bitter sweet and made from herbs. We will let you all know once we try it. It has been lovely sitting out on our deck, we are on the street side in the shade, watching the activities on the dock and surrounding area.

Later. The soft drink was indeed bitter-sweet with an orange peel flavour -not bad actually.

Sailing to Malta

A day at Sea!

Pool Deck

Last evening we pulled out from Ibiza followed by the pilot boat, who would take the pilot off the ship once we were out in open waters. This was the start of our 661 nautical mile journey to our next stop, Malta. This will take over 36 hours at sea. Our private veranda has been great as we were able to stand out there and watch as we left. It was 11 pm but the city was full of lights. As we had mentioned the sky became pretty overcast in the afternoon and by this time there was a spectacular lightning storm with lots of activity over the island. As soon as we got around the cement breakwater at the dock the rough seas hit us. Didn’t bother us too much as we were getting into bed anyway. During the night you could feel some definite rocking. The captain had issued a warning about watching your step, etc. in the heavy seas. Apparently this is pretty common on this stretch of waters.

Before we headed on the cruise we had heard from one “cruiser” how boring it was and how tired they were of waiting for the elevators. We are now into our third day and have not used the elevator yet. If we keep walking the stairs it may help with all the lovely meals not all going straight to our waists! As for activities, every evening when Freddy, our cabin steward turns down the bed  - complete with chocolate on our pillows –he leave a US and Canadian newspapers (he knows we are Canadian and has added this to his duties) he also leave a four page paper entitled “The Current”. In this there are pages of activities you can take part in – mini golf, driving range, crochet, shuffleboard, table tennis, paddle tennis, guest lectures, photography lessons, sewing lessons, fashion shows and the list goes on. There are also 24 hour movies on your stateroom TV if you find you just want to veg out. We seem to be missing a lot of it as we just can’t fit is all in. No boredom here for us. We have barely found time to just sit on the veranda and watch the sea and birds. No sign of other ships at all today.

Relaxing on our veranda

Around noon there was a message from the captain that the seas have now settled to 8 foot swells. Wonder what it was earlier as we rocked away in our beds? Indeed there were some green-gilled individuals in the halls this morning. The bed is very comfortable and we are sleeping well. It could be the 1000 count linens contributing.

This afternoon we attended our pasta cooking class in the Culinary Center. We had to don hats and aprons and proceeded to make our own pasta from scratch and a walnut/sage sauce as well as pasta salad all under the direction of the two chefs on board. After sampling all our makings we decided on a late dinner – the class ended at 5 pm. 

Pasta class

This was followed by the Captain’s cocktail party where we were introduced to Captain Resso, a diminutive Italian - maybe 5’2” or so. Please no jokes about Italian cruise ship captains! This evening we took in “Groovin”: an oldies live stage show with many of the tunes of our childhood (OK teenage years. . . OKAY young adulthood!). Most (90%?) of our fellow passengers are around our age. There is some sort of entertainment every evening, often by members of the crew and we plan to take it all in.

We have been going to the Grand Dining Room every evening as the serving size is perfect versus the buffet where you keep thinking you should sample it all. The food is phenomenal though Doug still keeps raving about the pasta he had our first night being the best meal so far.

Grand Staircase

Ibiza, Spain

Happy Birthday to Norma!

Happy Birthday to Norma! Now how hard is that – celebrating your 63^rd Birthday on a beautiful Mediterranean Island. Here we are on Ibiza, Spain, an island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of Valencia, Spain and 152 nautical miles from Barcelona. It is primarily known for its party scene – lots of young people in miniskirts, etc., getting into the scene. They apparently don’t get going until 2 am!

Now to the start of our day. As we had decided to do our own walking tour today we just relaxed – actually we were so relaxed we BOTH slept until 8 am. Guess the jet lag caught up to us but we should be good now. It was a bit overcast and very windy – 50 km per hour -but definitely not cold. After just one day on board we are already starting to know our way around. There are 13 levels of guest services and suites (they missed #13 though and call it #14).

After a leisurely breakfast we headed off the ship into the walled city. It was really impressive walking up and along the high wall. The view from up there once you got to the top was wonderful (Doug took the above picture of our ship from there). Amazed at the number of people trying to do this cobble-stoned walk in flip flops – ouch – sore feet tonight I can guarantee. We were sure glad we were in our walking shoes. Lots of boutique type shops with locally made items. Great shops– could have gone crazy! And of course, lots of tourists.

Saw numerous cats as well. Most just wandering around looking for handouts and pets. As the afternoon progressed the weather deteriorated and got even more overcast. Wonder what our night is going to be like at sea with this wind, etc. We don’t leave until 11pm so hopefully won’t even notice it. 

In the walled city which was actually a fort there was a display of guns, shot and powder kegs. 

 Tonight, for Norma's birthday we had a wonderful dinner, complete with cake and the restaurant singers. The meals onboard are exceptional. Norma's Birthday gift from Doug is a beautiful Pandora bracelet and charms.

Sailing to Ibiza

 



 

In an effort to shake the jet lag we made ourselves stay up until 11 pm last night. In spite of that we were both awake at 5:30. A bit overcast but not raining or cold so OK with us. We decided to have a morning of walking and seeing some sites before getting on the ship so we started out at 7:30 and walked 5 km to the Sagrado Familia – an exceptionally  ornate church that has been undergoing construction for many years and isn’t supposed to be finished for a while yet. It was a great walk along the Diagonal Mar, which is a wide pedestrian/bike friendly travelway with the tram and the cars running on the outsides of the road. We saw a very interesting gas station – right on the side of the road so all the vehicles do is sort of pull over and the attendant, taking his life in his hands, steps out and fills you up. We walked the 5 km back to the hotel then headed out on a short walk to the beach to watch the surfers.

 

Doug suggests that a distracted driving law is not needed in Spain. Spaniards must use one hand to hold the phone to their ear and the other to gesticulate wildly while talking. Result: no hand remains for the steering wheel so they cannot possibly drive while talking on their cell phones.

The bus picked us up at 1 pm for the short ride to the ship. The check in was quick and easy but we couldn’t get into our cabin until about 2:30.They did serve a buffet lunch so we were able to kill some time there. We discovered once we were on board that just as we had suspected, the decision had been made to not go to Egypt because of all the riots. This is too bad as one of the things Norma was looking forward to was the pyramids. Instead of this we are going to another port in Turkey. We need to find out what they do about the two excursions we had booked but there was such a line-up we decided to check it out tomorrow.

Got the bags unpacked and attended the life boat drill – a mandatory presentation. Had a lovely dinner in the Grand Dining room. One of the nice things about this cruise is that it is open seating with no assigned times so you can just go when you want. There also is no charge for coke so Doug is happy. In fact we have a small fridge in our room that is stocked for our use.

We stood on our verandah to watch Barcelona as we left. It has been a great day.

 

 

Barcelona,Spain

10 hours of flying in the rather cramped British Airways economy class finally landed us in Barcelona. Norma doesn't remember BA being this bad! Heathrow airport in London is security conscious and very busy in contrast to a seemingly laid back Barcelona airport. Customs consisted of cursory examination of our passports (no filling in of any paperwork at all) and a “welcome to Barcelona, enjoy your stay”! This was followed by a ½ hr taxi ride while the cab driver acted as a tour guide in his best broken English (which was a lot better than our Spanish) from the airport to the Diagonal Mar Hilton Hotel (see view from our window) where the cruise line has booked us. We will have a bit more time to explore this intriguing city tomorrow morning before boarding the ship. We both agree this will not be enough time. It is now very much bedtime as the long flight has done us in for today.

Calgary, AB

Tomorrow we will depart on British Airways from Calgary to Barcelona via London.  Barcelona will be the port of origin for our 15 day Mediterranean cruise on Oceania Cruise Lines. Unfortunately there is no room for Raindancer on this trip. Perhaps next time we can load the bike in the ship’s hold and. . .

A fantasy? Not Really. Check out http://www.cruise-eta.com/!

We will attempt to do an entry in Barcelona if we aren’t too tired after the all nighter. Keep looking as we plan to keep everyone posted.