WEATHER: Tops 18C – Lows 14C but the sun was come and go and the wind picked up and stopped
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my post office stamp in my Globetrotters book
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Finding out the cost of my ship board bill – damn magic card!!!!
BUYS OF THE DAY: A silver St John cross and a filigree ring – hand made in Malta
WORD OF THE DAY: - Sobriety is okay for one day
It was good to get off the ship today, and feeling human again – life was looking good. We had a day tour booked of Valletta and Mdina. This place really makes me think of Dubrovnik. The bay / port we came into was just beautiful and as the city was founded by lot of countries in its history, the Arabs also held post here for almost 900 years, so it has that middle eastern feeling with the way the housing has been structured and way way it was all built on the bay.
After visiting the Barraka Gardens where we got an amazing view over the Great Harbour, we went to visit St John’s Cathedral. Now I have said this before about visiting palaces and museums, seen one church you have pretty much seen them all, but St John’s Cathedral was amazing. The Cathedral dates back to the ancient Knights of Malta, they are all buried there and photos are permitted inside with no flash. There are also paintings by Caravaggio, who lived in Malta and painted 4 of his famous works, where 2 of them are still in Malta in St Johns. We got to see one of them ‘The Be-heading of John the Baptist’ and I am not an art buff, but this picture was massive at 5.5mx4.5m and it looked amazing. It had been stolen a few years back, recovered and sent to Florence for 3 years for it to be re-stored as it was damaged during the robbery – who pays for all that? Needless to say the colours were so vivid and looked like it had been painted that week.
From Valetta we travelled around 25 minutes to a small town called Mdina. This was like walking into a small city in the Emirates. Lots of narrow streets all made out of limestone and the city is also known as the ‘silent town’. Well it certainly was quite when we were there, as there were also 3 other ships in port, the Norwegian Jade and the …………………………, which made it an interesting time in the small city where only 450 locals live, just to give you an idea on the size. It was chaotic. Our guide mentioned during summer last year, they had up to 8 ships in port at the same time – for me, this would be insane to visit Mdina with that many people passing through, I wouldn’t think that they could cope!! I really hate to imagine what that would have been like. Malta is known for its silver filigree jewelry and of course the St John cross (exactly the same as St Johns Ambulance emblem) and with not having spent money (well of the nonalcoholic kind) I bought myself beautiful filigree rings and a St John star pendant. If I buy things, I can only buy small stuff, so I can also justify it that way as well!!!!
All in all I loved the feel of Malta and it has very picturesque towns and a beautiful harbor. If you get the chance to go – I would recommend it with a high 8 out of 10.
We chillaxed on deck after returning back from the tour and also lunch – which again was a shit fight. We did discover, on the 2nd last day of course, that the very end of the buffet restaurant, there is the same food all except the hot food component, and is certainly easier to find a seat down there than the main entrance. Trust us to work this out on the 2nd last day!!! Derrrrrrr Patty and Joe joined us for a coffee and then we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. At this point we are back on the drink, and we got 3 wines over lunch, and as lunch technically runs till 3pm, we ran back up and got another 2 wines before the clock ticked 4pm and we would have to start paying again. Are clever chickens or what?
The show tonight was Excalibur and again a very high standard and from the theatre we headed straight to our home’ bar – The Manhattan – to watch the Madonna Music Game. ChelC popped into the Sportsbar as the soccer ( or football here ) was on, Real Madrid was playing Barcelona in the semi-finals and there are a few Spanish people on board, all crammed into the bar to watch it on the TV’s, which there were plenty, it is a great sports bar!
Dinner was then on the itinerary, amazing how busy we actually are on the ship. Great to be able to get our money’s worth of our drinks package again! We went and checked our accounts that afternoon and I was up at 677EUR on day 5!!! In my defence there is 300EUR of day tours on that, but just imagine how much the bill would have been if we weren’t on a drinks package! Mama Mia!!!!
Next was the ‘Tropical Party’ in the lounge. It was rocking in here, considering it starts at 11pm. Tonight was the first night we hit some serious rock-age of the ship. It was funny to watch, when the ship swayed one way all the people on the dance floor took 2 steps that way and with the sway back, same again 2 steps back the other way – it was soooo funny, as a group of 100 all moved together.
We did head to Liquid Nightclub to check it out, but besides the 100 school age people in there, we were the oldest by far, so after a few drinks, we retired at 2am to be up at 7am for our day tour tomorrow in Sicily. Thank-god this cruise isn’t any longer I think it would kill me, in saying that I haven’t even started Contiki yet – oh dear – maybe I will be showing my age after 2 months of this!!!
Our last day on the ship tomorrow, as we disembark on Friday morning for our train from Civitavecchia port to Rome Termini, and then we will transfer on the train from there to the airport where we have a 5pm flight.
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