June 28 - Valletta, Malta

Malta is a small island country, right off the coast of Italy. Today my friends and I went on a private excursion. 

You've seen multiple pictures of us four, so let me introduce them, to you. Sue Cooper is my tablemate and moving from Florida to Virginia Beach. Dion Reid is a big Bengals and Reds fan, and is obviously from Cincinnati, Ohio. Randy Pomeroy is from Virginia Beach and Sue's new house is 5 minutes from Randy and his wife. We all met at the pub and get along like a Grandma (Sue), Mom (me), Son (Dion) and crazy Uncle (Randy).

But first, here we are arriving in Valletta. As you can see is a walled of town, with multiple forts, walls and a couple of great harbors








We found our driver and headed off to explore the island. Our first stop was the Blue Grotto. Here it is from up above 

We took a boat ride and went into the actual grotto






We saw this island just off of the grotto. It used to be much bigger. However the British used it for bombing practice. Obviously no one can visit the island.

Then it was off to see sights around the island
We went to the Hagar Qim & Mnajdra archaeological park, which housed the remains of an ancient temple. We chose not to go in.

We went to the Church of our Lady of Divine Providence

We either drove by or saw multiple temples and churches in the distance. There are 400 Catholic churches alone on the Island


We  saw the Presidential summer residence. Our driver knew the prior president, but this is as far as we could get to the current President's palace.

Then it was off to the Church of St Mary Magdalen to check out the views. 

We drove through the town or Mosta. With narrow streets. 

And here are some residences

Then it was off to the walled town of Mdina (yes I spelled that correctly).







The streets were even narrower here

This is as far as we got into the natural history museum, the foyer ceiling and statue

And finally lunch at the Medieval Tavern, which boasted a Mdnia experience



Then it was back to Valetta and more churches



St. Nicholas' Church

 Monument to WWII

Residence
The 2nd picture is government subsidized housing, on the waterfront


Cool Structures

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