After Thanksgiving, signing up for a month's use of our apartment, and fighting off some unknown virus (a very small virus), Steve and I have started exploring again. Our apartment is in Sliema (near St. Julian's, Paceville, and Ghadir on Balluta Bay). We are learning the bus routes and have traveled down to St. Julian's for groceries and dinner, discovered the local church garden and an ancient torri (tower) up the road, gone on shopping trips to Tigne's (pronounced Ten-yay) shopping centre near the Sliema Ferries, and visited the ancient city of Valetta several times. The more we see, the more we are fascinated by this ancient place, it's history and it's juxtaposition of very new and very old. The walls of the old city of Valetta look like the drawings I've seen of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon - thick, windowless, slanting walls made of stone that are at least 3 stories high, with limestone buildings above that are hundreds of years old. Sometimes it feels like I might be walking in Jerusalem with all the desert coloured limestone, the palm trees, and the medieval architecture. The Knights of St John built a well-fortified city and many of those buildings are still standing and being used today. But, this place has history that goes back much farther than the Romans. Almost every Western civilization has left its mark here. The proximity to Africa and the Middle East have left cultural and architectural touches, as well. This was a day of churches, though.
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| The largest hibiscus I've seen yet - This is on the bayside walk in Sliema. |
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| The little house that could, old sandwiched in with new |
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| The view of Valetta from the Sliema ferry area |
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| Bird of Paradise flowers still blooming in late November, outside in Sliema |
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| The view from our apartment balcony. Our apartment is on the 7th (our 8th) floor. It's modern with elevator, kitchen, washer/dryer, TV (that doesn't work properly), and wifi (pronounced wiffy here). But, you can see that the city beyond our balcony is very old mingled with new. The temp got up to 70 F today, but it's the rainy/windy season. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? |
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| The Parish Church of St Gregory the Great faces onto Balutta Bay and is around the corner from our apartment. |
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| The back garden at Parish Church of St Gregory the Great - notice the poinsettia tree blooming |
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| Church of Our Lady of Victories, Valletta, Malta |
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| Church of Our Lady of Victories, Valletta, Malta |
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| I love these inlaid marble floors. Many of these designs cover crypts of historical figures. |
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| St John's Co-cathedral, Valletta, Malta [There was only one archbishop for the cathedral in Valletta when the Knights of Malta wanted to build their own cathedral. So, they compromised with the archbishop and made it a co-cathedral.] This church is very unimposing on the outside. But, look at that inside! |
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| The Maltese cross is everywhere |
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| The inlaid marble floors are almost all crypts underneath |
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| The crypt of the first librarian of the Knights of St John in Malta |
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| The frequency of the skull and skeleton appearing on these crypts reminds me of Tarot cards. |
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| Apparently, the co-cathedral was very plain for a century. But, when the baroque style of architecture and decoration came into vogue, the Knights decorated. Talk about over the top! |
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| This is one of the paintings by Carrivagio |
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| The nursing Madonna, I think |
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| The main sanctuary |
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| Outside, in front of the church, is a tribute to the Maltese journalist who was assassinated by car bomb recently. |
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| The Bibliotheca (National Library of Malta) - the last building built by the Knights of St John Malta Libraries |
The National Library collection appears to be very old. They currently have an historical exhibit running called "From absolutism to glasnost: a journey into Russian history through the National Library Collection - An exhibition organised on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, 1917". It was very interesting, including some very old newspaper articles, original handwritten letters and journals. (Malta has strong connections to Russia, as well as Italy and Spain.) This is a research library and only the exhibit area of the library hall is open to visitors. Only researchers can use the rest of the library and absolute quiet is enforced. Pictures are only allowed outside the library room, probably because they are distracting and maybe because they don't want any old book shopping. The remainder of the building is said to include a bindery and book repair shop, which is absolutely necessary judging from the age of many of the books I saw and was encouraged not to touch.
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| The view from the top step of the library |
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| View from the top step of the library |
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| The Palace garden |
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| Inside the gate to the Palace garden |
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| Being a British territory at one time, the Maltese drive on the left and have red telephone boxes that take credit cards now. |
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| The Plaza in front of the Palace in Valletta |
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| Front door to the Palace. Of course, we were too late to enter. Maybe next time. |
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| Meghan, look what's going to be playing in the opulent St John's Co-cathedral in January! |
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| Christmas tree made of coloured glass balls |
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| The building behind the Christmas tree is the brand new Maltese legislature building. |
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| Could Chihuly have been here? Or is this Valletta glass? Inquiring minds need to know. |
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| The view down the pedestrian street |
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The half-moon above and between the two legislature buildings
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Tomorrow, we hope to go to Mdina, the oldest place on Malta I believe; the place that was established by the Phoenicians and has been occupied for thousands of years. It was the capital city until the Knights moved the seat of government to Valletta to be next to the sea. But, I'm told that many of the ancient families' homes are still in Mdina.
