M:

We rose again to the sound of the cannon - 0800 - what an indolent life! Just as well, as I am not sleeping well due the combined effects of the cold, the drugs and jet lag. I have tended to wake about 2 and read for a couple of hours - not recommended practice.

Anyway, with a view like ours, there is a lot to get out of bed for. We had a breakfast from our provisions, and set off with plans to see at least some of: the Malta Exeprience, the War Museum, and the co- Cathedral. In the end we did the first two.

For those who want to get a sense of the geography, here is a street map of Valletta. Remember - we are living at 51 Battery Street, just under the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

The day looked fine as we walked parallel to the harbour side to the Lower Barrakka garden, and since the Malta Experience wasn't open yet, we went past Fort St Elmo - where the Police college was doing firing practice (There is something about the Maltese and explosions - live fire, cannons, and of course the fireworks for the festas. One would have thought they had enough of that during the war!). On the way past one of the ever present Karrozzin (horse drawn cabs) one of the horses felt like a nibble of Anne. No harm done!

The War Museum has been transformed since we were last here, with a lot more about World War I. We discovered that Malta had played a key role in the Gallipoli campaign. There was some graphic original footage of the wartime destruction. The soldier who took it was nearly court martialled for having done so! For those interested, I found a good website with war time photos , and some video.

We walked back to the Malta Exeprience - a video overview of Maltese history. If you want to know what it was like, you'll have to see what Anne says, because I slept through most of it - the broken sleep catching up!

A: The Malta Experience, like the Son e Lumiere in Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, caters well for visitors with headphones where you choose your language. It gave a history of Malta and the many invaders and would be conquerers of this tiny but strategically placed island. The Knights of the Order of St John came to the island in 1530. Originally set up with a medical focus, they turned their hand to military concerns as a result of the attempted invasion by the Ottoman empire in 1565. The Knights were a very forward thinking group who built Valletta- named after Grandmaster Jean Parisot de la Vallette, the year the city was founded. It was one of the first cities in Europe to use a grid street system. This four month long seige shaped Malta for ever, but Malta found itself again under seige in 1942 during World War II where the Maltese people held off the Axis of Italy and Germany and almost starved to death in the process. The St George Cross awarded by King George V1 to the entire nation is very well deserved.

M:

When we emerged from the Malta Experience it was raining - and we weren't dressed for the weather, so we got a good soaking on the short walk back to the apartment. Anne offered to go out and get some pastizzi, an offer which I gratefully accepted. More from Anne on her submarine adventure and our evening's amusement.

A:

It was pelting down so I waited a little while and then rolled my jeans up a little and set off. The umbrella nearly blew inside out. I walked along Merchant St to search for cash- which I did quickly, and then pastizzi. It was about 1/ 1.30. As I attempted to walk I noticed lots of people huddled in doorways to shelter from the rain. I then realised why- my socks, and about two inches of my jeans were absolutely soaked by the time I returned but the water- proofing of my boots must have held. But the worst of it was that my expedition failed in its most important task- all the pastizzi in about 5 or 6 cafes were sold out. We made do with a cheese pie and timpana for our lunch.

Our next expedition took us for a look at the extraordinary Mdina which is the central area of the island. We went by bus- the whole bus fleet has been recently replaced by brand new comfortable buses which seem to have some advantages but the bendy buses have trouble negotiating some of the narrow streets- of course! One of our vivid memories of Malta in 1985 and 1997 was the ancient buses that belched muck and were decorated with all manner of religious paraphernalia. People would get on, cross themselves, and then sit down! So all this has changed!

Mdina is the oldest city on the island and one of the few that was not built by the Knights. It is a walled city, fortified in medieval times, known as the silent city. The stocks where we took a photo of our two girls in 1997 are gone. (But they may have reappeared in the nearby restaurant- see photo.)

Our main purpose in visiting this area was to catch up with Doris Scicluna Gatt who I met earlier this year at St Andrews College when she was visiting her good friend Carmen Barbara- our Hospitality and Food Tech teacher. She and her husband John welcomed us into their home, two minutes walk from Mdina in Rabat- just across the lovely Howard Gardens. Doris cares for her mother in the home also and we spent a pleasant couple of hours chatting and of course eating! Doris remembered that I baked her a cake when she visited us at school! See the photo attached of Mick, me, Doris and her mum. We made do with a very light tea much later that night at Cafe Carravagio which is opposite St John's Co-cathedral.