Day 565, 29 Dec '15, Vittoriosa/Birgu... and again with the alarm clock. Seriously - 7 am? After yesterday's massive day out exploring, it was somewhat more of a struggle - but we had a mission. Vittoriosa/Birgu's Tuesday morning market. And as we've learned before - it really is a morning thing for the marketers of Malta - on by 6 am and closing up by midday. This is considered to be the big kahuna of the Maltese markets and where the locals come to buy their fruit and vege, household goods, wine, food, clothes etc, etc. We returned to our previously discovered sneaky-parking-possie then strolled back to the market. Girding our loins to prevent bodily injury by baby stroller battering rams, nonnas' heading for bargains and extended families of 12 moving en-masse... we headed in. Purchase? Found a stand run by a couple of Italian brothers with Sicilian wines, rocket and lovely swiss brown mushrooms - 2 of the first, one of the second and a kilo of the third and that was us back to the car. But not before stopping at a local youth and community centre who were having a stall. Hmmmm... junk... junk... ham & cheese rolls and coffees...? Now you are talking! A shared roll and a coffee whilst sitting on the walls of Birgu and then we headed in to explore. First port of call was the old city of il Collochio with tall sandstone buildings and narrow lanes. In here we found the Auberge d'Angleterre. Basically there were 8 langues (thus the 8 pointed Maltese Cross). Each area that was part of the order (France, Italy, Germany, England etc) would have an Auberge for their knights - and the English speaking knights would live, eat, drink and party at the Auberge d'Angleterre here in Birgu. Still a stunning building but now a library. We meandered out to Victory Square (Vittoriosa... Victory... pattern developing). There's a monument in the square erected in 1705 to celebrate the victory in the Great Siege in 1565... so much history to absorb in this tiny place. We then scoped out the location of the Inquisitors Palace (on our list for next week with our Malta Pass). Finally we walked to the end of the peninsula and took a look at St Angelo's Fort - fortified since at least the 9th century, this was heavily built up when the Kights of St John arrived in 1530 and was the home of the grand master of the order up until 1570. Grand Master la Vallette (yes... Valletta was named after him) used the fort as his headquarters during the Great Siege. Closed to the public quite a bit, there is still a knight in residence. We then scented money in the air and headed to the marina which was eye-opening to say the least. There was serious floating money docked one next to each other. The highlight down there was seeing the Maltese Falcon - a completely modern sailing vessel with square rigging designed to run an absolute minimum of crew. Costing millions however and now owned by a Cypriot hedge fund owner, we don't think money for staff is an issue. We gave the Maritime Museum a wave on the way past (visiting next week) and then it was back in the car and home for a late lunch. We're slowly but surely seeing more and more of the island - we thought we'd like it and we've not been disappointed at all.