Around The World Without Flying: Malta Part 1

It is hard slipping back and forth between catching upon what I did a couple of weeks ago, and participating in the full-on activities involved in this river cruise. Last night we had a fun medieval dinner in a castle atop one of the hills bordering the Rhine River in Germany, and this afternoon, which is the first day of summer here, I visited the lovely Rudesheim. (Sorry - my computer will not insert the special German symbols in their names.) This visit brought back many happy memories of my visit to Rudesheim in 1980, and the start of a wonderful friendship.

But now it is time to start my tale about the first of the Greek Islands I visited, which tour was on Sunday 21 May. This was the island of Malta, an island that is so rich in history it was really awe-inspiring.The only problem was we did not have those hearing devices, and I missed much of the information our guide provided, so I can only give you my general impressions and lots of photos.

It appears that well over 1300 years ago, the city of Mdina (this is the correct spelling), known as ‘The Silent City’, was the capital city, but then one of the sets of people who took it over (I am sorry but I do not remember who they were), created a duplicate city right next to it, the two ancient cities separated by a roadway. The other ancient city was called Valletta. Since then a new city has been created next to and within that; this modern Valletta is now the capital city of Malta.

First we travelled to Mdina. At one point the British had been involved in its government. It transpired that when the British administrator commissioned a new public building, the excavators discovered an ancient graveyard surrounded by walls. These walls were much older again than the walls of the ancient city. A little further exploration revealed that the graves were at the back of a Roman villa that clearly had belonged to a wealthy Roman. Interestingly, this is the only evidence for Roman occupation that has been found on the island so far. Luckily the British authority recognised the historic value of the site and immediately stopped the excavation and brought in experts to uncover the original Roman villa. It is now a museum and we were privileged to see inside.

It was just incredible to see the remains of the beautiful mosaic floor, columns and statues. The villa has been renovated as much as possible with great care and sensitivity, incorporating as much as is practical of the remains of the villa and the relics found inside. Items of pottery and other relics were on display. The items that impressed me most was the ancient glassware. It was probably at least 2000 years old, yet they managed to make a variety of useful shapes and even achieve an iridescent effect on what were probably perfume bottles. See the first photos.

You can see all this in the photos, which I hope you will enjoy. In my next post I will tell you about the twin walled cities.

In the meantime, today I found out that Apple devices do not work well in this region, and certainly not on the river boat. That might explain may inability to reply to your emails right now. My blog is the only way I can warn you of this frustrating situation.