Day 7 - Saturday January 24, 2026 - The island of Malta

Today was one of those days you realize why you decided to travel. The weather was cool and sunny.  The tour guide  knowledgeable and interesting and I saw an amazing amount of a new country .  

I set off alone on a tour called Malta Highlights.  Wayne took the 2 1/2 hour included tour and saw mostly Valletta, by bus with no stops other than a restroom break.  This is the town where we are docked.  

My tour was full 8 hours and 14,083 steps later I can say I saw a good bit of Malta and enjoyed every minute.  

We started by driving to Hagar Qim, a megalithic temple complex dating back to 3,600 BC.  This temple (some might say us similar to Stonehenge) are among the most ancient religious sites on earth. In the 1800’s AD, scientists and archaeologists were able to carbon date this site.  It was long buried by earthquakes and eons of time. 

Pictures from the archeological site

This stone that people moved and put in place manually weighs 20,000 tons

The Maltese people  are one of the few societies that speaks a Semitic language, a branch of the Afroasiatic family which includes languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Amharic. It is the only Semitic language spoken in Europe influenced by Italian and Sicilian. It is the only Semitic language spoken in Europe, uniquely influenced by Italian andSicily.  It’s strange to hear what sounds like Arabic from Europeans..

I took some pictures of their road signs and the names of their towns.  It’s a cross between Arabic but spoken by people with European accents.  

As we rode across the island, there was prickly pear everywhere and rocks made into walls that divides property birders.  It looks like Ireland in the John Wayne movie, The Quiet Man.

All these rock walls reminds you of Ireland.

Our second stop was the fishing village of Marsaxlokk.  

What a pretty place with the small traditional wooden fishing 

boats called luzzo’s.  These  colorful little boats have travelled

these waters since the 19th century.

After the fishing village it was back on the bus for our lunch stop.  Buses aren’t allowed to travel these narrow streets so there was a good bit of walking. 

The harbor we walked through in the way to lunch, our third stop, in the town of Birgu.

Our lunch stop.  Lunch was Sea bream grilled which I forgot to take a picture of and dessert of Mille-feuille. 

The restaurant from the outside 

The restaurant sits across from the harbor.

After lunch a lot more walking to see the sights of Birgu.  

The main square 

And some of the interesting buildings off the square 

The Inquisitors palace

The Gate of Provence 

Walking past the Maltese flag

Then it was back in the bus for the short ride around the harbor for our walking tour of Valletta.  

Where old meets new, a recently designed building sitting right across from their new parliament building 

Their new parliament building, new design, and behind it , the original fortress

The arches into Valletta

Our next stop was at St. John’s Co Cathedral. It is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and built by the Order of St John between 1573 and 1578.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside. The architects and designers wanted to make it look like not much more than another building resembling a fortress. This was due to so many changes in who ruled over Malta. However, once you get inside the cathedral it was absolutely amazing.

Not much to look at outside

But inside, wow

The high altar of Carrera marble 

The floor was inlayed marble and was exquisite.

All of these are floor tiles

This painting represents the allegory of the knights of St. John

The marble was amazing 

Each one of these is a mausoleum, and all the white statues are made from gorgeous Carrera marble

Finally, we were able to enter a special room full of paintings by Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Beheading of St John the Baptist.  It is the artist’s largest work and the only one signed by him.  This painting dates to 1608.  It really was impressive.

We left the cathedral and headed for our last stop, the Upper  Barrakka Gardens.  While it’s winter here and nothing is really in bloom but it overlooks the harbor and the views alone are worth the walk

More walking back to the bus for the short ride to the ship.  14,083 steps today.  I’ll sleep well tonight.  We have another half day in Malta tomorrow.  The captain wants to get ahead of the weather and wind so it’s back on board at noon and we sail west to Tunisia and hope for good weather.