Breezy day in Valletta

I got off to a lazy start and took a bus to Valletta at 10:30. The chaps had left at 8. Once again I marvelled at the traffic. Do people here really just drive around cutting off other drivers, and buses, for entertainment? Sometimes, it seems that's a national pastime. But I must commend their parallel parking skills, slipping into spaces barely longer than their vehicles. I've never noticed any driver having to make a correction when squeezing between two other cars. One and done!

The risks the drivers take in roundabouts and pulling out from parking spots or side streets is enough to raise the blood pressure. There have been many close calls that I've seen from the safety(???) of a bus. I suppose safety is a relative term, and in this case only because the bus is bigger, is there any feeling of security. But I digress.

On disembarking from the bus at the terminal in Valletta, I headed directly to the Malta Memorial to the War Dead. I was on a mission to find the name of a particular airman who lost his life in the Battle of Malta. By a stroke of fate, I walked directly to the panel on which his name was inscribed. The names are organized by year, by service (RAF, RCAF), by descending order of rank and then alphabetically. This is the memorial.

From the memorial it was a short walk to the city entrance and onto Republic Street. The original plan had been to visit St. John's Co-Cathedral. It's home to the original Caravaggio painting of the beheading of John the Baptist, but that is only one of its attractions. Sadly, because the Archbishop had not been informed of our plans, he died at an inopportune time, and the cathedral was closed in his honour. It will not reopen during our visit. We'd been about to visit shortly after our arrival in Valletta during our first week, but seeing long lineups, decided to postpone the visit. Bad decision. We have to resort to googling or using the website to see the interior.  

https://www.stjohnscocathedral.com/

Not to be deterred I carried on to the Grand Masters' Palace and it did not disappoint. The interior courtyard was lovely, but the many stairs were somewhat less lovely. It's an immense structure and is currently used for special events, mostly involving the reception of monarchs and heads of state. In this place was displayed the George Cross and the letter from King George VI, to the people of Malta for their heroism in WWII. Malta was the most bombed country during the war and much of Valletta lay in ruins. The citizens had sheltered in the many underground passages which are found under the city.

When it comes to the George cross, there is no mention that it is a duplicate and the same can be said of the letter beside it. But, at the same time, at the War Museum, they have what is the original. I have not been able to figure this out. There would be no shame in saying it is a copy of the one at the museum but nowhere could I find any information about that. If you are so inclined and eager to research something of this high importance, please advise me of what you find.

So is this the original or a copy?

One of the places I really wanted to visit was The Malta Experience. There is a great deal of fuss made about this presentation and I was hoping to learn more in terms of geography and places to visit. Learn I did - the history of Malta. Not what I'd expected. Talk about the target of attack, this place has an invisible "hit me" target, although I can't find an actual painted target. Supposedly this was a 5D experience. It was 2D. But the theatre was large and at each place was a headset and controls. You could listen in any one of about 20 languages. I didn't count. Not surprisingly, I chose English. The Maltese must be the most resilient race in the world. Interesting but not a mind-blowing experience.

What followed, however, was the tour of the hospital established by the Knights. I enjoyed it and our excellent guide. It's on two levels, the upper of which, was for the rich and the lower for the poor. The "room" is 155 metres long, 10 metres wide and 11.5 metres high. This space was being prepared for a conference and the displays hid most of the features, other than the immense size. Each patient had not only his own bed, but his own washroom, and a curtain surrounded each bed for privacy. The colour of the curtain denoted what the person was suffering from. A glance at the scene told you the nature of the various 'ailments du jour.'

The poor would be treated on this level

Downstairs, in the poor section, between the niches housing the toilets, was a very large bed for four patients. As above, they usually used only one side of the room, but had the other side in case it was needed for more patients. Both of these wards treated only men. Women would seek help at convents. If they were very ill a doctor would be called. The nuns learned to almost be doctors by their hands-on experience. 

The hospital is now an event space and they were preparing for a conference when we were there. The setup in the poor section still allowed you to get an idea of the structure and setup. The upper level was full of display areas for merchants? companies? candy?

After having lunch at the cafe, I decided to walk back towards the main city gate via Merchant Street. It is parallel to the main Republic Street. What I had not bargained for was that this street, while home to many restaurants, is even steeper than the one parallel to it. How is this possible? 

Merchant Street - I started at the bottom

By this point, my painful feet were almost screaming, but I wandered to the Upper Barraka Gardens to enjoy a fabulous view over the Grand Harbour to the Three Cities. You can see the Gun Battery where a noon gun is fired daily.

Not a bad view 

I met with John and Glenn at the Triton fountain at 4 pm, and we went in search of our bus to Bugibba. The route ends at the bus terminal up the hill from our base. Luckily, returning 'home' is all downhill. Yay. We communicate by email when not all in the same place.

We caught the #48 bus, which takes a somewhat different route than the #45 which had been our transportation into Valletta. Was this designed to be snarled in the worst traffic? It took us 90 minutes to get back but had taken just under an hour to get to Valletta. There were lots of near-misses, in my opinion, but nobody on the insanely crowded bus seemed to notice. Except for the three of us and we were lucky enough to find seats. I saw no examples of courtesy to any standees who should have been the occupants of the courtesy seating.

The evening was spent icing my feet and dining in on whatever could be thrown together. I had a prepared meal that included couscous and some kind of vegetarian meatballs. The packaging was in Maltese. I managed to pick out the olives. Not being able to read the label (sorry for the rhyme) meant that I had bought food containing my least favoured (most hated) ingredient.

A slow day today - Friday. We have two sets of keys for three people who don't always travel together. I'm currently trapped in the condo as both sets have gone off in other directions. Without a key I can't use the elevator, but there are stairs. There is no way other than by mobile phone, to contact the others if you are out and they are in. There is no buzzer to open the outer door from within. But, I'm catching up with this post and apologize that it wasn't on time. I hope to take a bus to Mellieha just to have lunch. Why not?