Our last port of call - Malta

The last port is Valletta Malta , which is on a small island in the Mediterranean between Sicily Italy and north Africa.
The city is surrounded by rock fortifications and has 7000 years of defending itself. The Germans bombarded this island during the Second World war and the people nearly starved until they were helped by the British. In the early days it was the Knights of St John who left their biggest mark with their hospital work and their Christian principals.
The city is full of beautiful churches and beautiful statues with so much history of these great knights.
We were to dock at 11am and most of the ship was on the outer decks or in the window seats by 10 to watch the sail in to this most beautiful of the ports. No where in the world is a harbour so picturesque and so architechurally imposing as here. We left the ship and walked to a taxi stand where we shared the taxi with a British couple to ride up the hill to the center of the town. We walked through the city gates to see hordes of people filling the car less streets. Another ship was in port and so Valletta was alive. We went in to many little shops and looked at things that were too expensive and too poor quality but some friends from the ship bought some wonderful Maltese silver, and the famous Maltese cross in form of linen work or jewelery. We found the morning outdoor market and did buy a table cloth for our selves, and then walked up and down a lot of little narrow streets that are made up of stone steps only about 3 inches high that go up and up and up.
We stopped for lunch at the famous Café Cordina and then to their gelata shop for the best ice cream ever.
We finally found our way to St John’s Co- Cathedral which was built in 1573, and where every inch of the inside is covered in ornate decorations in gold amongst huge paintings. The floors are covered with gravestones of marble chiseled with writing and intricate motifs. Each of these gravestones marks where a knight was buried. We then went to the oratory which was all Caravaggio’s painting, history and stories of his life. The one end wall behind the alter is Caravaggio’s famous painting “The beheading of John the Baptist.” It is truly magnificent to see it in person. Of course you could take no pictures again.

We did a bit more walking and then decided to head back to the ship early. We had seen enough history over the last week to last a long time and now time to turn out thoughts to going home. We wanted to start packing and trying to figure how to pack the things we had bought . We bought another carry on bag in Malta to help but we still only had so many hands to carry the bags. We were not alone in this as everyone was struggling with packing the things they had bought. I have not seen anyone thrown off the plane yet for a bit too much carry on, but this could be the first time