Home and Heart

Sunday the 15th… We walked through Birkikara to meet friends for lunch. We looked up the meaning of Birkikara – it translates as either cold water or running water in Maltese

On Tuesday we decided to photograph cultural remnants of the British colonization of Malta. The Brits colonized Malta in 1813 and Malta was a critical part of British power in the Mediterranean during WWII. The building with the scaffolding is the renovation of Villa Guardamangia, the home that Queen Elizabeth lived in with her husband Phillip before she became Queen. Phillip was an officer in the Royal Navy at the time and he was assigned to the British fleet based in Malta.

On Wednesday we discovered our new favorite coffee shop (It is really UP a hill. Much of Malta away from the coast is hills.) We took a picture of the floor because these are genuine Maltese tiles and over 100 years old. Note the cool decoupage of flyers and mural portraits.

Thursday we took a long walk on the Promenade toward St. Julian’s – the next town over.

Friday we went to the Lenten Concert of the Stella Maris Philharmonic. They played a wide variety from Wagner to Andrew Lloyd Weber to Paul Simon. We were charmed to see a young boy in the percussion section.

Saturday we toured St John’s co-Cathedral in Valletta. It is a treasure trove of baroque art including a very important Caravaggio of the beheading of John the Baptist. We then attended Spazju Kreattiv Cinema to see the Live from the Met – Tristan and Isolde. You may remember we went to Wuthering Heights last week and the cinema is in a 15th century fortress.

And now to the Opera

Here is the outside of the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema (Spazju means “space” and Kreattiv is just what it sounds like)

Today we made it all the way to St. Julian. We are struck by how many playgrounds we see – in a one mile stretch of the Promenade there are 4 playgrounds, each more attractive than the one before.

In closing…the week ended with these sights of smooth sailing. Interestingly we learned that the name of our town – Sliema – means “Peace”