Home and Heart

We returned from USA on June 28 and welcomed niece Christine, her husband Seth, 11 year old Joey (Josephine) and 10 year old Benno (Benjamin) on July 20. We packed a lot into 5 days.

Because of the heat wave the first stops were the beach, the National Aquarium, and a water park with sea water for everything.

Here Benno and Joey are looking at the natural salt pans on the limestone beach just outside our home.

We found a shady spot on the beach!

As you recall, we have a promenade along the beach just outside our door. This month there are about 15 enormous murals painted by various artists (using spray paint!). Here are our fovorites.

The next day we visited Valletta and saw, among other things, the Grandmaster’s Palace and the armoury of the Knights of St John.

Gozo is a “must see” for anyone visiting Malta! We stayed overnight in an air b&b in Ix-Xaghra (fun fact – in Maltese all “x” letters are pronounced like “sh”) and walked to the town square for dinner.

We enjoy seeing the over the top ornate baroque carvings and paintings in the churches here but the the real treat at this chrurch was seeing the dust being vacuumed off by a worker on a very high scaffold.

Contrast this with the 5600 year old Ggantija neolithic temples we visited the next day in Xaghra. We blogged about this a few months ago but it is well worth a second look.

At the end of the long day we took the ferry back to Valletta and had dinner on the waterfront during a festival.

Next stop (next day) – Mdina – the silent city. You’ve seen it in other blogs, but here are a few more images.

Last stop is Marsaxlokk – the quaint fishing village with GREAT seafood restaurants. We happened to be there during their Saint Day feast.

These brightly colored boats are called luzzus. They have eyes painted on the bow. The eyes are part of the traditional folklore for safety and good luck in fishing.

It was a fantastic 5 days!!

WHO IS NEXT?!!