Monday and Tuesday

Whichever page of the blog opens, you can start at the beginning using the list (right)

Monday and Tuesday

One thing all these pictures show (they are more or less in date/time order) is the way the weather and the light changed over the days.

So Monday was a bit grey at the start.
You can see someone has a roof garden, across from our window. They didn't have to water today!


Looking down, we could see the red letter box near the middle of the steep street - note the handrails along the stepped pavement.

But before we left our room, the sun was struggling to appear, so we were full of hope.

The first place we went was to the Tourist Information office where this picture hung behind the enquiries desk.

We got more maps, and some directions.

When I first spotted this green item (remember green is my favourite colour and usually catches my eye), I thought it was an old-fashioned gents urinal, like we used to have in Dublin when I was a child. However, further examination showed it was merely some kind of kiosk, not yet open for business!

One of the most spectacular buildings we visited throughout our trip was to the Co-cathedral of St John. No picture can adequately portray the shock of seeing so much gold-leaf all in the one place.
The audio guides were excellent - only for them we might have been mesmerized.
This building belonged to the Knights of St John, and many of them are buried here.

The style of the art is mostly baroque - not usually my favourite style. However, in the end, I was duly impressed.
Of course, my 'poverty script' was inclined to balk at such extravagance - but then I reckoned: Gold is a symbol for love - and a building so full of LOVE has to be a great image of being surrounded by God's love.

There was even a Dominican, St Vincent Ferrer, shown on one of the altars.






And of course, there was lovely metalwork to impress me also.



That evening, we had dinner in a tiny restaurant, La Scallini, near our hotel. I loved this picture of Dominicans and Franciscans celebrating together.



On Tuesday, as we wandered around, I became more and more aware of the wide variety of door-knockers and handles, nearly everywhere we went.


This sign was around the corner from the little shop we found where we stocked up on biscuits and crisps - to keep us going, don't you know.




Somewhere along the way, we heard that there used to be a law against gardens (to save water) but people still grew plants up the fronts of buildings. (left) is an example of the plaques we spotted beside the house-number of many ordinary houses.

Different views of a ditch, this time from the Hastings Garden, quite close to where we were staying.


You can get an idea of how thick the walls were from this image.




A Rubber tree in Hastings Gardens - you can see the aerial roots coming down from the branches to the ground.



A view over the city - yes it looks like rain again, but we just kept going.




Interestingly, their fountain is shut off too, though their climate should have some water to spare in winter.

Memorial tribute for Malta's hospitality to refugees during wars.







A nice bit of wood-carving.






It was quite a surprise to find this lovely flower in full bloom as it looked very summery.

It was only when I got home that I found it is called Tacoma stans or Gold Star Esperanza.

From the sublime to the ridiculous - this is just some kind of a little 'wild flowere' (in other words, it will be called a 'weed' if no one wants it there!)




Another somewhat weed-like white flower, though at least a bit bigger.





This is more like a flower - think it is a hibiscus, and later we did see plenty of these






in a variety of lovely colours too and various sizes.








I haven't found the name of this one yet, but there was plenty of it growing in Hastings Gardens, and elsewhere.




Another memorial to those killed in wars. Malta was invaded even more than Ireland was.







Osteospermum and narcissi reminded us of our gardens at home. (Though we have soil that doesn't look as bad as this!)


Yet another memorial. This chap is staring out to sea, towards the little watchtower (right)

Maybe this was his garden.








More ditches,
More grey skies, but still it hasn't rained.







The last thing we saw in Hastings was this memorial to Vaclav Havel

And the one little purple flower below.

More Door-knockers.








It was interesting to try and figure out which door belonged to which apartment/office in this building at the top of South Street where our hotel was.





Osborne Hotel with the Swiss Cheese-plant outside






Signs in an auctioneers window to give an idea of property prices.
We realized that there's not a lot of difference, other than public transport which is very cheap.


Liked this sign in the entrance to a restaurant.

Nice small and light platform used for decorating, not like the heavy versions seen at home.




It took us quite a while to find our way to the MALTA EXPERIENCE - but it was well worth it in the end.
First we watch a video that gave us an idea of the history of the country - at least a vague notion.

Then we visited what had been the hospital run by the Knights of Malta - which is why they were founded. Political involvement came much later.
This image shows about half of the 'ward', there is as much again behind that red curtain you can see at the end of this section.


The second half ....



original floor from 1680's





Not sure if this is an original suit of knight's armour -
But like the metal-work over the stairs!



Underneath that big ward we had just seen, we went down to the crypt which is where poor people were looked after.
Even though they didn't have quite as much room as the gentry above them, their conditions were surprisingly good for those time.

By the time we surfaced, the grey clouds had gone, and it turned out quite a nice evening.






We weren't far from the Lower Baracca Gardens, so we went to have a look

There was a memorial there for those who died in the Siege of Malta in WW2.


The recumbent figure (mentioned right) took a while to find, though it was huge. But the picture I took isn't worth looking at.
A wiki image is here







Children's playground

Place to park bikes, in Lower Baracca



Lovely reflective pond








and what was reflected.









Hibiscus and blue flower






Apparently, 'Baracca' (or Barakka) has to do with the Maltese word for 'arches', though Google suggests other meanings including 'shack' barracks,







That lovely nameless flower again!





... and a statue of ENEA



We reckoned this might be a date palm.











Getting near sunset - time to make for the hotel.

On our way, we passed 'Dominic Street' and of course I had to explore.

Sure enough, there was a church there, dedicated to St Dominic.



with Statues of the saint both outside the church, and in a glass case on the corner of the street.

But the church seemed closed.


Security device on window with flowers

More plants on the wall.




Unknown saint on street corner.






Seems like boys get to dress up as much as girls for First Communion in Malta.