Off To Malta

"I am tormented by an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas."...Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Malta is a tiny, rocky island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea about 1/5 of the way between Sicily and North Africa.  For thousands of years it has been a crossroads in Europe, and many civilizations have invaded it, defended it, conquered it and fought on it.  Now, these different civilizations vacation on it. It is less than 20 miles across at its widest, but nonetheless kings, emperors and potentates have desired it.  It is in a strategically good spot and it was thought he who had Malta could control the Mediterranean.  History here goes back over 7,000 years…there are some of the oldest structures in Europe on Malta, some predating the Great Pyramid of Egypt.  The people are a mixture of European and Arab, as is their language.  It is one of the most crowded countries in Europe, with 400,000 people, but there are areas of Malta (and the neighboring island of Gozo) that are big and empty.  The food is also a mixture of the many civilizations that have lived here.  Lots of seafood, as you can imagine.

Neither Amy or I have ever been here, so it seems a perfect place for us to explore.  There are not only the very ancient mysterious ruins but also beautiful old walled cities, hundreds of years old.  There are great, walled forts where, in 1565, 4,000 Knights of St. John held off 40,000 Turks of the Ottoman Empire during the four month “Great Siege of Malta”, when Suleiman the Magnificent wanted to conquer Europe by making Malta his stepping stone.  As we don’t speak Turkish, we all can guess how that ended.

Most tourists come here for the magnificent beaches and clear, warm water.  The diving and snorkeling is supposed to be some of the best in the Mediterranean.

Malta is not perfect…it gets quite hot in the summer and, because it was a British colony until 1965, they drive on the left.  Darned Brits.  But who cares?  That seems a small price to pay for being in such a unique and beautiful place.

We will also be traveling to Istanbul on the way to and from Malta, a city that neither of us has been to and that many of my world traveler friends say is their favorite in the world.

So as always, you are invited to come on along on our adventure, this time to the Mediterranean island of Malta, as Amy and I continue our world wide search for the beautiful, colorful, unique, different, bizarre, tasty and fun!