After last year's pleasant gettaways to the Dubrovnik Riviera and groovy San Francisco...my mom and I were looking forward to yet another little mother-daughter vacation. And this time we let our eye drop on this tiny little island south of Italy: Malta.
Forum hotel - St Andrews
Tania by day....
Spinola Bay - St Julians
Valetta: city of the knights
...and by night :)
Daytripping to Sicily...Mount Etna
Prehistoric temple on Gozo
Azur Window... Gozo
In search of the knights...on Malta
end of August 2001
Already while approaching the runway to touch down on the island's little airport, it already became clear that this is not your regular Mediterrannean vacation paradize. From the air the island is one big spot of illumination, completely urban and drowning in city lights...

Not really aware of Malta's extreme catholicism, a pleasant surprise awaited us. In August every town has the celebrations and festivals of their patron Saints, and it was no different the Saturday night of our arrival...quite a strange sensation to see the numerous fireworks and hear the canon blasts underneath us, out of the aircraft
We staid in a little place called Saint Andrews, right next to the mundaine resort towns of Saint Julians and Sliema...where the nearby bars, discos and shopping complexes catered for plenty of entertainment

However, apart from the sunshine, the main reason why we came to Malta was to scope out the remains of the island's great history and get our fair share of sightseeing. It soon turned out that our 5 days vacation would be much too short to see it all, so we had to make a tough selection. After a bit of tossing and guessing, we planned on discovering the city of the knights: Valetta, some shopping in Sliema, Matla's sisterisland Gozo, the silent city of Mdina and a day trip to nearby Sicily... In other words a pretty packed schedule again that left little time for tanning and relaxing
After an extensive breakfast, we tried to figure out the island's dense oldtimer-bus network to make our way to the capital city: Valetta, where we explored the local junk market and had a closer look to the bastions of the knights, among which Fort Saint Elmo...where some guys dressed of like the knights of St John's, contributed to the medieval atmosphere.
Since this was only our 1st day, we returned early to the hotel to enjoy the sun and take a splash in the invitingly warm giant pool...

And returned the next day to fully explore Malta's capital city. This time we really walked our way all over the uphill downhill little cobbled streets, despite the shimmering mediterrannean Summer heat: Republic Street, the Menhara Gardens, the Harbour...in other words the whole lot, to close off perfectly with a giant pizza on the square near the presidential palace
Malta is only about 100 km's away from Sicily's south coast, which sounded to me like a sine qua non - reason to go and have a look to at this infamous island of the mob! Despite the early hour and the long journey, it turned out to be a great bet. It was only 4 weeks ago since Mount Etna's latest grand erruptions and the site had only just reopened for tourists. What awated us was quite spectacular: what had only few weeks ago been a parking lot for tourist busses was now transformed into a giant black field of still smoldering lava and ashes!
What a strange sensation to still feel the luke warm stones and see some coming out of the little holes in the soil... Made me once again aware of the beautiful desctructive powers of Mother Earthh.
The trip ended in one of Sicily's picturesque costal resorts named Taormina; a charming little town on the hills, where we tried the famous Italian gelatti and shot out the reamins of my roll of film.
The next day we took it pretty easy with a morning of shopping in stylish Sliema and another lazy afternoon by the hotel pool. Because the day after we would have to get up early agin to visit Malta's small sister island: Gozo.


Our first stop where the prehistoric temples...but seen the old age, what remains looks more like a heap of stones than a Flintstone monument. However, there still is a magical feel to it, like any moment a druide can appear out of nowhere.....
After lunch, we carried on towards the so-called Azur window. A nice cut-out in the rocks caused by the roughness of the sea. In order to see it all from up close, we took a pretty spectacular boat trip through the natural grottos and underneath this arch. I had never thought the sea would be so rough over here, especially since it looked rather wind still. But no way; the wild waves made me shout ooohhh and aaahhhh more than once!
harbour of Gozo
On our last full day on Malta, we took the bus to the silent city of Mdina, the former capital of Malta. The city is situated on a hill right in the middle of the island, what makes for wonderful views!

And Mdina indeed is a silent city: not crowded by tourists at all and so quiet you can hear a pin drop!
And so our little trip came to its end much too soon again.
After a last morning of tanning and swimming it was time again to catch the plane direction Belgiumm....
Citadel of Mdina