Day 4: Port of Call... Valletta, MaltaI was up at 6:00 a.m. (still dark outside) to watch out the porthole as we sailed past the many smaller islands of Malta and into the harbor at Valletta!
It's so exciting... another day, another country, another adventure!
The sun was not yet up, as we saw activity begin to stir among the large ships and smaller fishing boats in the harbor.
When the sun rose over the hillside, it lit up the picturesque city covering the hills as we approached our dock.
There were truly "postcard-worthy landscapes" everywhere you looked!
Ruins of majestic buildings, medieval fortresses, and colorful modern buildings were crammed together in this Valletta cityscape.
Colorful, rusting, but still seaworthy ships were anchored throughout the harbor.
The city itself quickly rose a few hundred feet above the harbor.
At dockside were rows of colorful shop doors, windows, and kiosks to greet us Disney shoppers.Our Disney Magic was finally tied down in port about 7:30 a.m. and prep started to let the passengers go ashore.
Meanwhile, when Kathy got up about 7 a.m., we dressed but then waited a bit to go to breakfast at the Topsider restaurant... big mistake... it was already crowded! Still a great breakfast buffet selection, but crowded with dozens of excited, anxious passengers.
We met the rest of our tour group #15 in the Disney Theater at 9 a.m. and loaded on the bus going to the Blue Grotto and the Marsaxlox fishing village.
First stop was the seaside fishing village of Marsaxlox, with scores of colorful boats... (some not much larger than a bathtub)... and several small tent vendors along the dock sidewalk.(By the way... "marsa" means "port" and "xlox" means "northwest"... so, this is the northwest port village on Malta.)
The boat colors, relaxed atmosphere, and the ancient city buildings were amazing to see.
A gorgeous blue sky, perfect weather, and a warm sea breeze made this village picture-perfect... (now I must admit, the dead fish smell was obvious... but you get that at any real fishing port... and you get used to it).
Their harbor-side vendors were in little clusters and, for the most part, they didn't mind a little bargain-hunting and dickering over their merchandise prices as marked.
Kathy loved it! Most of the items for sale were good quality, much was locally made, and she could wheel-and-deal a little with the vendors!Souvenirs ranged from high-quality linens, paintings, and statuettes to Malta fridge magnets and postcards.
(It was also our first taste of how to purchase things with Euro bills... and then receiving Euro coinage as our change was a bit confusing.)
Kathy bought Pashmina scarves and embroidered linen napkins... and I, of course, bought a fridge magnet and collector pin for my hat.
A colorful Valletta fishing boat named the Leonardo Da Vinci.(I don't think it was really his though... it didn't look quite old enough.)
Here are a few of those mini, bathtub-sized fishing boats... not more than 6 feet long!I hope they use these just to get out to their "real life-size" boats somewhere out in the harbor.
This local fisherman was busy getting ready... (and none too friendly this morning to us passing tourists... as he scowled and looked away when we waved).
The basic red and white Maltese flag flies over a local government building.Their flag also incorporates the famous Maltese Cross on it (a historical tribute to the Maltese Knights of the medieval Crusades era... they were some pretty tough hombres from what I hear).
("No", we didn't find any black Maltese Falcon statues... like in the Humphrey Bogart movie.)
After 45 minutes walking and shopping around the fishing village of Marsaxlox, it was off on a bus ride to the famous Blue Grotto on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
Their soil is so brown, dry, and stone-filled... the local farmers clear and plant small fields anywhere they can... like this one (notice all the rocks still in the soil and around the edges).
This medieval, lookout signal tower sits high on a rocky hilltop overlooking the sea lanes. It has been restored somewhat and is still in use by their government.
Our bus wound high along the clifftop roads until we came to the overlook of...
the Blue Grotto! It was an amazingly gorgeous sight to see from hundreds of feet above it.
The sheer, rock cliffs above the Blue Grotto fell straight down to the Mediterranean here.
It was very windy up on the cliffs above the Grotto and as Kathy hopped off the bus, her sun hat started to fly off her head!As she grabbed her hat, her skirt blew up... (Marilyn Monroe-over-the-subway-vent-style)... giving a quick "show" to several others and causing her to hold tight to hat and skirt alike!
We quickly hiked down a very steep, 1/4-mile-long boat ramp to load into a small, 8-person motorboat, just like the one above.Once loaded in, with life jackets on, we headed out into the choppy waves and around the rock outcropping to the Grotto.
Large caves along the waterline (called grottoes), sheer rock walls, and weathered stone archways were all carved out by the sea's wave action in this area.
Going inside the largest grotto here, the Blue Grotto, you see a hint of the "blue" in the water.The "blue" is very evident when you reach over the side of the boat and stir up the warm, salty cave water with your hand. This causes phosphorescent particles in the cave's water to somewhat "glow" a bright sapphire-blue color all around your submerged hand!
There are also blue-black stalactites that hang menacingly from the high, arched grotto ceilings.
Grottoes were all along here, with many being too small for our boat to enter and exit safely.The boat ride took about 30 minutes and was awesome.
We regrouped near the tour bus, high on top of the extremely long, steep hill. They then arranged for a local "snack" for us in the "Blue Fin"... a pub on the hilltop.
This "snack" consisted of:
- a small, very bitter cola-based drink of some sort,
- a very hard sandwich bread with some kind of meat-spread on it,
- and some type of refried, mashed beans.
Sorry to say, but... it was not very tasty at all!
(No one I saw could eat or drink all of their "snack". We appreciated their gesture, but... !)
We did sit and talk with Michele, a fellow Disney Magic passenger from Adelaide, Australia and one of her young daughters, Amelia. They couldn't handle eating the snack either.
(This surprised me since they are probably used to eating things like Koalas, Kangaroos, and Crocodiles anyway...
Hey... wait, wait... I'm joking, I'm joking !!!)
The half-hour bus ride cross country got us back to port by 2 p.m.Here you can see the bright red stacks of our Disney ship rising high above the surrounding neighborhoods.
A full-size fuel truck is dwarfed by the Magic as it sits at dock awaiting our return.
Since we had some time, we shopped along the wharf at the colorfully painted shops and bought some toy soldiers for our grandsons and some postcards.
We then stopped for a local beer (Cisk) for me and a peach iced tea for Kathy.We also ordered an appetizer... (a forcaccia, I think)... with cheese, tomatoes, and basil on it. When it came, it was as big as a medium pizza!
We ate at this open-air cafe (the Tal-Kaptan) and the food was very good. However, the waitress was not! She was very slow, aloof, and had no personality toward her customers (except maybe a rotten one).I even had to go inside to find her, just so I could pay our 11 Euro food bill!
Needless to say, she got no tip from us.
We shopped a bit more and then headed back to the boat.
Along the way, we saw a submarine and crew docking nearby.I didn't recognize the flag, so I looked it up and... it might be The Netherlands!
(Luxembourg also has a similar flag, but... I don't think they have much need for a navy.)
Boarding our own ship, I was stopped and had to show my picture ID (...but Kathy didn't)!
(I must look like some kind of terrorist with this scruffy goatee of mine.)
Finally allowed back on the ship, we were soon waylaid by the dasterdly Captain Hook.
Then just minutes later, I was cornered by a goofy dog named Pluto up on deck.(Really, who looks sillier... him or me?)
We took one last look at Valletta, Malta's amazing, old buildings before we left port and set sail.Kathy was worn out from our shore excursions and went to the room for a nap. Meanwhile, I went up on deck to sit in the sun and catch up on my vacation journal notes.
A local harbor cruise ship sails by and admires the sheer size of the Disney Magic.I returned to the room about 5:30 p.m.and Kathy was dead-to-the-world.
I woke her long enough to ask if she wanted to go see the magician show in the Disney Theater at 6:00. She just groaned, shook her head, and rolled over to sleep some more.
"Okay", I said... so I laid down for a little nap, too.
I figured she was so tired that she wouldn't even want to go to dinner at 8:30 tonight... well, I was wrong again!
She woke up about 8:00 p.m. and said, "Hey, we've got to get ready and go for dinner!"
So, off we scrambled through our showers, getting dressed, and racing to the Parrot Cay restaurant to eat!
It was a good thing we went to dinner, because Ron and Nita (the Britishers) were the only other ones to show up at our reserved table #35. (One couple was dining at Palo, the fancy ship restaurant for adults only... and the other couple was AWOL for the evening).
Parrot Cay restaurant has a tropical island atmosphere, decor, and dinner menus.
Two colorful and energetic flamenco dancer girls came out and danced a couple of exciting flamenco routines. They were soon followed by Minnie Mouse, who joined them for a long Conga dance around the room!
It was a great dinner with lots of talking and laughing with Ron and Nita.
We said goodnight and were back in our room by 10:30 p.m.
Tonight it was Stitch (from Lilo & Stitch) who welcomed us back to our stateroom!We've set sail for a long night of travel... and tomorrow morning, we will be in the port of Tunisia... in North Africa!
Wow, what a trip this is!
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