Tuesday, April 28

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
This morning we reached the port of Valletta, Malta. It's a rather tiny island with 83,000 inhabitants. They speak Maltese and English and used to be a British territory until 1964 so they drive on the left side of the road. This makes crossing the streets a little tricky. The port is so beautiful as you enter the coast with the morning sun shining on it is so bright as all the buildings are limestone and it just seems to glow. It reminds me of pictures I have seen of Turkey and Greece. We got here around 8 a.m. and Chip and I grabbed a breakfast at the Garden Café and met Ivan and Denise up there on Deck 12. Our deck is nine. As soon as we finished breakfast, we got our belongings from the rooms and headed to the gang plank on deck 4.
The town was just right there at the port so it made it easy to walk. I saw easy but maybe not so easy for the average cruise passenger. The town was above the port and it is surrounded by old fort walls. So we had to walk uphill for a couple of streets to reach the town center. The main street is Republic St. and stretched one mile from one end of Valletta to the other end at the Fort. We walked down Republic St. and did a bit of shopping and checked out some of the cathedrals and the Upper and Lower Barraka Gardens. We stopped around noon to have lunch at a local restaurant and asked the waitress what the local specialties were. Her opinion was that the rabbit was the best thing on the menu, however that didn't appeal to any of us. Ivan ordered the octopus pasta, which actually looked very good to me since it had lots of olives. I just don't like rubbery or chewy food. Denise had the lasagna and said it was better than the lasagna we had the other day. Chip got chicken crepes which had a spicy cabbage and chicken mixture. I got ravioli with a gorgonzola sauce. We also had to try some local Maltese beer called Cisk. It was a little skunky but still pretty good.
We got back to the ship by about 2:30 so we put our swimsuits on and headed for the pool. Today, by the way was very sunny and a bit windy. The air was about 65 degrees so in the shade it was cool with the wind, but in the sun it was quite warm. On the ship you are protected a bit by the wind because of the glass surrounding the pool deck. But each time the sun went behind a cloud, which was only once in a while, I was getting cold. So I decided to go sit in the hot tub and soak my legs. I haven't put my whole body in, it's just too hot. Well that felt so good I sat there talking to another couple, Chip bought a bucket of beers and before you know it a whole hour had gone by and my legs were probably over done. So I got out and we came back to the room after a while. I did get a bit too much sun on my face and the tops of my thighs. But at least I'm getting some sun. That's what's missing from this cruise compared to all our other cruises. We usually spend some time on a beach or by the pool every day of most cruises.
We are going to have dinner in the Grand Pacific Dining room again with Denise and Ivan and then possibly see the show tonight in the Stardust Lounge. I'm really having fun, but I can honestly tell that it's getting near the last few days of the vacation when I'm looking forward to lying down at night. (Or is that just a sign I'm getting old????)