Cruise Day 3: Malta

With some advice from the art gallery director we woke up early and went up to the top deck to see the city of Valletta on Malta as the ship pulled into port around 7 am as the sun came up. It was absolutely gorgeous, check it out:
We were one of the first off the boat that day, along with the folks we met from Florida, and a couple from Tacoma- Kenny and Alice. To get to anything of interest in Valletta you have to immediately walk up a huge hill. Even at 8 in the morning, it was so hot there that we were all sweaty and gross by the time we got to the top.
We wandered around a bit, and then went to St John’s Co-Cathedral. This is a baroque style cathedral which was absolutely beautiful. None of my pictures do it justice, which is unfortunate.

After that Blake and I hopped on a bus across the island (about 45 minutes) to go see the Blue Grotto. It was nice to dip our feet in the sparkling blue water- we wish we had had more time and had brought our swimsuits, the water was perfect!

At first we couldn’t find the grotto but then we hopped don a boat tour which took us through it and in and around some other caves. The tour itself was terrible, the guide would pull into a cave, say its name, something like “mirror cave” or “death cave” or “bacon cave” and then quickly drive off to another one with no other explanations. But it was nice to be out on the water on such a hot day. Here is the actual Blue Grotto:

It was a short day at port (we arrived around 8 and had to be back on the boat by 2:30) so we had to make sure we caught a bus back to Valletta so we didn’t get stuck on Malta, which meant running up a huge hill in the middle of the day in almost 100 degree heat, and then sitting on a non-air conditioned bus for 45 minutes and then running back down the hill to get to the ship. We were pretty gross by the end of the day.

We did have time to buy a couple of bottles of Maltese wine, however. One bottle was going to be a gift (more on that later), and the ship claims you are not allowed to bring alcohol on board, so when we got back on the boat, Blake clearly said to the security people, “hey, I have 2 bottles of wine.” They are supposed to keep it and then we can pick it up at the end of the cruise. But they just ignored him, and so we just walked on with wine at almost every port (except the second to last one, but we had already smuggled on several bottles by this point, so it didn’t matter.).

Oh- I almost forgot. All the locals there totally looked like Heidi Walters (who is Maltese, so it makes sense)! I wish I had gotten a picture but I have found random strangers don’t like it when silly American girls take their picture for no apparent reason. Oh well.