island life.....

chris, claire and maz enjoying
maz' birthday indian dinner!

there's something about being from an island maybe that's why we've ended up on so many since we left South Africa at the end of February!

as anyone who has been following our travels around this amazing world will no doubt agree many things have changed in what were our normal daily lives, we have had the opportunity of visiting some wonderful places over the last nine months and a theme that seems to feature quite highly is the fact that most of these adventures take place on islands.

during this last month that theme has continued as we spent two weeks in the Mediterranean archipelago known as Malta, as you will read later Malta is made up of five islands, three of which are inhabited and we were able to add those to the list of other islands, some big and some very small that we have spent time on during this amazing year.

mr and mrs Zammit at the
church of st francis

before we go on here's the current list of islands that we have visited in 2015, The Florida Keys (over 1000 islands make up this outstanding 120 mile spit of land that extends off of the United States into the Gulf of Mexico), however we only stayed on two so will only claim those, Marathon and Islamorada, we spent time in Grenada and the smaller Sandy Island (of off Grenada), we also visited Barbados and on returning to England then ventured to both the Eire and Northern Ireland (part of the island of Ireland), being based in England which is part of Great Britain and the British Isles, Wales, ditto, Caldey Island (off of Wales) and now Malta, Gozo and Comino. 

It's also no surprise that we will adding to this list before the year end as we are attending a retreat on the island of Iona, which sits off the larger island of Mull and that is part of Scotland which is also part of the British Isles! 

silent streets of Mdina

the list of ferries and boats that we have been on is also quite extensive but we won't go there now.

anyways after spending a few days with our eldest son Chris and his family, where we were able to celebrate both his and Maz' birthdays, we took the three hour flight from Bristol to Malta. 

we were greeted at the airport by Katrin and her daughter Ciara, who we had got to know in South Africa as Kat had volunteered with us at the Village of Hope. we were going to be staying with Kat and her husband Matt in their beautiful home Qormi, in the middle of this quite small island.

maz looking over the grand harbour
towards Valletta

the day we arrived we were greeted with a tremendous thunderstorm, which almost put the island out of action the next morning but once that cleared we enjoyed sunny and warm days which made a change for us after the dreary English summer we had endured.

our knowledge of the island was very limited so we were keen to explore, making use of the week long public transport bus tickets we had procured at the airport and by the end of our stay we were experts on the bus numbers and routes they took, we also enjoyed the air-conditioning that was found in all but a few of these modern vehicles.

Kat and Maz at the temples

Malta sits in the top five most densely populated countries in the world, following the small principality of Monaco who are miles ahead of the rest, with Singapore and Bahrain sitting second and third in the list. with the volume of people, and cars, it's a testament to the country that their public transport system works so efficiently.

whilst being densely populated there are wonderful opportunities to get a way from it all, with the stunning 'Silent city' of Mdina holding it's dominant position high up in the middle of the island. this walled city, with it's tiny streets and no traffic was a 'must visit' for any tourist (of which we must claim ourselves as such!). the tiny natural harbours and even the capital Valletta which sits above the Grand Harbour can be places of peace. 

in fact we found such a place of peace in the church of Saint Francis, where we attended a lunchtime concert given by Silvio Zammit and his wife who performed some beautiful pieces on their flute and grand piano respectively.

Maz snorkeling in a natural harbour

Valletta was full of British history too, old red phone and post boxes adhorned the narrow streets, and we were interested to read of the St George Cross that was awarded to the people's of Malta who endured a three year siege during the second world war.

Kat was also keen to show us some sights, and seeing that little Ciara had just started school and their son was able to attend a local pre-school during the day, we visited what are some of the oldest temple remains in the world, Hagar Qim (much of the Maltese language is quite similar to Arabic due to the Muslim heritage of the island) was built over five thousand years ago, predating and thus older than Stonehenge or the pyramids by over 1000 years!

mass crowds at an outdoor mass

religion plays a huge part of island life with saints, Christs' and Mother Mary statues adorning squares, buildings and even homes at every turn. in the small square where Matt and Kat live there is a large statue of Lady Madonna and it was quite a surprise to return home one evening to find the tiny street overwhelmed with people, including a priest who was sharing Mass with those who had joined him under the stars to pay their respects to the Mother of Jesus.

chevron B16

there is so much history on this island with the local sandstone making for beautiful buildings, apparently there are 365 churches on Malta, many of them host stunning works of art, golden statues and are complete with domes with fresco's depicting biblical stories.

orginal mini cooper

on the second Thursday of our visit we (Tim was anyway) was keen to visit the city of Mellieha where we'd found out that the Mdina Grand Prix was taking place, and after spending a day on the local beach we made our way up the hill towards this imposing city to watch the hill climb. the local road was closed and after a short time waiting for the whole event to start we were greeted by the sights and sounds of classic European cars, many venturing all the way from England to take part in the event. little Austin Mini Coopers, original Fiat 500's were joined by a Chevron B16 and 'C' type Jaguars which graced the Le Mans 24 Hour race in a bygone age.

a fort on Gozo

after spending a week on Malta we had booked an apartment for four nights on the second of the Maltese islands of Gozo, once again we took public transport from Valletta to catch the ferry across the short sea between the two islands, as we traveled we passed the Comino and it's Blue Lagoon, but more of that later. Gozo is much quieter and also greener than Malta, the quietness could be attributed to the lack of deep harbours around the island which prevents cruise-liners from docking.

view from Comino to Gozo

Gozo was truly delightful, friendly people, lack of tourists and a real feel of welcome. the sights were amazing too, we ventured on a bus around the island to enjoy the Citadel in Victoria, the Azure window, which was stunning given the spectacular seas that were encouraged by another thunderstorm we had endured the night before. 

Gozo, like Malta, has coastal fortifications protecting the lower lying beaches, however much of the coastline is made up of huge cliffs descending hundreds of feet straight into the Mediterranean sea. we were also amazed at the hand cut salt pans where local people still produce the Mediterranean sea salt that we enjoy on our dinner tables.

Maz enjoying the blue lagoon

on our last day we took a small ferry to visit the smallest of the inhabited islands, Comino, to take a swim in the Blue Lagoon, once again the island didn't disappoint and although we're sure the feel would be different during the summer days were up to 6000 people visit to enjoy the aqua blue waters that offer snorkelers the chance to swim in some of the clearest water in the world. the day we visited was very quite and as always Maz was in her element, donning her snorkel and mask and spending literally hours face down enjoying the underwater world.

the blue lagoon didn't disappoint

after spending one further night with Matt and Kat we made our sad way back to the airport and the cold and wet weather that was to greet us as we arrived back in England. 

there is so much more to tell about these wonderful islands but time is limited but we feel truly blessed to have been given the chance to visit this wonderful archipelago. we are grateful to Matt and Kat for their hospitality and the people of Malta who made us feel very welcome. we will be back! 

we have updated our reading list, which sits at the right hand pane, and due to a request will be writing a post about the highlights, and lowlights, of the books we have read during our year very soon!