Valletta in Malta

After a long time of not really going somewhere that feels new I am off for a week of holiday. The main things I was looking for when planning this trip is somewhere I have never been to before and somewhere warmer than Amsterdam.



After a train ride of a couple hour and a night in a German hotel it was onto a plane and on my way to Malta. Malta is somewhere I have wanted to see and can be added to the list of countries I have visited as well as being warm. It was really warm and I should have known this after being surprised to see how close it appeared to be to Africa. It is due east of Tunisia.

After arriving I spent the afternoon walking around the capital of Malta Valletta. Valletta is a walled city but that seems the norm for Malta with walls everywhere. This picture is from Sliema of Valletta.

Valletta was built by the Knights of St John after the Great Siege of 1565. The Knights of St John were driven out of Jerusalem and Rhodes before being given Malta by the king of Spain. They were the first to withstand a siege of the Ottoman empire. I think I have watched too many movies because for some reason when I think of knights I always think they are English. In visiting the church of St John in Valletta they have chapels to the different regions the knights came from and no English chapel at all. One for Italy, France, Germany and Spain/Portugal but no England. This is the only picture I took in St John's.

I also visited the Museum of Archaeology a couple of other churches and just enjoyed the views from the city walls. I used Valletta as my base for the first four nights in Valletta but it may have not been the best place to stay. Having a room where your window is next to a church bell tower and them ringing the bell ever hour starting at 5 AM is not the most plesant experinence.