Colorful Malta

Valletta, Malta greeted us with this colorful display of doors and windows.

We walked to the bus stop and hopped on a bus to take us to the town center for our transfer to get to Mdina.

Once there, we found the Church of St. Paul. Local lore has it that Paul ship wrecked on Malta and stayed here to teach the gospel to the people of the island.

Underneath the church is the grotto that Paul is believed to have stayed in while in Malta. The Pope even made a visit here at one time.

This is a monument to the first bishop in Malta ordained by Paul

This is believed to be the sacrament table that Paul implemented the sacrament on for the people of Malta.

There was a strange museum housed in the church that had many depictions of Paul while he was in Malta. There were also a lot of other works of Christian art and some shrines that were very interesting.

We headed to the catacombs underneath the church. The labyrinth of rooms and halls was fun to get lost in. There were arrows pointing the way out so you wouldn't get turned around. Here, Bruce is trying to get Lincoln to pretend to be dead. Pretty convincing, huh?

Outside of St. Paul's Church

Lincoln got to choose one toy to bring along on our excursions to help occupy him.

Old Town Mdina is a walled city. We meandered in and out of stores and buildings. The cathedral we walked into was very ornate. The floor mosaics were very detailed. The skeleton mosaic is only one example of a floor covered in pictures.

Everywhere we have travelled Bruce has been taking pictures of doors. This is definitely a great example of a Maltese door.

We found a fun playground for Lincoln to get a break from the backpack. Bruce and I picked up lunch and let Lincoln have his run of the slide. He was so happy to get the exercise.

These are the famous buses of Malta. Riding in one was quite an experience. We rode in one where we thought the transmission was just going to bottom out of the bus and another where we were concerned with the brakes, but hey, it works!

View of the streets of Valletta

Fort St. Elmo

We headed back to Valletta to catch some of the local interests there, but we were too late. I wanted to see the St. John's Co-Cathedral to see the works of Caravaggio in the museum, but it closed early on Saturday. The other museums were closed, so we headed to the Upper Barrakka Gardens and enjoyed the view and the atmosphere.

We left Malta with a Maltese cross, a mini bus to hang on the tree for my Christmas ornament, and an earring, necklace, and bracelet set so I could say that I left with some Maltese glass! In jewelry form it probably wouldn't break!

Allen sure did have fun in the kids program today!