Malta

The second port was Malta.  Because of Jared's responsibilities with both payroll and the celebration event, there was a lot of work that had to be done for much of the morning and afternoon, so we didn't get out to Malta until almost 4.  After meandering about near the port, we finally hailed a taxi who got us going the right way.

We walked around the city with Jim and Mel and learned a little bit about Malta, which none of us really had much knowledge of prior to the trip.

Since it was at one point colonized by the British, they drove on the left and had British-style phone booths!

 

Because of its proximity to Italy and the northern African coast, it was right in the line of fire during World War 2, so many things had been built since the 1950's, including a large cathedral that we visited.

We relied again on Jim and TripAdvisor for our dinner plans and found ourselves eating in a nice restaurant that served Malta-style meals. We were later joined by the Hillsteads, Winns (Trevor and Leslie), and Carliles, and the Lenzes, who also relied on TripAdvisor!  The highlights of the evening were our delicious appetizers and the rabbit.  Jim had to order the rabbit after bursting out in Elmer Fudd's Loony-Tunes inspired song, "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!"

Because we got to stay in Malta into the evening, we got to walk around with the lights coming on. There was a large tower with elevators built to get back to sea level, but we decided we wanted to take the stairs.