Malta and Gozo

This is Malta . When I first visited  in the 70's I seem to have totally missed the beauty of this gorgeous island. The disappointment lay in there being nothing Maltese. Malta had been ruled by Britain until 1964 and seemed to have lost its identity. Shops were full of UK products.  Maltese cusine was not to be found. There was steak and chips and tea like mom makes. It wasnt for me!




One area, at the time  looked interesting. Sighted from the obligatory boat trip of the harbour, our tour guide told us that this was the slums. The buildings were ancient, there was washing hanging from one top floor window and straddling narrow cobbled streets to another on the other side- no tourists go there he said

. I thought it looked great it was the  best of Malta back then. This is how it looks now.

In the early evening as the sun goes down the buildings on the bay are transformed and have a pink hue. Older women in bathing hats swim while the men fish . This is in the area of the '3 cities'  and this is where I stayed . With are no hotels  accomodation is very poor but you get to breath the air of  Senglea, Cospicua and Vittoriosa.

From the ramparts you see sights like this


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I flew Emirates direct fron Singapore and needed some comfort on arrival so I  stayed at the lovely Juliani hotel in St Julians on my first night there , this was the view from my balcony