In the Med; Malta

So our first four day trip of 2014 landed us in Malta.  Malta is mostly a warmer weather destination and we missed out on some of the hi-lights because of the wind, but it was good for us since it was considerably warmer than Italy and very empty given the off season. The first two things we noticed where what looked like the remains of an old temple but it was actually and underground granary, and the colored wooden balconies on the limestone buildings. After getting settled we explored St. Julian' Bay.

Underground carved limestone granaries in Valletta.

Wooden Balconies on the Limestone buildings.

The first thing we did was explore Sliema, St. Julians, and Paceville.  These are all small coastal towns just north of Valletta (the capital).  We enjoyed a lovely evening stroll down the water front, sampled some local wine, beer, and food.

Cathedral of Our Land of Mount Carmel. 

Spinola Bay near St Julian's Bay.

St. Julian's Bay at Dusk.

St Elmo Fortress on Valletta at dusk.

St. Elmo Fortress on Valletta at dusk across St. Elmo Bay.

Saturday we headed north - we had planned on going to the Blue Lagoon on Comino but unfortunately the weather was not on our side.  Strong winds prevented boats from travelling there - so instead we explored Gozo, the second largest island of the Maltese Archipelagos.  Here we were able to see Azure window.  This was one of those moments we were lucky to be visiting in the off season as we had the landscape nearly to ourselves.

Cathedral on Gozo on the hill.

Nadur Church on Gozo

Azure Window on Gozo.

Azure Window.

Back on Malta we headed to the three cities - namely Vittoriosa (Birgu).  This is the center city across from Valletta to the south.  As with almost all of the cities - at least all those we saw - this is mainly a fort.  The tip of Vittoriosa is Fort St. Angelo.  We then took a short walk along the water front admiring Senglea (Isla) from across the water.  Much of Senglea is under construction, we took a ferry back to Valletta and explored the streets  - this turned out to be one of my favorite parts of Malta and we spent the better part of the afternoon and evening on Sunday doing the same thing - enjoying the local flavors of foods and drinks while people watching.

Fountain outside the Gates to Valletta.

Porte de Bombes in Floriana.

St. Angelo Fortress.

St. Angelo on Isla across the Grand Harbor from Valletta.

View from Senglea of Valletta.

Entrance to the Malta Grand Harbor.

Sunday morning we made our way out to the Blue Grotto except that what we thought was the grotto wasn't and we missed the whole thing.  This was also in part to the fact that again boats were not running to the cave.  We did have a pleasant hike along the rocks/cliff looking at a very blue and narrow inlet.

Then we took a nice invigorating hike up the road to the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples.  These are the oldest free standing stone structures in the world - they predate the pyramids by more than 500 years. They are also in remarkably good shape.

Hagar Qim temples with limestone carved door entrances.

Inside the Oldest free standing temples in the world, yeah that's right older than the pyramids.

Although very rainy and overcast we were also able to see the island of Filfla. This island was used for target practice by the British but today is off limits.  Also perched on the cliff side near the temples is one of thirteen different towers built as watchtowers around the island.  During our travels I estimated we saw more than half of these. Then we headed to Mdina for lunch.  Mdina is yet another walled city.  We wandered the streets, walked on the walls and had a nice small lunch at the Fontanella Tea Room before we headed back to Valletta for the afternoon.

One of the 13 watch towers around the island built by the Knights to alert for the Ottomans.

In Valletta we found the Lacarias War Rooms which is a four room museum with an excellent guided tour.  The tour walks you through WWII in Malta.  For such a small archipelago it played a huge role and also paid a price for its critical location - just 60 miles off the coast of Sicily.  Each of the four rooms represents the operations of WWII from 1941 to 1944 - as time progressed Malta became more and more important and the operations became more and more advanced.  General Eisenhower used these rooms for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, after which Normandy was modeled, was planned and executed from these war rooms while Valletta was bombed on a daily basis. In fact these war rooms remained in operation until 1979.  After all the history we headed for a local bar for some wine and beer, then we wandered the streets of both Valletta and Floriana until it was time for dinner which we enjoyed on the waterfront.

Lascaris War Rooms under the great moat in Valletta.

Map of Sicily that GEN Eisenhower used to keep track of Operation Husky.

Monday morning we went back into Valletta to tour St. John's Cathedral.  The Cathedral is remarkable, nearly every inch covered with intricate golden decor.  We also saw numerous paintings by Carvaggio including the most famous Beheading of St. John the Baptist.  We also saw the monstrance intended to hold  St. John's arm. 

Knights of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta Cross, aka Maltese Cross.

St John's Knights Cathedral.

Finally we headed to the Hypogeum.  This is an underground necropolis dating from between 3600 and 3000 B.C.  One of the most remarkable rooms was the Holy of Holies.  It was carved from the living rock, but designed to look like a built structure giving the illusion that you are standing inside a megalithic building like the temples built above ground.Then our final stop of the trip was at the Tarxien temples.  Though interesting these unfortunately were a little disappointing after Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples,  this is mainly due to the fact that "restorations" were attempted with concrete shortly after they were discovered.  The concrete has caused more damage to the structures and it hides the true historic layouts.

Paola Church.

We have decided that we want to make our way back to Malta but then again there are very few places we don't want to make our way back to... only time will tell.

A night in an Igloo

Ok well, I made a promise to a lot of people and myself that I was going to stay on top of my blogs this year.  There is still a lot to catch up on from the end of last year, but I have to start out right. Of course I made this same promise last year, but I really hope to stick with it this time.

So after taking December "off" from traveling, we made our first trip of 2014 to an Igloo.  I am not really sure what made us think this was a good idea, I don't need to remind you all that we used to live in Hawaii and we grew rather accustomed to the warm weather.

Anyway so the Igloo, was in Switzerland and our friends Chris and Ann joined us for this quick adventure. We headed out at 7 am which turned out to be the perfect time because as we got to the mountain pass the snow had picked up.  We made a last minute decision to take the car train (sort of like a ferry but through a tunnel instead of across the water) this tuned out to be a good thing since the pass was actually closed and we had no other choice.  I should also note that had we tried the pass we would have missed the train because we were the last car allowed on. What luck!

The Car Train.

Figuring out Eucre

After the train and a bit more driving we arrived in Tasch where we caught another train (just for people this time) to Zermatt.  Zermatt is a no driving town - other than the little electric vans and a few buses that don't mess around.  Zermatt is also the base camp for the majority of the 4000 meter peaks in the alps including the star - the Matterhorn. We explored this lively little town, had a lovely lunch at a small chicken shop enjoyed some drinks at a little cafe and then headed further up the mountain to our "hotel."  

Exploring Zermatt

The boys throwing snow balls
Chris with the fox hat!

Zermatt from above

The igloo was at 9235 feet (over a mile high) and it was beautiful inside and out (though we didn't see the outside beauty till our trip down the next day).  We enjoyed a welcome drink had a tour around the "grounds" and then settled in for the night.  Every room of the igloo has beautiful ice carvings - including the bedrooms.

Gluwein!

Bar and Ice Carvings

Ann & Chris at the bar

Chris & Ann's Room

The night included dinner which started with a small appetizer followed by one large bowl of cheese and another of bread - Swiss Fondue.  It really was just cheese and bread but we made the most of it by adding some instant soup which was surprisingly tasty.  Later we went for a nice snow shoe hike and were able to see a bit more of the mountain - it was actually really neat because we watched all the "snow tractors" groom the slopes.

After Snowshoeing - the igloo on the right is where our guides slept.

Relaxing after our hike.

We warmed up a little with some cards and then a dip in the hot tub - yes a hot tub outside at 9235 feet. It was freezing but felt oh so nice when we were inside minus the wind on our faces :)  Despite getting dried off and changed in the "warm room" we still needed some soup and hot tea before heading to our rooms.  We had a double sleeping bag on a bed of ice covered with animal skin/fur.  Phil and I even sported our footie pajamas.  The sleeping bag allegedly was for -40 but if that was true that it must have been -80 because I was freezing all night.

Ready for Sleep

The next day we headed down the mountain taking a few short sled rides to breakfast in an actual hotel. After breakfast it was time to make the journey back to Vicenza. So a train down to Zermatt - during which we had the most gorgeous views of the Matterhorn - then another train to Tasch and back in the car.

The Tallest of all the Alps - The Matterhorn

Still visible from Zermatt

This time we were able to drive through the pass - though it took over an hour compared to the 20 minute train ride it proved worth it for the beautiful views.  (Plus we would have had to wait an hour for the train.) After making our way up and over the mountains we found a small place for lunch right before passing back into Italy.  Of course the place was more Italian than Swiss but since we had our fill of cheese the night prior that was fine with us.

Views in the pass.

The end of the pass and finally a clear sky without snow...
back to the warmth of Italy!

A bit more driving and we arrived safely and warmly back home.  Although I would still like to sleep under the Northern Lights someday now I would be content to do it in the comfort of a hotel with heat.  Our next trip we are going SOUTH... stay tuned!