Day 50. Island tour of Malta from the capital Valletta to the southern tip.

We woke up to our first rainy day, but we donned our jackets and bought umbrellas and went out for a bus tour at 10:30; the rain stopped then, which disappointed the locals because they've had no rain for 9 months.

Valletta from bus pick up spot:

City water is desalinated. Our guide was great. You could feel how proud she was of this country of 5 separate islands; the biggest has 400,000 people.
 
We had a walking tour of Valletta. The capital was constructed by the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, who was John de la Valletta. It was built as a fortress on the highest hill to protect the harbor and 3 original cities on the other side after everyone almost died in the siege of 1565 by the Ottoman Turks.

Harbor view:

We drove over and walked around those three cities, each different but with modern yachts now mixed with traditional work boats.

Fishing boats with the eye of Isis:

Further down the coast, we had lunch in a quaint fishing village called Marsaxlokk; the name shows the blending in the Maltese language -60 percent Arabic and 30 Italian.
 
We went to the Tarxien Temple, a world heritage site dating back to 3500 BC. It has figures of large round women without heads.

Temple info:

Female figures, 3500 BC

The excavations suggest the heads could be changed for different celebrations. Our next stop was the Blue Grotto which was a majestic series of caves carved into the rocky cliffs by pounding seas over centuries. We took a boat trip to see different colors of coral and startling blues; it's a popular spot to dive and snorkel. The caves also could have been religious sites at one time.

Blue grotto water:

Coral in blue grotto:

Inside blue grotto:

 The trip back to Valletta took us around a lot of the southern coast of Malta and showed how luxurious and modern things are outside the old city. Agriculture, stone quarries, vineyards, live stock, and bee keeping are a few of the traditional occupations but tourism is biggest now; every major high-end hotel has properties on the island and vacation apartments seem to be thriving everywhere. How he got that bus thru some of those narrow crowed streets was a work of art!
 
We got back to the hotel just in time for a shower and dinner and a good sleep.