Malta

Malta was our choice for the February Half Marathon trip.  Look it up; I had to.  It is a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean south of Sicily.  Due to its location, Malta has been fought over since the beginning of time.  It has three large natural harbors and has been an important trade location since before anyone remembers.  Covering 122 square miles it is one of the smallest countries in the world.

This picture shows Valletta, the capital of Malta and the two natural ports engulfed by the town.     Our half marathon finished zigzagging all around these harbors which made it very difficult to figure out where we were and, more importantly, how far we were from the finish.:(

Our hotel was within the original city walls of Mdina (M-Deena) and was a bit of a splurge.  The Xara Palace Relais & Chateaux was amazing.  I have stayed in one other Relais & Chateaux before in Canada (you know because they have books that you can look them up in - very shishi).  We were located exactly at the start line for our race and at (almost) the highest point on the island.  Actually, Malta is an archipelago.  I'm now schooled on this since Sardinia and Venice are also archipelagos, which means a collection of islands.  If they hadn't connected North Island to the main Coronado island, we would live on an archipelago!  

Our hotel was behind this wall

Malta is thousands of years old.  What is interesting to me is that all these years later, it is still a small island with several very old communities that are seemingly insular.  All of the buildings are made of the indigenous sandstone that is quarried from the island.  All of the towns have a definite start and stop to them.  So, each area seems to have a visual boundary.

I absolutely LOVE the architecture here.  We saw similar in Venice and you can find a Moroccan influence if you look for it.  The enclosed porches as shown here remind me of Rosemary Beach, FL.  (Of course, I realize that it is manufactured to look like Malta and the like).

Due to its strategic location, Malta has probably seen more damage and destruction from human hands than most places I have visited.  It is about half way between the Straight of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, so most shipping vessels from England stopped there on their way to India as Malta was part of the British Empire as of 1814.  Malta achieved its independence on September 21, 1964 and didn't become an independent republic until 1974.  Unfortunately, many lives were lost as the British fought hard in defending Malta in WWII.  It was one of the most heavily bombed locations during the war, again due to its location.

Here you can see the Maltese Flag with the George Cross at the top left.  The George Cross was given in mass to the Maltese people for their bravery by King George VI after the Siege of Malta in 1942.

Yes, serious money here!

But today, Malta is a European paradise and hosts many college age people studying foreign language.  They may actually know more languages on average than the Dutch?  Due to their long history of shipping and trading, they had to learn to communicate with a lot of people.  This is the same reason that the Dutch are multi-lingual.  So, if I were going to open up a call center, it would be in Malta.

 
This is their version of Buckingham Palace.  Surprisingly to me, it is actually called Buckingham Palace?  Well, we certainly thank the British for the Land Rover and Malta has its fair share of those as well.  Fittingly they were sponsoring our half marathon!