You see, if you take a ship sponsored shore excursion and their bus or car gets held up, then the boat will wait for you. If you take a trip on your own and get delayed, you are on your own to get to the next port of call. This being our first stop, we didn't want to take any chances. Plus Jane's Perspective was to enjoy what we could see in the time allotted and not worry about what we didn't see.
Prior to leaving for the cruise I googled Valletta and I found that this was where Paul was shipwrecked during his missionary journeys, that the Maltese Cross found it's start here with the Knights of St. John, the movie Midnight Express was filmed here, and that it's a great place for Europeans to come see a doctor if they have government health plans and can't get in to see one quick enough. The ship gave us more historical info and a map of island with a walking map of the city of Valletta. So I'm set.
Leaving the boat before our traveling companions were finished with breakfast so we would have plenty of time, we began by walking the shoreline. The day was gorgeous and Ed, an avid fisherman, stopped to talk to a local fisherman. I painted the scene from a photo I took. This is a small palette knife piece which isn't my usual style but I thought it really depicted the colors well.
Ed asked the fisherman what he was fishing for. His delightful answer was "nothing today".So off we went fascinated by just walking the same roads and seeing the same old ruins that were once walked by men of ancient times. This picture shows the buildings built right up to the shoreline and another lone fisherman. That whole attitude of taking things at a slower pace came over us and we continued our stroll with no particular destination in mind.
What we stumbled upon quite by accident was the site where the filming of the old movie Midnight Express was made. I got Ed's picture standing nearby the site but when I gave him the camera to take my picture up closer to the gates we heard gunfire. Backing away, we saw the sign that showed this to now be a police training grounds. Not knowing what the rules were for treading near a target practise field, we headed into town.
Walking the streets of Valletta was the first experience that we had with the wonderfully charming tight streets of Europe. And I know this sounds trite but everything was sooooo old. I felt like I was walking through a museum only I could touch everything and people were setting up shops and living in buildings that had exsisted as far back as the 14th or 15th century.
And then here's something you don't see everyday. RATS! Yes, we saw rats scurrying around the city. BIG RATS. I had time to whip out my camera to catch them running across the stones and got this blurry image. I don't know if you can see them, but honest, they are there.
And just to prove to you that yes, I did see rats, the next picture is something else you probably don't see everyday AND it shows that there must be a method behind this madness. These are CAT HOUSES. Yep, we saw them set up, on purpose, with food and water and shelter available to, I guess, make the cats happy who would then make the rats unhappy which would then make the people happy. Go figure.
