VALETTA-MALTA

 We woke up looking at a huge rock country surrounded by stone walls, turrets, and castles….and incredibly medieval dwellings. Again we were docked at a city dock and it was easy to get off the ship and walk

into town . We actually took a very fast and high elevator to town square Valetta. They block off the public car access so most of the day the main drag is car free. The shops are very high end and prices are expensive after Italy. We just wandered all over and saw different sites and learned how many countries have invaded this huge Stoney island in the middle of the Mediterranean .
Malta is about 99% Roman Catholic, and it shows in so many religious relics and grand churches. We are here the week before Easter and of course, that is a HUGE holiday and they have pulled out all the stops.plus it is spring break and Malta is also winding down from 2 years of Covid restrictions, so it was crowded!  We even rented a few gondolas, and they took us across the bay to a. Ugh stalled and more sedate town, called Birgu.  So many twisty tiny avenues, and lots of religious items. Our gondola driver was a local and on the way back….. he told us about how Covid affected most of the inhabitants, including himself. 
We returned to the ship early to hear a presentation from a woman who’s sister was killed by the Malta Mafia because she was digging dirt on many of the local officials. The sister has taken up the fight as have many many students and others concerned with the amount of corruption in this country.
After a very informative session, we found out it  was the Captains Birthday and the dining room was fixing a gala dinner including lobster tails. Of course, that what we all ordered at dinner and yum! They were not skimpy tails.  After dinner there was a ladies night…which we had no idea what that was, but as we climbed the stairs from the dining room …. We heard the rock music and the staff was waiting for us to DANCE!  And dance we did, although  most of the songs were pretty old style and we even did the Macarena! OMG! hahahah. As they say: A fun time was had by all!