The History around the MED

EASTER SUNDAY March 31, 2013
We arrived at Valletta, Malta this morning and the view from the ship is probably the most awesome that I have ever seen. The walls come right down to the port and the old buildings can be seen from the windows. The harbour is well constructed and today the sun is shining and the water is a beautuful blue. I have taken some pictures but a crew drill kept me off of the deck that I wanted to film from so I will wait until later. I will be heading out on a tour of the island this afternoon and with today being a holiday there may be many local out enjoying the weather.
I want to wish everyone a very HAPPY EASTER and may your bunny be good to you and bring you a surprise! I tried to post on Easter so I am trying again.

April 3, 2013 at Iraklion (or Heraklion) Crete
We arrived this morning and docked at New Harbour (Port of Heraklion) on Crete the largest Island of Greece. Meeting some of the merchants in the terminal stores was a nice morning spent as many of them are from other countries. This is their first day of rain in 55 days so everyone was happy and joyful. Some of our passengers walked into town to explore the churches and some areas with old buildings. I chose to come back to the ship.
One of the most exciting experiences for me is the idea of going back in time, wondering how people lived many years ago. Our two day stay on Malta in Valletta gave me what I had wished. The island is about 27 miles long by 15 miles wide and sits south of Sicily but has 400,000 residents which has the largest population density of all European countries. The history I have been exposed to goes back to 1492 basically when exploration of Columbus set sail from Spain. Malta has relics from 760-780 CE. There are 365 churches on the island, one for each day. The first day there I took an island tour and saw the Island of St. Paul where the apostle was shipwrecked. We saw the Blue Grotto which has been used in movies. Just about everywhere there were old buildings but the juxtaposition of new with old makes a wonderful sight to see. Malta is known for its wine, but the main GDP is tourism. They admit to having a problem with garbage and recycling as one sees litter all over which is sad as the island is gorgeous. We were suppose to travel to Gozo which is another smaller island close to Malta, but because of the winds there our ablility to tender to shore would be dangerous. So we stayed in Valletta overnight and another day. That gave Mez and I the time to explore. We hopped the HOP ON and HOP OFF bus around the island and exited at a location so we could do a harbour tour which was great! We saw forts built by the Knights of St. John and learned about the conquests of Malta by a number of different peoples over thousands of years. The years of 2100 to 1900 BCE were mentioned as groups inhabited the island. This trip has prompted me to do some more reading as the information given us comes way too fast to process. It is easy to get around the island. Hop On and Hop Off buses do three different circuits plus there are city buses. It cost us 20 Euros each for a days pass including the 1 and one half hour harbour tour.
When it was finally time for us to leave the harbour we had a cannon send off from the fort. Thank goodness there were no missiles in the cannons. We were all up on deck getting pictures of the smoke. I will never know what Gozo might have given us but having the extra day on Malta was great!
Mez has just returned from a tour on Crete and said it was a very self sufficient economy and a beautiful country. Tomorrow is another sea day and then on to Larnaca, Cyprus.