Thursday 18th October 2007 - Malta
Better late than never - forgot to post this last time.
Today we went on a tour to Mdina (yes it is spelled correctly). This is the old capital of Malta - the new one being Valletta where the ship docked. On the edge of the settlement we first visited a Roman Villa with an excellent example of a mosaic floor in a number of distinctive styles (I know, very boring!) but we enjoyed it. Mdina was a very compact settlement, mostly given over to ecclesiastical use (St Paul's cathedral) and older town houses pre-dating the arrival of the knights of St John. We followed this with a trip to a glass factory - where we were 'up-close' to the furnaces and manufacturing process (who said 'Health and Safety'? even these guys used sun glasses for goggles) and then on to Mosta Dome Church which boasts the 3rd largest unsupported dome in Europe. By unsupported this means that there are no columns - the walls are what supports the dome. We also went to an internet cafe where we posted the previous blog and also booked some flights from Darwin to Cairns. This means that we will disembark the ship at Darwin and fly to Cairns thereby gaining four days in Australia that would otherwise have been lost cruising at sea. The pictures that you see are Valletta from the ship, Glass Making at Valletta glassworks and the Mosta Dome Church. They may not be in this order - this just depends on how they land when we cut and paste from the flash drive.
Friday and Saturday at sea. Mandi painted a watercolour of Valletta from a postcard and continued with her craft classes where she made a couple of greeting cards. David has commenced his 'magnus opus' 'A la recherche du temps perdu' by Proust, which has been awaiting such an opportunity since 1992, being some 3000+ pages in three volumes.
We have moved tables for the evening meal so that we are now all seated in a large square with two people on each side of it which facilitates conversation and is much better than the long table with four on each side that was in the photograph on the previous blog.
Sadly, we have the opportunity to keep on top of the news and watched England beaten by Russia - or at least, David did. Mandi was in the gym getting a sore bum on a bike! However, we seem to be out of sat contact at the moment some 300 miles from our next port of call where we arrive tomorrow for a trip to Cairo - or El Qahira as we say in these parts.
Friday and Saturday at sea. Mandi painted a watercolour of Valletta from a postcard and continued with her craft classes where she made a couple of greeting cards. David has commenced his 'magnus opus' 'A la recherche du temps perdu' by Proust, which has been awaiting such an opportunity since 1992, being some 3000+ pages in three volumes.
We have moved tables for the evening meal so that we are now all seated in a large square with two people on each side of it which facilitates conversation and is much better than the long table with four on each side that was in the photograph on the previous blog.
Sadly, we have the opportunity to keep on top of the news and watched England beaten by Russia - or at least, David did. Mandi was in the gym getting a sore bum on a bike! However, we seem to be out of sat contact at the moment some 300 miles from our next port of call where we arrive tomorrow for a trip to Cairo - or El Qahira as we say in these parts.
