Malta

We took one of those "hop-on, hop-off" tour buses around the island today.  We rode on the upper deck of the bus -what a great opportunity to work on a tan! - beautiful sunshine and wonderful breezes off the Mediterranean.....well, I work more on a sunburn than a tan, but it was a wonderful ride at any rate.

Malta has so many scenic areas, and seeing them from on top of a tour bus was perfect. We got off at a fishing village where we spent some time shopping along the waterfront.  Our next stop was at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, two pre-historic temples dating from around 3600 BC.

We returned to our hotel around 4:30.  Our air-conditioned room felt pretty nice after spending the day in the sunshine.  We had a typical Maltese dinner - a combination meat platter featuring rabbit, lamb and beef olives, which is beef wrapped around a pork mixture.

We took a walk along the promenade.  The evening was beautiful.  Lots of people swimming in the sea.

The scenery on the "Hop-on, Hop-off" was great!

The Knights of St. John (the apostle John was shipwrecked here) built this castle in about 1565 in response to a  siege by the Ottomans - the Ottomans lost.

We stopped at this quaint fishing village for a look around.

Sandy bought an umbrella and tried the local pop (Kinnie) - it was awful!

We stopped and looked at the prehistoric temple compounds.  They date to about 3600 BC - maybe earlier.  They reminded us of structures we had seen in Turkey and northern Scotland (of about the same age).

The sites are really quite large and intricate.

Just to prove that I actually was along on the trip we used the camera's timer!

One last night to enjoy the view and then on to the Balkans!!