Valletta, Malta

We sailed into the Grand Harbour of Valletta, Malta with enormous fortified walls of cream limestone surrounding the harbour. Very pretty from the water with the old cream buildings and fortifications highlighted against the blue sky and blue sea. Today we toured the Blue Grotto, limestone caves that capture the iridescent blue of the water. We had perfect weather with the sun shining for our small boat tour through the limestone caverns. The sun reflects the blue to give it the phosphorous blue colour. We travelled through various villages on our trip and noticed the land lots are terraced off into paddocks with the limestone rubble for the family plots for farming. The paddocks are terraced to stop the topsoil from washing away. One of their main crops, which is everywhere, is the Prickly Pear.
From the Blue Grotto we went to the second port of Malta, Marsaxlokk, a small fishing village that has brightly coloured boats and a marketplace that sells fish and local produce and has a number of small restaurants. We then headed back to our ship docked in Valletta.Read more