The Last of Malta, Mdina, Modica

This sphere is floating and spinning on a jet of water; just some random artwork in St. Julian's Bay.

Etched underneath the sphere is a quote :

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"

The view from the second hotel room. The ocean is one of my favorite places. It so beautiful and peaceful.

The last day in Malta we took a bus to the city Mdina. Little did I know that our visit ended up during a medieval festival. Best festival ever....

Mdina was a medieval fortress. It has walls and a "dry" mote around it.  

 The first thing we went into was the Mdina dungeons. Mdina was one of the site of the Inquisition and naturally there are a bunch of statues to point out all the lovely tortures.

 This guy is being slowly split in two by a slightly sharpened log between his legs. His arms are tied behind his back and up on a wall and there are weights on his feet.

 

I found this lady and baby to be the most interesting. During the time the Catholic church was becoming very popular, a monastery/hospital opened up in Mdina. Because people were so dreadfully poor, the monastery put in this little window. Inside there is a rotating plate that allowed parents to place unwanted infants on it and give them up to the church.

  

 The window allowed the parents to remain unknown to the people accepting the babies.

 These guys were all dressed up in costumes singing and playing drums, flutes, and bagpipes. They were amazing.

The view from the top of the city wall

 Unfortunately we missed a great deal of the days events because we didn't know they were going on. But at one point they had a giant living chess match. 

 

 More artwork in Malta

The ocean is so beautiful. It moves with its own constant rhythm.

Modica : 

 Modica looks like it is built into the side of a canyon or something. All of these houses are lining the sides of a hill. It is pretty and makes me question what would ever happen if an earthquake hit the place. I think it would just collapse inward.

Anyway, Modica is known for its chocolate. They don't use milk with they make it and they use cocoa butter. It is really quite delicious, I should have bought more.

The trip to 

Malta Day 2

The jeep tour of Gozo was very nice and informative.

 Lots of churches

Gozo only has about thirty thousand people on the entire island. In the summer tourism doubles the population. Other than tourism, the main business is agriculture.

This is Calypso's Cave

 

 This is a grain windmill. It was being repaired while we were there.

    

 These are the temples on Gozo from ancient aliens. They have four different chambers and several alters in each. Robby says that they are speculated to be older than Stone Henge.

Coast line. The rocks are full of skeletons of maybe turtles or sand dollars. Gozo only has one sandy beach the rest are this rocky stuffs.  

Azure Window

Almost got splashed by the waves

Gozo's one sandy beach

A lot of these are just pictures of the island. It is a very pretty island, so is Malta. The weather was too windy for the boat tour which when to the blue grotto which I really wanted to see. Gozo is suppose to be famous for honey and sea salt. We got to see the salt plates which in the summer dry out sea salt. 

Gozo doesn't have a university or many businesses and most of the Gozo people have to take the ferry to Malta to work. The ferry is the only way onto the island. There isn't a connecting road or airport.