Monday 18 March 2013

Our Last day in Malta

We did a bit of relaxing today and spent some time on the beach getting some sun.  But earlier in the week we went to a number of interesting places that we haven’t shown yet.

In our our town of Mellieha there are some World War 2 air raid shelters which are fascinating.  There are hundreds of yards of these tunnels going in all sorts of directions where you are free to wander around.IMG_1513

There are maternity wards if the need should arise!

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Some tunnels are quite large and some not so big.  There are even secure areas for the safe keeping of valuables and art treasures from the local museum.

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The square in Mellieha is dominated, like so many others, by the local church.

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Talking of churches – this one in Mosta (in the middle of the island) is absolutely huge.  James is standing next to the left hand column in the central doorway.  In the last war, a thousand pound bomb came through the roof but failed to explode.

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During our wanderings we came upon this rare and strange beast – it’s a Fougasse.  Built by those resourceful people, the Knights of the Order of St. John in 1740 -  it’s a cannon hewn out of solid rock.  It’s 4 feet in diameter and about 8 feet deep.  Filled with gunpowder in the bottom and then filled to the top with rocks, when detonated it sure scared the hell out of the enemy!  There aren’t that many left on the island.

Earlier in the week we went to Marsaxlokk (pronounced Marshashlok!) with Neil and Phillip, before they went back to England.  It’s a very pretty place and the harbour is full of the traditional coloured fishing boats. IMG_1475

Neil, Doug and Phillip.

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Not sure whether we’re trying to keep the sun out of eyes of just being stupid!

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Another view of the charming harbour at Marsaxlokk.

Well we’re flying home tomorrow and shall be very sad to go.  We’ve had a wonderful and relaxing time here and there’s still much more to see.  So we hope one day we’ll be back for another visit.

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