Majestic Malta and Sizzlin' Sicily

How wonderful it is to be by the sea versus living through tornadoes in Minnesota in May. There's so much history about the Romans, the Normans, the Greeks, the Athenians, the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, etc. in these islands, and the Knights Templar that your mind starts to commingle everything, but that's exactly what happened in historical times. The Knights Templar started off being a very humble group of knights, and they ended up being just as pompous, in my opinion, as the Catholic Church. People in high places back then didn't believe in preserving history as we do today. They demolished ancient temples in order to build their ornate, over adorned cathedrals over the ruins. As apartments buildings are being built today, Roman ampitheathers, temples, catacombs, and more are being discovered, as is also true in Turkey. Unfortunately, there's not enough money to uncover all these previous civilizations on land, not to mention what lies beneath the sea. There is much energy here as ever, as expressed by Mount Etna on Sicily, and we were fortunate to see a small plume of smoke exhale from its mouth.

We zigzagged around the southern and eastern part of Sicily the last few days of the trip, heading first to the Ragusa area, then to stay at a farmhouse amidst olive trees, vineyards, almond trees and lemon groves. I greeted the horses to and from my stable room, if that's what you want to call it, and the main house. The undulating hills around us created an atmosphere we could have luxuriated in for days but we headed off for Mount Etna and the resort town of Taormina , then down to another seeming resort area of Syracuse and the small island of Ortygia.

The hilly landscape on the island of Sicily made for some interesting building configurations. Houses are built into the hills, with staircases leading in every direction to yet another home built on top of each other, but not in any uniform way. It could have felt like a maze if it were not for the major, yet narrow seemingly one-way streets and the pedestrian walkways.

Then there's the gelato and cannoli then we all partook of, so much so that even for me, I did not have a gelato my final day in Sicily. Maybe it was because of the shared experience with our group that was diminishing in size by the day. I have one evening to myself in Catania, the second largest city in Sicily. It's not been well managed as anyone can see by the drab-ness of the area around the Duomo, it's most notable feature.

In my quest to always see everything in my final walk of this trip, I noticed, at first, a few woman carrying roses. The further up the street I walked, the more I saw, so of course I had to go further. Thousands of roses were being sold, in tribute to some saint I presume, for several churches in this area were open with massive numbers of people gathering very loudly inside. We'd heard that from May through August/September, there are many celebrations throughout the towns, most with fireworks, foods, elaborate outside decorations, which include figures being removed from their glass cases inside the church to being lead through a procession of sorts or to stand guard on the streets as the processions pass. It seems each church tries to outdo each other in these celebrations as they do in adorning the interiors of their places of worship.

I look forward to enjoying the simplicity of my home surroundings and my cat Karly for a day or so before heading to our fresh body of Lake Superior water for the weekend.

Happy Memorial Day.

Malta and Gozo

Greetings from Gozo,

I've been to Malta for a day and returned to Gozo. Yes, that's how things worked out, and they worked out for the best. I love it here. Gozo is small, quaint, the people are ever so friendly and it is beautiful. We're staying in Marselforn Bay on the north side. I spent some time walking around this afternoon after our tour and found some salt pans farther to the west, and some majestic boulders that had dropped into the ocean. The ocean here is so clear here, even in the busy harbours. The fishing boats are so beautiful; I'll have to post pictures when I have the opportunity.

I did spent time diving here the first time, but elected not to this time because of the cold. The air temps are perfect for traveling. There hasn't been any rain here so things are browning out quickly. It was interesting when I thought how similar the landscape looks here compared to Ireland, though not as green, and then had an English woman who moved here after vacationing here for 30 years said the same thing. As I said, the people are very friendly here, so whenever I've needed directions, people are ever so willing to help and talk with you too.

There are so many churches here--about 400, so that's about one church for every 4,000 people, and apparently they do go to church. Services are every day, and multiple times a day, even during weekdays. The churches are so ornate, I've had a hard time with that. I much prefer doing the outdoors things like seeing the Calypso Cave today and going for a walk along the ocean cliffs.

The food here is tremendous. I've had the best salads in a long time--ripe tomatoes, delicious sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and fresh sheep's cheese. The desserts are delectable. So much for loosing weight on this trip.

More from Malta.

Gone to Gozo

Hello from Victoria

That's the city of Victoria on Gozo Island. I was up for over 30 hours yesterday, rising early to go to an excellent (free) web seminar at the Science Museum before finishing last minute packing details and heading to the airport. It seemed to be a short flight now that the airlines have movies on demand. I watched 3 and a half movies so will have to rent The Painted Veil when I get home. As usual, I changed flights in Amsterdam, and since I had a 6 hour delay, I made it my business to finally get to the Anne Frank house/museum. It's a quick 10-15 minute train ride into the city, then a quick tram ride to within 2 blocks of the huis. I was dismayed to see a long line at 8:45 a.m., but it was only a short wait after the doors opened. The museum does take you through the actual house the Frank family lived in. Though it's a sad story, I was pleasantly surprised by two things. The rooms themselves were fairly spacious, and the staircase you may have heard about was not as claustrophobic as I'd been lead to believe, though the steps were steep. It has a lovely view of the canels that Amsterdam is so famous for. There was a little bit about Anne's friend Peter, which coincidentally I found a book here in Malta about "The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank". Apparently he was lost in the war, but Anne's father lived into the 70's. I think the blessing for us is that we know about the family's saga due to him. He outlived his whole family, yet didn't let that do him in. Rather he brought Anne's story, as hard as that had to be for him.

After visiting the museum, I had to high tail it back to the airport for my flight to Malta. Luckily no movies on this flight, so I could get a short cat nap. Once I landed in Malta, it was to the bus to city center, where I transferred to what I learned was to be an hour long bus ride to the ferry that was to take me to Malta. After 25-minutes, I retrieved my luggage and sought out a phone to contact the hostel I was staying at for a ride "home". By this time, I was rather tired, so the prospect of trying to find a phone, then finding one that only accepted a card was a real challenge. Luckily a very nice police officer saw my frustration, took pity on me, and called the hostel. While I waited, he told me about the fishing boats in the working harbor, the various bays on Gozo, the touristic economy here, the Maltese language and way of life on Gozo versus Malta, its bigger and more hurried sister.

I'm staying at a very quaint hostel here, with a view of the windy, turbulent bay at Marsalforn, on the northern coast. After debating whether to rent a bike or a car, I decided to take the bus. There are rolling hills here which make bike riding arduous. And after seeing more of them today on the bus, I made a smart decision, especially since the bus is convenient and inexpensive. I traveled into Victoria, then on to Xaghra (pronounced shaa-rah) to see one of the oldest windmills in the Maltese area, then saw a grotto and cave that are under houses. The were found when digging down to build a basement in one case and a well in the other. How would you like to have that under your home. In these cases, the owners are cashing in on them. I also saw the oldest free-standing structure in the world--Ggantija Temples, not that they're anything to really look at, but maybe they are spiritually.

Victoria certainly makes me think I'm in a part of Europe. I visited The Cathedral of the Assumption (after seeing the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Xaghra), and was again reminded of the opulence of the Roman cathedrals. This showed off Mediterranean Baroque architecture. The Museum displayed a picture of St. Agatha, one of the patron saints of Malta. It showed her being de-breasted. A bit repulsive in my opinion. I distracted myself from that by having a glass of Gozo-produced cab wine, and a feast of local cheeses, olives, capers and sun-dried tomatoes.

A visit to a local book store along the stroll to the bus station, and it was back to my local home. It certainly is quite is this bay side town, with all the aspects of a small town--no grocery stores open in the evening, if there even is one in this small area. There's something to be said about this way of life.

We';ll see if I'm up for diving tomorrow. The water temps are about 18 degrees C, that's 68 degrees F. I want to see a cuddle fish and a seahorse, so my fear of cold my be overridden.
More later if I don't have hypothermia.

British and U.S. Virgin Islands

The crystal blue water of the Virgin Islands is so inviting. The water is fairly warm, the winds just right for comfortable sailing and the Caribbean sense of time. What could be more wonderful? Being aboard a 40+ foot catamaran with dive tanks! Yes, I spent a week diving and sailing on a cat in the British Virgin Islands. We visited many of the islands from Torolla up to Antigua. We dined on some local fare and had our share of lobsters under a full moon. I slept under the stars on the trampoline and only had to come in one time cuz of a short sprinkle. And even in all this fun, I was studying a text on Multi-hulls to get an American Sailing Association certification for that even riding vessel.

The second week in the islands was on a 50 foot monohull. This was, among others, 2 fellow students for an Advanced Coastal Cruising ASA course, so there was more studying, and more sailing, some of it even overnight. We were blessed with good weather on our overnight crossing to St. John's. Other groups had traveled up to St. Martin, but that was scraped for our class due to the horrible crossing, with most people getting sick. I think the Captain's didn't enjoy being at the helm for 12 hour stretches, so they changed the agenda. We all made it without a burp, though the wind on the port side when on a starboard tack wasn't too pleasant. We never found out what the problem was, but the stench told us there was one.

I spent my birthday yet again in a sunny climate. We were in gorgeous bay on St. John's where I found my present underwater--the siting of two octupi while snorkeling. Imagine what I would have found if I'd been diving. BTW, the diving in the Virgin Islands is stunning. Captain Steve Burns has dived there for 20+ years and has discovered some unmarked sites. You'll have to dive with him if you want to enjoy them, though I'm now looking at writing a dive book for sailors, so stay tuned.

It was off to Minnesota after this. Back to cold weather--though I was able to enjoy dinner on my deck in 81 degree weather several days after I got home, before the cold settled back in. It was hard to put long pants back on, but one has to do that at times. At least I knew the warm weather wasn't far behind.

Now it's into planning for the next adventure--Malta. and Gozo. Malta is off to the west of Sicily, which is off the toe of Italy. Gozo is just north of Malta.