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Upon leaving Greece we went to another historical place, the Republic of Malta. It seems that at one time or another every country in Europe had a piece of Malta. The Phoenicians, Romans, Carthaginians, Ottomans, Arabs, Spanish, French and British all ruled this small, strategic outpost in the Mediterranean at some point. It is said that Malta has the oldest freestanding building in the world. It is a megalithic temple in the town of Gozo. The Maltese language is Semitic in origin but greatly influenced by the Romance languages and written in a type of Latin alphabet. Now English is taking over, especially among the younger, computer literate people.
In the port of Valleta we tried to negotiate with some taxi drivers for a short tour around this fortressed island. But again being back in the land of the Euro we were in for sticker shock. A horse and buggy ride for an hour cost 60 Euros-- about $100. The taxi price was higher still. Then when we were deciding if we wanted to hike the steep ramparts up to the city center, a gruff, old Maltese man came up to us and told us about a local bus that
would take us on a short narrated drive around the city and then drop us at the top right at the town square—all this for 1 Euro and that included the return trip back to the port. We thought he was kidding us. But we jumped at the bargain and really enjoyed the ride. We could tell that spring had just recently come to Malta as there was an air of excitement as everyone was emerging from the indoor darkness of winter and thoroughly enjoying the outdoor restaurants and markets and sitting around in the warming sun. Even though it was too early for the tourist season throngs, the car free streets were packed with Maltese. Malta claims to have the best climate in the world and is often called the “land of honey” due to its noted honey bees and is also one of the most densely populated places on earth.
Due to several unforeseen circumstances this last segment of the world cruise turned into a sort of magical mystery tour. We were scheduled to visit Tunisia. The ship had contracted to load up with fuel there for our Atlantic Ocean crossing. The day before our arrival, Captain
Dag was informed by the fuel supplier that there was none available in Tunis. So Regent started contacting every port in the Mediterranean to find the tons of fuel needed for the long passage. Everyone knows what has happened to the price of oil in the last few months. When we left on this trip in December the cost was $70 a barrel and now it is $120 a barrel. Apparently, the week that we were looking for fuel, other ships wanted to stock up before the price spiked again—which resulted in a shortage everywhere. Barcelona, Sicily, Naples, Civitivecchia were all fresh out of the black gold. The cruise line was finally able to secure a contract in Gibraltar, so we bypassed Tunis and headed directly to the “Gib.” But then two passengers took bad falls so we had to change course for the nearest hospital which turned out to be in Cagliari, Sardinia. This was a new port of call for us so during this brief visit we spent the afternoon walking around Cagliari. There happened to be a boat show going on, and since we are known to have a passing interest in anything that floats, we hung
around the show for a while. All the shops were closed for the afternoon siesta, so the biggest point of interest was a street performer who had a cat sitting on a box with five white mice crawling all over her. There were probably more pictures taken of this scene by the passengers than of the Acropolis, Ephesus and the Pyramids combined. Everyone kept saying that the cat was drugged to be so docile. But I feel she must have thought they were her kittens. It was a very cute scene.
One of the two injured passengers, Mary Louise, made it back to the ship from the hospital 10 minutes before we departed. Unfortunately the other passenger had major complications and had to remain in the hospital in Sardinia and then med-evacted back to the U.S.
Instead of going straight to Gibraltar we made our scheduled stop in Malaga, Spain. There were predictions of heavy rain and strong winds but once we pulled into port—voila! The skies cleared, the wind dropped and we had another beautiful spring day. Malaga is a lovely old medieval city complete with cathedrals, forts, ramparts and castles. Most of the old town is
pedestrianized so it is easy to explore on foot. We found the cuidad mercado which was abuzz with morning shoppers and then we asked a local man for a recommendation for a restaurant. We have discovered over the years that Spain has some great Chinese food, so that is what we wanted for lunch. The Spaniard knew what he was talking about because this was the best Asian food we had this trip—China included.
When we left port we found the bad weather that had been forecasted. So we pounded our way across the Mediterranean to Gibraltar. Once there we had a very unusual fueling operation in that we dropped anchor and then a huge tanker came alongside to start the process of transferring the tons of fuel. Because of the high winds it was a very tricky maneuver and it ended up taking all night to complete the operation. We watched it all from our balcony and had the added bonus of seeing the Rock beautifully lit up.
As a result of the fuel stop and continued rough weather, we were twelve hours late arriving in Funchal, Madiera. This beautiful Portuguese island has been call the floating
garden of the Atlantic and is renowned for its sheer ocean cliffs and dramatic flora. Since we arrived so late we didn’t have time to do any exploring but as the sun was setting we caught a glimpse of some flowering jacaranda trees lining the town square. Having only four hours to play with, we squeezed in a walk through the old town and then dinner at our favorite place. Vagrant, a large yacht docked along the harbor promenade was owned by the Beatles at one time. It is surrounded by little boats and the whole set- up is now operated as a restaurant. While we had dinner on one of the small boats we watched a full moon rise over the ocean and saw our ship all aglow across the harbor. After dinner we hooked up with Marc and made a beeline for the famous Reids Hotel. This is a fine old colonial style hotel that sits on a cliff facing the ocean. We just had enough time for a quick drink and then it was back to the ship and time to say goodbye to Europe and begin our journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Like thousands of sailors
before us, we always experience a twinge of sadness as we leave the last bit of European soil behind. And yet it is soon replaced by the marvelous feeling of knowing that we are about to cross one of the great oceans of the world, following in the wake of Christopher Columbus.
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