May 20, 21, 2008 RAGUSA, Sicily / MALTA Today was a short drive from Taormina to Ragusa in the very south of Sicily. This is another very nice drive through some beautiful scenery through the mountains valleys and lots and lots of seascapes from the high freeway. This is an interesting grain farming area with vineyards and fruit growing areas. In Ragusa their is not a lot to do but we took a walk to visit a local botanical garden and of course another large “Duomo” church. Wednesday morning we got an early start to catch the ferry to Malta from [View Full Entry]

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Malta Arrived in the Port of Valletta early on Friday, May 16th and it was great seeing a European town again! We did a Highlights Tour in the morning which took us first to the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. It was a nice photo opt and probably won't be available in the near future because fishing in the Med has really gotten bad. Most fishermen only do it part time and need another job for support. The next two stops were a porcelain factory and a glass bowing works and both were interesting. The best stop was the Meridiana Wine Estate [View Full Entry]

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Day 9 Malta - Valetta & Mdina Our excursion today took us to look at the ancient (quiet) city of Mdina and then we returned to look around the modern capital of Malta, Valetta. Paid for a sumptuous meal in the "Pinacle Grill" - very nice. [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 At Sea Slept in late. Relaxed. Listened to several presentations from different speakers ranging from the executive chef talking while a bloke made fancy carvings into fruit and vegies. Arrived late and played in a trivia competition. Most of the questions related to USA history - sports people and actors etc. Attended an art auction and, wait for it we bought two paintings. That’s right we bought after the auction, but saw the two during the auction. Got dressed up for dinner in our glad rags and ate snails and lobster. Lost money at the casino’s roulette whe [View Full Entry]

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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 taki [View Full Entry]

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Hi all- Just finished up dinner and saw a computer in the back of the restaurant so we thought we should check in. We spent the day up at the Blue Lagoon, a sheltered inlet at the north of Malta that has crystal blue waters and tiny private sand beaches. The trip over was a bit crazy as we had to take a ferry to the lagoon and the waves in the sea were 2-3 meters (4-9 feet for all you Americans!). We escaped sea sickness and enjoyed the sun, wind, and salt air while reading books and being annoyed by [View Full Entry]

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Hi all- Well we finally arrived to Malta last night around 10 pm Malta time (3 pm MN time). Lots of airline time and airport time. We had a taxi waiting for us to take us directly to SImon's Pub. It was great to taste a Cisk (Chisk) again. As I have told people it is like PBR with lemon. We slept in this morning, took a quick walk around Sliema to the market and are now wandering the streets of Valetta, the capital city. I forgot how jam packed everything is here. Front doors open right up to the street [View Full Entry]

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It was embarkation day and time to pack up and travel to the port of Pireaus, Greece to board the Voyager. We were so excited to see our favorite ship docked in the harbor and to greet our shipboard family. After 403 days on Regent ships, everything was so familiar. We noticed changes like flat screen TVs in the suites and new furniture on Pool Deck. We know where everything goes in our suite and our old routine immediately comes back to us. It didn’t take long to settle in. We had packed lightly for our 17 day cruise through the [View Full Entry]

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Hiya so I am actually going to try to write some blogs during break. So Easter break is forever long over here. It started on March 13th and goes til April 13th, which through this time we have to leave the flat and go exploring. My break began on kind of a rocky note. The day we were meant to leave I still hadnt receieved a confirmation saying that I had booked my flight to Malta so I was getting a little anxious. By the time we had reached the airport in London I had had around 3 hours to worry [View Full Entry]

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Malta is a very, very interesting country. Our trip was in the middle of their election and there are two main political parties in Malta, the Labor Party and the Nationalists. On the second day that we were there, according to one of our hotel workers, Malta elected its first democratically elected president. So, needless to say there were parties everywhere. Our hotel, Hotel Alexandra, was located right in the middle of the largest tourist district so the scenery consisted mostly of restaurants and nightclubs. This part of the country, St. Julians, was very dirty and crowded, but once you [View Full Entry]

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