Beach Weather and Feasts

BEACH WEATHER

A hot weekend saw us at the beach - it was a case of spot the sand amongst all the umbrellas, sun lounges, eskys etc. but it was a change from swimming off the rocks which we normally do.

This picture shows a family which decided to have a bbq at the beach slap bang in the middle of everyone else, they lit a charcol bbq which spread smoke everywhere, causing people to move and ruining the day for a lot of people. As some of the family said this could happen only in Malta.

Which reminds me, there is a web site titled onlyinmalta.com which shows some of the strange things that happen in this country- have a look when you have time

FEASTS

Each village in Malta has at least one church named after a saint and every week during summer the villages take it in turns to celebrate the special day of their saint with much fanfare, this usually involves a special mass, a procession through the streets with the statue of the relevant saint and a musical band followed by a street party, disco and lots of fireworks.

Last weekend was the feast of St Paul and St Publius, as this was the culmination of the year of St Paul as decreed by the Vatican it was cause for a much greater celebration. The evening started at about 6pm with an open air mass in front of the Cathedral in Valetta. The mass was attended by a cardinal from the Vatican and about 1000 priests and laymen and about 5000 maltese. Then a parade through the streets of Valetta accompanied by the band and about 2000 people all clapping and singing. The formal part of the evening ended at about 11.30pm inside the church of St Paul when the statue was carried into the church and blessed

You can see the lumps on the necks of the statue carriers from carrying the statue around the streets, apparently they pay the church thousands of euro for the priviledge of carrying the statue.

We are off to Ireland next week so there wont be a blog for a few weeks- stay tuned

From Russia With Love

BALTIC CRUISE - Royal Carribean, Jewel of the Seas

COPENHAGEN (DENMARK)

Winds of 60-70 knots prevented us from docking so we sailed on. During the day the ship did a sharp swerve to avoid a floating buoy that was dislodged (that's the official story) and listed dramatically- so much so that the swimming pool emptied out and all of the food in the Casual Dining area slid off tables and the buffett, one lady fell badly and slid 10 metres acrosss the floor- breaking her hip and arm.

We had a female captain for the first few days as the regular captain was away testing a new ship so of course there were lots of female driver jokes going around.

STOCKHOLM (SWEDEN)

After missing out on visiting Copenhagen, we were very keen to get off the ship, we arrived into Stockholm early at about 9 pm, roughly 12 hours before we were meant to be there. The ship put on some free shuttle buses for anyone who wanted to go into town. We took advantage of this and hence we saw Stockholm by night. It was clear when we arrived but quickly deterioted into rain. No shops were open so I went into the Grand Hoteland asked the doorman if he knew where we could buy a umbrella. He promptly gave me a hotel umbrella - which we continued to use all through the cruise, and it is still in good shape and with us in Malta.

Stockholm has an old town with small cobblestoned streets full of interesting designer shops as well as lots of tourist shops and also a very beautiful new town set around a lovely harbour.

One of the highlights of the visit was the Vasa Museum. On 10 August 1628 the Vasa (tall ship) set sail on her maiden voyage and sank within a few miles. The wreck was salvaged in 1961, lifted from the seabed in 1 piece and is on display in the museum.

HELSINKI (FINLAND)

Helsinki is the capital of Finland. During winter this seaport freezes over and is kept open by ice breakers. Finland produces 60% of the worlds ice breakers.

This was a fairly modern city as the city when founded was mainly made up of wooden houses which have been destroyed over time by fire or war.

Not a lot to see but we did see some interesting buildings but as it was raining we didn't get a lot of pictures.

We did go to the food market, where we saw Reindeer for sale at the butchers and a kebab shop with Reindeer kebabs on the menu

ST PETERSBURG (RUSSIA)

Well here we are - wet and cold but nothing is going to dampen the highlight of the trip.

We were docked here overnight and as we didn't have independant visa's we are only allowed off the ship on organised excursions.

Day 1 we took a trip to see how the Russians cope with city life. This included a ride on the subway system which is between 65 and 110 metres underground. The stations are all spotless and are each decorated in a different style, one had all the walls covered in red mosaic (sorry no pictures allowed). We then visited a fresh food market - again spotless and strangely very few shoppers - I wonder if this is a set up for the tourists. Last stop was a tea house and tourist market to puchase Matrosky Dolls and Faberge style eggs.

The traffic was complete chaos taking 15-20 minutes to travel a few hundred metres. Everyone parks illegally and we saw three accidents in 1 afternoon

Day 2 still raining. We visited Catherine's Summer Palace - including the Gold room and the Amber room. There were crowds like you wouldn't believe and you have to keep moving as you go through each room so the crowds don't bank-up. The picture below shows John in the Gold room (don't you love the footwear- required to protect the floors) and a picture of the Amber Room (a room made completely from Amber - no pictures allowed so the focus is a bit fuzzy)


A tour of the city followed including a visit to Kazan Cathedral - (the picture that looks a bit like the colonnade by Bernini at St Peters in Rome) and the Church of the Ressurection on Spilled Blood (the picture with the coloured domes)
)

TALLINN (ESTONIA)

This city was a pleasant suprise - we really had no idea what to expect. Tallinn old town was established in 1154 and a lot of the buildings and city walls have been preserved. We arrived in Tallinn very early and were able to disembark at 7 am. As we are early risers this allowed us to explore most of the town before the crowds arrived. As you can see from the pictures, the town became very busy lunch time. Added to this was the fact that it wasn't raining, so it was a city we fell in love with.

Estonia used to be part of USSR but became independant when the USSR was broken up.

When we returned to the ship we found that the British Aircraft Carrier HMS Illustrious had just docked beside us - looks a bit small compared to the Jewel

OSLO (NORWAY)

The Oslo is the Capital City of Norway and credited with being the most expensive city in the world to live.

The approach to Oslo by sea is along a 60 mile Fjord which has lots of small villages set amongst pine forests as you can see by the picture on the left - it took about 3 hours to enter Oslo and the scenery all the way was quite spectacular.

A very clean city and one of our fine weather days. A visit to the coffee shop for 2 cuppacino and 1 danish set us back about 16 Australian dollars

Well the weather may not have been good but we had a great time - made some friends including a couple from Cairns and saw some beautiful cities.

Birthday Week

John celebrated his 60th birthday on Saturday - we started the day with a casual stroll around the streets of Valetta then a more strenuous walk around some of the waterfront with his cousin Maria and her husband Guisi, before stopping at a bar for a few drinks.

Then we went to Yanika's birthday ( Johns 2nd cousins daughter) - had dinner while most of the activities were happening and returned just in time for the cake - off course followed by more drinks.

Sunday was the start of the First Holy Communion season and off course there was a relative taking part -This is a very important event for the Maltese, the girls are dressed like brides and the boys all wear white or cream suits. We even saw some children being delivered to the church in a carriage - we are wondering if the stretch limo will be next

Our days seem to have fallen into a pattern of swimming in the morning - relaxing in the afternoon ( watching an old movie on MGM channel) then a walk in the evening on the sea front - it is quite amazing to see the number of people that are out walking and enjoying each others company over a snack or a drink at one of the many bars or cafes that are on the seafront.

Off on our cruise of the Baltic region on Wednesday - I think the forecast temp for London on Wednesday is 18 degrees and for Denmark on Friday - our first port of call the forecast is
16 degrees with light rain -so I guess we better take the winter woolies