RTW to no-where in particular

RooFlyer · Mar 8, 2020

jastel said:
Did the highline a few months back myself...did you climb the Vessel at the Hudson Yards end?

No.

I saw it, and wondered what it was, but I was on a mission and went left to the end of the Highline walk.

jastel · Mar 8, 2020

I'd describe it as like an ant climbing a pineapple...lol...lots of steps, there is an elevator but you actually must be in wheelchair to use it...it has decent views from up top but...it was free but you had to do a QR code thing on your phone and get allotted a time to climb it...basically meant you had to go look in the Hudson Yard shops (who own the thing) for 30 minutes.

Malta is interesting as you said...lots of history and churches...I remember now, they had just joined the EU currency when I was there and nobody knew what price anything was...they used to have old 1960's British Style buses, Austins, Bedfords etc they were cheap as chips and went everywhere...sound the horn pat the Jesus or Mary statue on the head and sail through the intersection...crazy drivers...though I heard they have more modern air conditioned ones now.

drron · Mar 8, 2020

Oh oh.Italian tourists you say.Here's hoping you don't develop a dry cough.

RooFlyer · Mar 8, 2020

My walk took me to the Co-cathedral of St John. 'Co-cathedral' because the church of the Bishop - the Cathedral' - was elsewhere. In 1820 he allowed this church to also be a Cathedral, hence 'Co-cathedral'.

Anyway, I've visited a lot of grand churches, mosques, cathedrals etc, and while this isn't the biggest it, must be one of the most exquisite. The pics below won't do it justice, by a long shot. Every single surface is embellished, gilt, carved, painted or decorated. The entire floor is a vast mosaic of tomb coverings, every one and intricate 'painting' of carved and delicate marble.

It was built in the 1570s and redecorated in the 17th century in the Baroque style and is now considerdd one of the best examples of barioque style in Europe there are a number of paintings by Preti (hadn't heard of him) and Caravaggio (have heard of him) throughout the church. 10 euros to get in is a bargain.

Where to start? Well, let's look at the nave and the altar, first from the back of the nave and then from a gallery above the back. To the side of the nave are numerous chapels dedicated to vaious Saints and to the various 'langues' of St John - administrative divisions, mostly language-based - so German, various French dialects/provinces, various Italian dialects/provinces etc.

in the above pic, note the floor - it's completely made of the marble inlaid tomb coverings - the green things are protective mats.

RooFlyer · Mar 8, 2020

drron said:
Oh oh.Italian tourists you say.Here's hoping you don't develop a dry cough.

Yeah. I held my breath a lot

; also Italian school kid tour groups

VPS · Mar 8, 2020

So I've just been to a fringe show that was a lot about Malta

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats | Adelaide Fringe

WINNER of the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Fringe Award 2019 & The Scotsman Fringe First Award 2019. Celebrating their final year as Europeans, island-monkeys Becca & Louise got invited to the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta. They went ...

adelaidefringe.com.au

I learnt the Maltese for cough was zobb and that Oliver Reed died at the pub in Valetta - see from Wikipedia below

According to witnesses, he drank eight pints of German lager, a dozen shots of rum, half a bottle of whiskey and a few shots of Hennessy cognac,[52] in a drinking match against a group of sailors on shore leave from HMS coughberland at a local pub called "The Pub". His bar bill totalled a little over 270 Maltese lira (almost 450 GBP; about 594.72 USD). After beating five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm-wrestling, Reed suddenly collapsed, dying while en route to hospital in an ambulance. He was 61 years old.

Oh and they gave everyone a glass of Coopers beer when you came in and then a tiny tot of rum and the rum was cough

TheRealTMA · Mar 8, 2020

VPS said:
So I've just been to a fringe show that was a lot about Malta

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats | Adelaide Fringe

WINNER of the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Fringe Award 2019 & The Scotsman Fringe First Award 2019. Celebrating their final year as Europeans, island-monkeys Becca & Louise got invited to the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta. They went ...

adelaidefringe.com.au

I learnt the Maltese for cough was zobb and that Oliver Reed died at the pub in Valetta - see from Wikipedia below

According to witnesses, he drank eight pints of German lager, a dozen shots of rum, half a bottle of whiskey and a few shots of Hennessy cognac,[52] in a drinking match against a group of sailors on shore leave from HMS coughberland at a local pub called "The Pub". His bar bill totalled a little over 270 Maltese lira (almost 450 GBP; about 594.72 USD). After beating five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm-wrestling, Reed suddenly collapsed, dying while en route to hospital in an ambulance. He was 61 years old.

Oh and they gave everyone a glass of Coopers beer when you came in and then a tiny tot of rum and the rum was cough

What’s the cost of a flight to Malta?

RooFlyer · Mar 9, 2020

VPS said:
I learnt the Maltese for cough was zobb and that Oliver Reed died at the pub in Valetta - see from Wikipedia below

I’ve said it before - I live a very sheltered life.

VPS · Mar 9, 2020

RooFlyer said:
I’ve said it before - I live a very sheltered life.

I don't think so

OATEK · Mar 10, 2020

RooFlyer said:
So, what's the story with Malta? I didn't know much beforehand, except that it used to be home of the Knights of St John, a British colony, and that Napoleon visited once and, of course, it was a true cross-road of the Mediterranean, so I expected an interesting history.

Interesting ... an understatement!! At several locations on the island, there are structures of carved stones dating back to 3,500 BC!! That's older than the Pyramids of Egypt. First habitation was about 5,000 BC when people crossed from Sicily.

Since then, the place has been occupied by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese (ie region of France), Knights of St. John, French, and British.

I liked the Phonetician and Cartheginian aspect, as it compliments my visit to Carthage (Tunisia) and Sardinia, although I don't think there's much Phonetician here now. They were here between 800 and abt 200 BC before the Romans turfed them out (here and elsewhere!) The Romans lost out to the Vandals who in turn were replaced by the Byzantines from the 4th to the 9th century. Who's next? Oh, it was the muslim Aghlabids from North Africa (first time I've come across them!) . Then the Normans invaded in 1091 (sorta fresh from invading Britain, at the other end ) The Kingdon of Sicily then took over. In 1530, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, gave the islands to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ('Knights Hospitaller', or the Order of St John) who had recently been turfed out of their home of Rhodes.

From Wikipedia:

The Hospitallers arose in the early 11th century, during the time of the Cluniac (or Benedictine) Reform, as a group of individuals associated with an Amalfitan hospital in the Muristan district of Jerusalem, dedicated to John the Baptist and founded around 1099 by Gerard Thom to provide care for sick, poor or injured pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thom's order and its hospital.

After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the organisation became a military religious order under its own papal charter, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land. Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the knights operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign, and later from Malta, where they administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily. The Hospitallers were one of the smallest groups to briefly colonise parts of the Americas: they acquired four Caribbean islands in the mid-17th century, which they turned over to France in the 1660s.

...

By the end of 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, had forcibly ejected the Knights from their base on Rhodes after the six-month Siege of Rhodes. From 1523 to 1530 the Order lacked a permanent home. They became known as the Knights of Malta when, on 26 October 1530, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Grand Master of the Knights, sailed into Malta's Grand Harbour with a number of his followers to lay claim to Malta and Gozo, which had been granted to them by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V[6] in return for one falcon sent annually to the Viceroy of Sicily and a solemn Mass to be celebrated on All Saints Day. Charles also required the Knights to garrison Tripoli on the North African coast, which was in territory that the Barbary Corsairs, allies of the Ottomans, controlled. The Knights accepted the offer reluctantly. Malta was a small, desolate island, and for some time, many of the Knights clung to the dream of recapturing Rhodes.

Nevertheless, the Order soon turned Malta into a naval base. The island's position in the centre of the Mediterranean made it a strategically crucial gateway between East and West, especially as the Barbary Corsairs increased their forays into the western Mediterranean throughout the 1540s and 1550s.

In 1565, the 'Great Siege' occurred (click the link - its worth a read!), when the Ottomans tried to invade, but were eventually repelled. This is a monumental event in the island's history, with references to it everywhere.

Napoleon landed in 1798 on his way to Egypt (Battle of the Nile) and took over from the Knights and basically looted the place to help pay for his war. The Maltese appealed to the Brits against the French and the Brits made themselves at home from 1800. It became a colony in 1814 until Independence in 1964. It became a republic in 1974 and joined the EU in 2004.

Whew. And to think I've only got 2 full days here. Ridiculous. I'm just about to leave as I write this, but I'll definitely be back. There are 2 main islands - Malta and Gozo to the NW; I barely got out of greater Valletta on this trip; 10 days would be good next time.

And King George IV awarded the whole Island Community the George Cross for their resistance to the Germans in WW2.

amaroo · Mar 10, 2020

Glad you enjoyed MC. Some great memories there and Istanbul...

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

OATEK said:
And King George IV awarded the whole Island Community the George Cross for their resistance to the Germans in WW2.

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

Lets look at some of those tombstones - each feature and colour a piece of marble.

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

The crypt, with early Grand Masters:

Various chapels, with the odd Caravaggio thrown in. Here, the beheading of John the Baptist:

Lots of saintly relics:

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

Last installment - this place is worth more than an hour of your time.

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

Continuing my walk around Valletta. 'Valletta' only strictly refers to the 'city' on the peninsula on which it sits (if you understand me ...) The continuance of the urban areas across the harbour has other names and are also 'cities'.

Most of the building shown (except Parliament

) would date from at least the 16th century, perhaps modified later.

Grand Master Valletta ('Grand Master' was the title given to the successive leaders of the order of St John)

Opera House. Bombed during WW2 and left as a memorial. Now open-air performances inside the shell.

The new City Gate in the background. Renzo Piano designed, as was the new Parliament building (below). Very contraversial!

Parliament on right, Opera House in distance

Old city walls

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

Stopping for the most sinful hot chocolate you can imagine ...

I made my way down to the ferry which takes you to the northern peninsula of Sliema, where a harbour cruise would embark.

Obviously the modern part of town - I can imagine the cost of a nice apartment there!

On the cruise - it will take me all around the various coves and 'creeks', starting from the top left in this coughpy image, and going anti-clockwise

Looking back towards Valletta. Funnily enough, you can't see the big basilica dome from the streets there.

RooFlyer · Mar 10, 2020

I'm afraid you are just going to have to go along with me ... it was a wonderful cruise.

Valletta, with its fort - Fort St Elmo at its end, at left.

Fort St Elmo

The other side of Valletta, near the cruise ship terminal. The modern lift takes you straight up to the main town ... and to the spot where the afternoon gun is still fired (see later).

Shipping and dry docking is a major industry .

As is marinas for luxury yachts. Hundreds of 'em, not all like this one, but many dozens similar:

Vittoriosa, also known as Birgu, depending on what language you are in.

Watch-tower on Fort St Angelo, defending Vittoriosa, with its eyes and ears . Fort St Angelo at Birgu was key in defeating the Ottomans during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.