Church . . . . History . . . .

A scorcher of a Sunday, just what we needed after my failure to turn off the Jacuzzi in the bath last night. Like most things it's obvious when you know how but when you don't it's a bit damp. It's there and had to be tried. After all, I reasoned, no matter how much water could be spilled it wouldn't amount to a washing machine full, would it?

I confess that this morning there were a few puddles to avoid but by the time we got in this evening the weather had seen off all the evidence.

The photo (left) was taken on the way to church and is looking eastwards down Sliema harbour with Manoel Island on the right. Nice day for January, eh? I had considered wearing shorts but going to a church you've never been to it was suggested that jeans would be more acceptable. Arriving, it appeared that a suit, starched white shirt and tie could be a condition of entry but once in it became apparent that not everyone was rigged in Sunday best. Most were.

Smart church, modern projector and songs but in all other respects very 1960's. King James would have felt at home and he'd probably have understood most of the terminology. However, the pastor made one think and a hasty retreat was beaten afterwards but we'll probably go again.  As it was the jeans meant that the onward journey had to be preceded by a trip home for the shorts.

Once suitably attired two comfortable, by that I mean we sat, bus journeys saw us at Birgu where I pointed out "Connda Vennessa" which, but for another example of my utter folly, could have been ours for the month. Grrrrrrrrr.

Past her the vessels just get bigger and finally biggest as in the photo, right, just google "Maltese Falcon" but not the one with Humphrey Bogart, good though that is. A 23mm lens on a 1.6 crop x-trans sensor gives 40mm. Far too long a lens to get all the boat in so just admire her masts and wallow in the fact that what you see in the photo cost $80,000,000, just the masts, yards, sails and computers to set them. The boat was another $100,000,000 or more. Yours for $500,000 a week plus expenses.

She lies under Fort St.Angelo, a massively built edifice that represents the furthest westward point of the expansionist Ottoman Empire under Suleiman in 1565. It inspires awe. It elicits gratitude. It makes you wonder just how different history would have been had it fallen in September of 1565. That it didn't is, some say, down to Divine intervention and who am I to argue with that.

As you follow the walls around a well worn and precarious walkway takes you from Grand Harbour to the tip of Birgu, the southern side of Valletta harbour from where the view is magnificent. See below.

 This afternoon, sat on a rock just looking at a harbour entrance into which the Phoenicians sailed 3000 years ago, the Romans a thousand years later, the Turks 500 years after them, Napoleon came for two years till the British came and kicked him out (at the request of the Maltese I hasten to add). The Italians wanted to come in but gave up trying, the Germans were desperate to make their entrance but were denied by Maltese and British defiance and many attribute the success of that stand (1940-1943) to Divine intervention as well.

Looking NNW from the base of Fort.St.Angelo.

On the right, Fort St.Angelo wall, beyond that Fort Ricazzoli where Dragut set up his batteries in 1565, the harbour arms are relatively recent but on the left, beyond the memorial bell tower is Fort St.Elmo into which the heads of captured Turks were fired from here after St.Elmo fell and the last of the Knights defending it were beheaded, set on crucifixes and floated over to De La Vallette in Fort St.Angelo

It was because of this harbour that Malta has been fought over so may times and it is why from the winter of 1941 to late in 1943 it became the most bombed piece of land in all the world. In the six weeks from mid April 1942 more bombs were dropped here than were dropped on all of UK during the war. For 186 days the all clear didn't sound.

History, those who fail to learn from it are condemned to repeat it, or so Edmund Burke is meant to have said but Gandhi said, "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history"which is a shame because it sounds so Churchillianly appropriate with regard to Malta!