Malta Offers Plenty to Delight on Repeat Visits; I’ll Be Back

Day 99, 2025 Grand World Voyage

Sunday, April 13, 2025; Valletta, Malta.

On the short list of beautiful ports to sail into, add Valletta, Malta. This relatively small country in the Mediterranean has a rich history that is broadcast for all to see – a sheltered harbor surrounded by fortifications, dockyards, ancient buildings and super-yachts.

Shame on me for not going out on the Zuiderdam’s bow to capture our sail in. I was busy doing something in my room, looked up and suddenly realized we already were in the harbor, slowly turning around to dock with our port side to the pier and the main city.

The Zuiderdam returned to the same pier from my first visit, just four months ago. Then the city was decorated for the holidays, providing a great opportunity to paint from the Lido deck during the rainy part of our overnight visit.

We frequently enter some iconic ports (Sydney, I’m talking about you) in the early hours before sunrise. We’ve sailed into Cape Town in a curtain of fog, obscuring the massive Table Mountain rising above it. Frequently we are delegated to commercial ports, so there isn’t much to see as we arrive, other than miles of shipping containers and huge cranes.

Perhaps I was a bit lackadaisical about arriving in Valletta because I will be back here three more times this year. I’ve even booked a guesthouse in the fishing village of Marsaxlokk for our October overnight stay. I have my fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate and I can get up with the sunrise to paint the colorful fishing boats that make the village famous.

I don’t mind repeated visits to Malta, because still on my list is a visit to the fortified medieval city of Mdina and a cruise on a dghajsa (traditional Maltese boat) to Vittoriosa, another ancient city just across the harbor. In December, I had a good overview of the island during a panoramic bus tour. I’m drawn to the colorful doors and enclosed balconies and managed to paint a miniature (3″x5″) one.

We were docked slightly before our scheduled noon arrival, and soon after I left the ship with my friend Crissy to explore the main party of Valletta on foot. We took an eight-story lift (€1 round trip) from the harbor to the top of the city fortifications. From there, it’s a mostly flat walk until you decide to take a side street or path, or go Fort Saint Elmo on the tip of the peninsula.

Despite it being Sunday (and Palm Sunday at that), many of the shops were open and apparently all of the cafes, pubs and restaurants.

After walking past the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (closed to tourists today), we stopped in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, a co-cathedral of the diocese. Saint Paul is believed to have shipwrecked on Malta in 60 AD and thus brought Christianity to the island.

We couldn’t pass by sitting in one of the busy plazas to enjoy a drink and, for my late lunch, bruschetta. Clouds eventually cooled the air and I returned to the ship. I’m sure a number of passengers enjoyed dinner in town; the ship’s dining room was pretty sparse.

Last night for our second-to-final formal night the ship hosted a masquerade ball, with events throughout the evening in the Ocean Bar, Billboard Onboard and the Rolling Stone Lounge. My room steward left me a mask the evening before, but I had brought a thin metal one that flattens nicely for packing. I just have to be careful not to poke my eye out!

We are starting to realize the cruise will eventually end. After two sea days we’ll reach Alexandria, Egypt, and then start back west through the Mediterranean Sea. We’ll pick up some more passengers in Athens, including my friend Deb who left in Singapore — to fly back to Kansas and then join friends on a different cruise – crazy, I know, but that is Deb! Just under four weeks left.