I took today's photo early in 1990 in Malta. It's a view of valletta from Sliema taken from near the Sliema Ferry.
After Brunei and my wandering around Sarawak, Sabah and Hong Kong I'd returned to the UK expecting to go to Pakistan. I had my bags packed and I had my rental car booked to get me to the airport the next day when the phone rang. The voice at the far end told me the client in Pakistan had struck water, not oil, so I wasn't going. A week later I was headed back to Libya.
I was a tad nervous. I'd left in 1986 with an open court case against me and had been sentenced to five years suspended for five years for the crime of brewing beer. Maybe the sentence was so long because the beer was pretty bad – after all, it's not as though there was a home brewing center in Tripoli so the ingredients were pretty rudimentary.
We often transited through Malta and that was to be my way back. On my first trip in 1984 the Libyan consulate had refused my entry visa. I'd rejoiced but my employer told me to wait a few days and the Libyans changed their mind. In those few days I got to explore the old city of valletta and some Knights Templar sites but I didn't have a camera. On subsequent trips I had a camera but I never took the time to explore again.
The intervening years and the new passports meant I wasn't red-flagged at the Libyan Consulate. My visa was issued while I waited so I only had the afternoon to explore once more.
We used to stay in a hotel on St. George's Bay and visit the clubs and restaurants and drink the local (high fiber) beer. ‘Cisk' I think it was called.
While wandering along the sea wall at Sliema, somewhere near the Sliema Ferry, I took this shot across the bay to valletta.
The church with the tower and spire is St. Paul's Anglican cathedral and the domed building behind it is the Carmelite Church. There's no shortage of churches in Malta. At this time, the structure on top of the dome was under repair. To get there the workers would climb the adjacent tower then cross on the scaffold bridge and climb up the dome.
I was fascinated by the history of Malta and now I regret not spending more time there. On the other hand on one occasion when my brother and his family rented a house for a week's vacation, they were robbed and their passports were among the items stolen which kind of put a damper on their vacation.
Besides Templar history, and fascinating churches, Malta offers excellent diving and all the usual Mediterranean night life.
And Malta's the place where I found my all-time favorite bread of all things, in a restaurant overlooking Spinola Bay.
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