Friday, 31 May - St Julian's
I am going to have to write my blog twice daily because so much is happening each day that I cannot tell you everything in one sitting. I just have to start today's write-up with last night's cataclysm  -  Peter doing his laundry. You'll be interested in that. Just before retiring for the night, Peter felt a strong urge to do his laundry. Pretty simple really. Just pop the knickers in the machine and go to bed. No worries. After awhile I noticed the street lights reflecting on the tiled floor. Pretty. But why hadn't I noticed this feature any previous night? Because it was a water feature. Why would we suddenly have a water feature? Because we have water. By now you will have guessed the cause of the problem, the washing machine.  So I had to ring the owner. There was nothing in our unit to cope with a flood. About 15 minutes later a sleepy--eyed landlord turned up to discover the pipe had become detached from the drain. And thus he met his current guests. Peter thoroughly enjoyed sitting chatting to Mark while he fixed the washing machine and soaked up his flooded property.

And now to today's full day tour entitled "The Second World War in Malta & its British History (1798 - 1979)" . This tour is only available once a week so we were extremely fortunate to be in town on a Friday. There were 12 tourists and our guide Vincent who is Maltese. Our tour began in the Vittoriosa Museum and commemorated the 3,000 sailors who were killed in this very harbour area. I had read the Nicolas Monserrat book "The Kapillan of Malta" (thanks Josephine) and also "Operation Mincemeat" which are essential background reading to be able to appreciate the tour. However, how different it was to walk through these catacombs which were air raid shelters for 500 people at a time for between 2 hours to 5 days. Residents had 8 minutes to grab what they could once the sirens started and get themselves into sub-terrainian safety. The critical thing to take was a bucket as the original residents of the catacombs did not require toilet facilities. And remember, most air attacks were during the night. Our wonderful tour guide Ruth explained the myriad of human problems that arose during the long periods of incarceration.  The birth rate doubled during this time so a birthing room had to be scraped out of the limestone caves. Many thousands of people died purely because of disease. Food was rationed increasingly to 1 slice of bread per day per person.
We then were taken into Valetta for a walking tour through some of the streets and much information was given to us about the Knights of St John who came to Malta in 1530. Then we heard the complicated history from then to today. Fascinating. So different being on location listening to it and seeing the stunning portrayal in the Museum.
And another paragraph needs to be written about the wing of the Museum devoted to the unbelievable arrival of the SS Ohio in 1942 just days before Malta was going to surrender. It was the bravery of her captain and surviving crew who sailed into Valetta with life-saving supplies of fuel and food, thus allowing the remaining Maltese to continue their fight to victory. WHAT a story
It's no wonder that King George awarded the George Cross the all residents of Malta on April 15 1942.
There is so much more I could share with you, but you will just have to come and experience it all for yourself. It's looking as if it 9 days here are going to be inadequate.