Watercolor Sunday and Saturday's Color: July 2018

When August comes, does it feel like summer is ending or still in full-throttle for you?  Actually, I always started thinking of school in August, whether for me or my kids, which made me think about the fall...before it started!

Right now, however, we're still dealing with record high temps all over Europe and, sadly, not enough rain.  So, yes, summer is still full-throttle for me.

Here are my Watercolor Sunday posts on Facebook for July 2018:

July 1 (photo manipulation):

"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves
as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government.

I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."

--George Washington

HAPPY July  1st and 4th to all my Canadian and American family and friends.

July 8 (photo manipulation):

"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead;

his eyes are closed."

--Albert Einstein

July 15 (photo manipulation):

"You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarted than you think."

--A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

July 22 (photo manipulation):

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

--Mother Teresa

July 29 (photo manipulation):

"I imagine that yes is the only living thing."

--e.e. cummings

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My Saturday's Color posts on Facebook for July 2018:

(finished on 19 February, posted on FB 7 July 2018)

Believe it or not, I had already queued up this Vintage Patterns design before connecting the fact

that last evening we were eating dinner with an Irish man and his Dutch wife.

I love how the Celtic knots stick out like a sore thumb, don't you?

More Irish you cannot get!

(finished on 27 December 2016, posted on FB 14 July 2018)

I love the quote in Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" when Shug says

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

YUP.

(from my mini-mandala 6 x 6 in. book)

(finished on 5 February, posted on FB 21 July 2018)

It's that time of the year to notice Mother Nature strutting her stuff everywhere we go.

(from my Stained Glass book)

(finished on 12 March, posted on FB 28 July 2018)

These are colors I like together, even if I might not ever wear them.  HA!

(from my Mandala book)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Here's a fun tooting-my-own-horn moment, if you don't mind:

It goes back to all the posts I published about all our capers while in Malta, 2016.  Remember?  It so happens that Raymond Fenech, who lives there and is an author of short stories, poems, articles and essays, published in 12 countries, contacted me last year to request the use of one of my images at the Addolorata Cemetery.  In exchange, I would receive a copy of his book.

Talk about a man of his word!  That book arrived by mail this week:

The Incident of the Mysterious Priest, 2017, Adelaide Books

And yes, one image with credit to me.  :)

Thank you, Ray!

MALTA: The Three Cities

If you remember back to my post on Valletta, Malta's capital city, you may recall that across the Grand Harbour from Valletta are the Three Cities that jut into the harbor facing Valletta.

But first, here we are again to get our bearings...from our Buggiba hotel to Valletta.

It was an hour's ride on the bus, stopping all along the way.

Now look at this closer-up map of the Valletta area.

There's Valletta, the big peninsula.  Across the harbor to the left are The Three Cities:

Kalkara, Vittoriosa and Senglea.
(The only city we did not visit was Kalkara, the least populated of the three.)

To get from here (Valletta) to there (The Three Cities), we started in Valletta's 

Upper Barrakka Gardens...rounded the corner...

 ...from which you get the beautiful vistas across the harbor to The Three Cities.

Pay attention to the Saluting Battery and all those cannons...fired every day at noon and 4 p.m.

We were not in Valletta to see a firing but we were in The Three Cities...later.

From the upper gardens we took the Barakka Lift down to the harbor.

It can transport up to 800 people per hour, in 2 cabins of 21 passengers each.

Completed in 2012, it replaces the old lift (from 1905-1973), 58 meters (190 feet) high.

Talk about saving a lot of time and effort!

Down at the harbor, we caught one of the ferries that crosses every 15 minutes

for €2.80 per person round-trip.  What a great service!

We could have taken one of the gondola boats, of course...but we didn't.

As soon as we got off the ferry in Vittoriosa and started walking, guess what!

They were renovating said gondola boats.

And a bit further, we found the St. Lawrence Church we had seen from the ferry.

It wasn't open when we were there, sadly....

...but the café around the corner was, where we stopped for our morning break.

Cisk beer (pronounced CHisk) is made in Malta.

Notice the "loitering" men again!

Of course, we walked around to see whatever we could see.

And before we knew it, we found a bridge to cross over to Senglea, the next city.

As you can see, there are harbors and boats everywhere.

AND more boat renovation...this time of regatta boats!

This gentleman was delighted to explain everything to Astrid about the races held each 8 September,

commemorating Malta's National Victory Day in 1565 and 1943.

Guess what!  That big race is TODAY, from 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

What a koinky-dink!

I know you think we eat all the time but it was time to eat our main meal of the day.

Notice the St Lawrence Church across the harbor from our café.

Like what we did in Valletta, we then walked up and down the streets,

almost able to stretch out our arms to touch the harbor on either side.

And speaking of churches, one was now open...

Our Lady of Safe Havens...aka Our Lady of Porto Salvo...

so, of course, we entered.  

It was Saturday, so it made sense to see some prepping.

Just a short walk away we were at the tip of the Senglea peninsula in the Gardjola Gardens.

And because it was almost 4 p.m., we waited and watched the firing of the cannons from Valletta.
In such times I am so thankful for my 1200-meter zoom lens!
(And, yes, that's moi inside that little tower, wearing my hat.)

By now we were on our way back to pick up our ferry for the return trip to Valletta,

and found this Nativity of the Virgin Mary Church open, built in the late 16th century.

Remember, there are 359 churches in Malta and Gozo, most of which are Roman Catholic.

Did I mention how the weather wreaks havoc on everything in Malta?

Yup.

But how can you not love the place!

Everywhere you go there is history and culture...and beauty, beauty, beauty.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

If I can get all my last ducks in a row, I have one more major post of our April's Malta trip:  GOZO.

I'll try to make it into ONE post, from the day's excursion we took there.

Wish me luck...before we leave for England on 23 September!

MALTA: Valletta, the Capital City

We're now at the part of our Malta trip (from April!) that is the most important to most tourists:  Valletta, the capital city of the Maltese Islands.  Do you notice how I have saved it for the end!?!  Well...almost the end, that is.  I still have two more posts, but...that's then and this is now.

Here we are, again, getting our bearings.

Remember how we did the Grand Harbour tour around Valletta last post?

Today we will be inside Valletta, as well as looking out beyond.

In fact, if you lay that Valletta peninsula on the top map on its side, this is what you get.

It has two natural harbors, Marsamxett Harbour and the Grand Harbour (which we saw last post).

The city itself is only 0.8 sq. km., the smallest national capital in the European Union.

Because it's the start and finish of every trip we took to Valletta,

we'll start with the bus terminal next to the big Triton Fountain, installed in 1959.

From the bus terminal, you walk a few meters through the gate of the city,

and immediately see the stairs to the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

But more on that next week.

For now, the gardens are a high vantage point to The Three Cities
across the Grand Harbour, as well as to inland vistas of Malta far away.

But if you don't climb up the garden steps, you walk straight through the city center.

Remember St. John's Co-Cathedral (top-left)?  

That's right off the main drag.

In fact, that's also where we found a delightful Wi-Fi spot, twice,

for lunch and liquid refreshment (English hard ciders).

We had very poor internet reception at our hotel,

so this was a perfect solution.

You may recall me saying that Valletta was ruled by the Brits for 150 years.

You feel and see and taste their influence everywhere.

It's one of those cities where you just...walk around!

Doesn't that fountain (middle left) remind you of Rome?

Speaking of which, so did the cats, which the Maltese clearly love.

Because the peninsula is so narrow, you can see the harbors on either side,

as you look up and down the side streets.

Does this city remind you of anywhere else???

Well, at least the hilly part, yes:  San Francisco!

And, yes, we climbed up and down.

There are 25 churches in Valletta within the space of its 900 x 630 meters.

(Malta and Gozo combined have 359 churches!)

Besides St. John's Co-Cathedral, we entered two other churches.

I have no clue which one this is...

But this is the Basilica of Our Lady of St. Carmel, from 1570,

one of Valletta's most famous churches.

In fact, that's a good segue to another vantage point from somewhere UP in the city.

That's the St. Carmel Basilica (top-right)...within Valletta.

But The Three Cities are off in the distance across the harbor,
much of which we saw on our Grand Harbour cruise.

Is this all starting to run together for you?

Well, it still does for me, too, not knowing where one leaves off and the other begins.

But that's the next Malta post...The Three Cities...followed by Gozo, the other island.

And then, yes, we'll be (drum roll) finally d o n e.

MALTA: The Sliema to Valletta Harbor Cruise

I know, I know.  It's a never-ending story but, believe it or not, I have saved Valletta (Malta's capital city) and Gozo (the other big island) to the end.  So, yes, we're very close to ending our 11-day April holiday in Malta.

On our second day, Saturday, we decided to take the cruise of the Valletta Grand Harbor, also known as the Port of Valletta, to get an overview of the capital city, which we knew would be a constant point of reference our entire stay...which it was.

To get our bearings again, we took the bus from our Bugibba hotel to Valletta.

Actually, to be correct, we got off at the Sliema stop because that's where our harbor cruise began.

 The Msida Parish Church in Msida was as far as the bus could take us.

From there we walked along the harbor for half an hour to our boat in Sliema.

It was a foretaste of what was to come...

...with plenty of people-watching along the way.

Once we found our docking spot and waited for the next boat, we had a nice koffie break

 and watched all the other cruise boats taking off.

Remember, Malta relies on tourists for its livelihood.

Since we're waiting, here's a closeup of the approximate cruise route (not the land part, silly).

It took 75 minutes to go from the left dot around to the right dot,

starting in Sliema and ending on the eastern side of Valletta.  [Google image]
As you can see, Valletta is a peninsula city, with the Grand Harbor on its eastern side.

Here's a partial sky-view to give another point of view.  [Google image]

Our boat was the MSV Life "Sliema to Valletta" ferry.

We booked it through our travel agent because it was a longer tour than the others.

OMG!  Where do I begin??!!

It doesn't take long to realize there are churches everywhere.
Measuring 900 x 630 meters, Valletta has 25 churches, most of which are Roman Catholic.

And boats, of course.

Sailboats, yachts, cruise boats, catamarans, freighters, navy vessels, etc.

After all, this is the Mediterranean Sea area.

There were cranes everywhere...massive ones in dry dock area.

From such a cruise you see how "walled" the city really is, 

established in the 1500s by the Knights of St. John.

Where did they get all that stone???

Right.  The island is full of it!

After rounding the lighthouse and bridge from the Grand Harbor,

you're definitely out to sea...the Mediterranean Sea, of course.

Once docking in Valletta (not back in Sliema where we started),

we immediately met this fine gentleman, who was a good beginning to our Valletta experience.
He was so proud of his Maltese boat called luzzu (luzzus, pl.)

But our Valletta experience is another post to come....