Malta | 20-24/02/11

Managed to get 700 odd photos down to this lot. Took me long enough!

May upload some more at a later date!

Some of my favourite photos I took in Malta back in early 2011. The architecture there is amazing. So much work went in to buildings and I thought it was too good to not take photos of! Enjoy!

I absolutely loved it there; Such a beautiful place. There is such a clash of cultures too; where we were staying, the Intercontinental Hotel had a mall, cinema, and clubs in the same road, and looking over those buildings to the distinctive limestone buildings on the skyline. Places we visited include: Mdina, Valetta and Victoria on Gozo (The northern island next to Malta) and I highly recommend those places if anyone goes to Malta!

Malta is also famous for its prehistoric remains - the Hypogeum being one example. We didn't have time to visit a lot. Perfect, good excuse for another trip there!

Building in Valetta.

Gardens in Valetta.

Straight hill road, Valetta.

Something us British aren't too used to - grid system city plans! I love the straight roads in Valetta!

The picture on the left shows Valetta on the right hand side of the harbour. This was taken coming in to land - the airport can be seen in the top of the photo.

And below, a panorama I made looking out onto the harbour from an archway in the gardens shown in the photo 2 pictures up.  

The photo below was taken in Mdina, the old capital of Malta. This was one of the best places for my architecture photos. I took over 700 photos over the 4 days. Managed to get it down to about 200!

Main alleyway, Mdina.

Valetta Skyline.

Church in ?Valetta?

Valetta Building.

Cat on Balcony, Mdina.

I loved looking down alleyways. You'd never know what you'd find! Old lamps, plants, trees, secluded gardens. A bit like a lucky dip! I feel they have so much character and they are all unique. 

Alley in Mdina.

 Doors. Like the alleyways, they have so many different styles.

Green Double Door, Mdina.

Blue Single Door, Mdina.

Red Double Door, Mdina.

Light Green Double Door, Mdina.

Leaf Green Double Door, ?Mdina?.

My favourite door photo from Malta. Old and rusty. This was taken after a long walk through all the alleyways in Victoria on Gozo.

Old Rusty Door, Victoira, Gozo.

This was St Paul's in Mdina. (below)

Looking Up!

Apologies - I forget which church/cathedral this was in. 

Grave Floor. Malta.

Alley in Mdina.

Alley in Victoria, Gozo.

In Malta, one of the main building blocks in older buildings is limestone, which is composed of dead animals. Walking through the alleyways and back streets I found numerous fossils in the stone.

Limestone Fossil Shell.

Something I think that defines Malta are their very unique buses. The bus below is similar to a Maltese bus but Gozo buses are different colours; the Maltese ones being yellow and black. They are so full of character as most of them are made from bits of other buses, have been built from scratch or passed down through generations. I managed to get a brilliant photo of the Maltese buses - 4 of them lined up and interestingly, in order of age too! (right) Adding to the unique-ness is the bus terminal in Valetta.

Traditional Gozo Bus.

Not really a photographic last part but I wanted to share this because I thought it was awesome. The trompe l'œil dome in the Citadel in Victoria, Gozo. Not enough money was owned to complete the dome, so a fake one was painted on. I thought it was interesting.

I could write for hours on the trip but this is a photo blog, not a travel one! So I better stop now before I start boring you!

Having been to Malta I can cross it off the list of 'I want to go to...' places! Up next is Iceland, Canada and New Zealand!