10 Year Anniversary Trip to Malta <3
For our 5 year anniversary, we spent several days in Hawaii, and that was by far the craziest thing I’ve ever done! Little did I know, that 5 years from then we’d be living in Europe and able to travel anywhere! We had originally planned to visit Africa for a safari or something outrageous like that, but Nick wasn’t able to get clearance to go there.
We decided on a trip to Malta, which actually turned out to be a much better option looking back. Malta is beautiful! and just what we needed. We left the kiddos with some wonderful friends and spent 3 nights on the island.
Our AirBNB was on the 4th floor of an apartment right across from the water.
We spent our first day wandering around the main island.
Nick went for an early morning run and to find me some food before I woke up. This was great since I was 9 weeks pregnant for this trip and VERY sick! He also got a feel for the city and was a great guide for the rest of the day 🙂 I love his love for running and movement. He brightens my life and nudges me out of my comfort zone.
Holy huge Yachts!
This pregnant mama was hungry (again) so we stopped for a quick brunch 🙂
We took a little ferry over to ….., the main city. Aww, sunshine in January 🙂
We just wandered around …. It’s so much easier without kiddos to just walk and enjoy. It was a great day.
One of the TOP 3 MOMENTS of our trip for me was finding a smoothie shop. It had the same swirly logo as Jamba so I was hopeful. It was EXACTLY like Jamba Juice! A WONDERFUL treat for my morning sickness and pregnancy craving. I should have bought and eaten 3 more… soooooo refreshing.
You know me, gotta stop and take a picture of any breastfeeding art we stumble upon 🙂 beautiful.
A bucket list item for Nick on our European adventures has been to drive a right-sided car. In Malta, they drive on the left-hand side of the road so I made it a point to rent a car for our trip! Actually, I even paid a bit more to NOT get an automatic, just to give him a little challenge driving stick with his left hand.
It took a day or so to adjust, and navigation for me was a bit tricky, but he picked it up quickly (no surprise) and it was quite fun!
That night, Nick took me out to a delicious Malta dinner and then to a concert of Baroque music in a breathtaking cathedral. It featured music by Pedro Ruimonte, Music composed for the court of the Archduke Albert & Isabella Clara Eugenia. All the instruments played were authentic and consistent with the time period, which I really enjoyed!
It was a wonderful treat that we wouldn’t normally be able to do with the kiddos in tow.
Day 2
We drove across the island (which was beautiful) and took a ferry over to the second island, Gozo.
The ferry ride was actually quite nice!
Ggantija Temple Ruins
We drove over to some ancient ruins, which may be the oldest things I’ve ever seen! It was very interesting and it had
Ramla Beach
We tried to explore Calypso Cave where Ulysses from Homer’s, “The Odyssey”, was trapped for 7 years by the nymph Calypso. It wasn’t very well signed though and I’m not sure we made it to the right spot…
We hiked down the hill to the beach, which was quite steep, but the beach was beautiful! I ended up staying there while Nick hiked back up the hill and brought the car down. One of the perks of being 9 weeks pregnant 😉
Day 3 –
We enjoyed another beautiful morning at our AirBNB. What a view!
After checkout, we wandered down into town to explore some of the history of the apostle Paul. The island of Malta is supposedly where Paul shipwrecked and stayed for several months, converting much of the island to Christianity while he was there.
This is the catacomb where Paul lived for a bit during his stay on the island. We were the only ones down there so explored the catacomb quite a bit!
There was also some World War II shelters under the cathedral. They were long, winding, narrow tunnels carved from the sandstone where people took shelter during bombings. Imagining thousands of people in these corridors was overwhelming. They continued onward for quite a long time and we ventured quite a ways into them before it because too claustrophic (for me!)
We spent the rest of the day just exploring the city and caught our flight home that evening. What a great little getaway for our 10 year anniversary 🙂
~ Tolman Travels ~
