Cruise Day 3: Malta (& Gozo)....Part 1

I'm BAAAAAACK!!!!   Actually, we are sitting in a park in Corsica, at the port of Ajaccio, and there is free wireless internet here....so I thought I would make a quick post myself of one of the blogs you've missed in teh past few days while I've been offline!!!   In the coming days, however, you WILL start seeing more activity here on the blog because my dear friend, Hadley, who lives in Germany has volunteered to spend her mornings while we are on our journey posting my musings and photos since I cannot (As many of you know, she started figuring out the workings of our blog earlier this week to get our pictures posted.)  Please bear with her as she continues to figure out the ins and outs of making posts here but also join Jason and I in extending a HUGE THANKS to her a  for her willingness to help!!  

So, without further adieu....here is a post about our Day in Malta....and in the next few days (with Hadley's help)  postings will start to appear about our adventures in Tunisia, Naples/Capri, Rome, Corsica...and then the rest of our journey as we finish our ports and cross the Atlantic....

Well, Day 3 of our fantastic voyage had come to an end....and boy were we tired once the day was over---what with the sun all day and getting up early (after being up probably later than was wise the night before) and a long day of activities!  Day 3 was our first official port ) during the Mediterranean portion of our cruise:  Malta (as you can see from our magnet of the day---featuring Disney's new princess, Princess Tiana----not because she has anything to do with Malto or the Mediterranean...but just because she's fabulous! LOL).  It was also our first day to truly experience what Adventures by Disney is all about.  Obviously we have had a few small events on the ship the last couple days and have spent some time getting to know Robyn & Tina, the adventure guides, and some of the other folks in our group....but we haven't actually done any touring yet.  So before the day even began, we were excited and ready!!



Before I go much farther...I should just let the cat out of the bag that we couldn't have been more pleased with Adventures by Disney that first day----and that feeling hasn't really stopped!  With the benefit of hindsight (for the past few days while my internet was acting up I let myself get behind in actually writing these blogs), I have been able to think about a way to really capture the essence of what we're experiencing with Adventures by Disney in each port without making these blogs too onerously long (which some of you might not mind reading....but I would miss my whole vacation writing!! LOL).  In each port, Adventures by Disney has really offered us special experiences in three main----and so in my future posts about our Adventures ports, I'll focus on providing an overview of these three areas.  They are: 

1.)  History & Culture:  learning about the port itself...this usually came in the form of education from our Adventure guides or from local tour guides and experts in each port....but it sometimes also came from the things we saw or experienced)
2.)  Sights & Scenery:  to say Europe is beautiful would be the understatement of the century.....our port adventures gave us an opportunity to see so many special, beautiful, and interesting things----some of it scenery, some architecture, so geography and landscape, some art, etc.......whatever it was, though, there was a lot to see and take in!)
3.)  Experiences:  in many of the ports, Adventures by Disney coordinated hands on experiences for us to share....many of these experiences were geared at teaching us more about the history/culture of the region and/or to further take in the sights (or BOTH)....but the experiences were a special component unto themselves, as well.

BUT.....now I'm getting ahead of myself...so let's give an overview of how Day 3 went and THEN focus on what we saw, heard and experienced throughout the day!!

The day started early for us.  We woke up and had breakfast in our cabin.  Disney cruise line has the amazing feature of FREE room service 24 hours...and you can leave a card on your door overnight with your breakfast order and a time you'd like it delivered and VOILA!!...you have it.  The breakfast menu for your room isn't super exciting---kind of a continental breakfast with all cold cereals, fruit, toast and pastries and juice----but we don't really need more than that in the morning, anyway (especially since we're probably still full from the night before's dinner! LOL).  Even better, they usually call about 10 minutes before it arrives to tell you it's on its way up....so ordering breakfast not only allows you to have breakfast in your room so you don't have to get up and shower before getting your day started----but it can also serve as a pretty effective wake up call in the morning!!! (And the added benefit of having breakfast on the veranda of your room in the morning is nothing to downplay either!)  Here is a pic of me having breakfast on our veranda that first port day in Malta....bright and early:

After breakfast, we got ourselves cleaned up and got down to the meeting place for our first Adventures by Disney port.  All the other families were there----it's 28 people total and it consists primarily of couples (and one pair of siblings with a family friend) my and Jason's age or older except for 2 younger families with kids (3 children total, 2 girls who are 5 and one boy who I'd guess is around 8 or so).  Everyone is very nice and very friendly and as our time together has proceeded we have gotten to each other a lot better-----this is actually probably one of our favorite features of the Adventures by Disney experience:  the fact that you are in the same small group of people for all of your experiences and so a certain amount of "summer camp bonding" occurs pretty quickly....for people who aren't generally social butterflies like me and Jason, this really helps us come out of our shell and connect with our fellow travelers.  Of course, in addition to our 28 travelers, we also have our two adventure guides, Robyn & Tina.  Here is a picture of the two of them (this picture is actually from Day 5 of our cruise, but it's the best picture of them together that we have so far):

Tina on the left and Robyn on the right.

Robyn and Tina have both been with Adventures by Disney for a number of years and have led many of the Med tours this summer together (and they both actually are guides for a number of other Adventures by Disney itineraries at other times of the year, as well).  To say that we are completely in love with them wouldn't really capture it.  They are both so friendly and are obviously passionate not only about the various activities that they have to offer us throughout this journey...but about making sure that we have the best time possible.  They do so many little things here and there to make our trip special that I couldn't possibly describe them all....but I feel pretty safe saying that as AMAZING as this Adventures by Disney experience is proving to be....one day soon we will look back and realize that one of our favorite components was these two amazing women!!

So here's the one paragraph synopsis of our day in teh Maltan port:  Just after getting off the boat, we were all loaded onto a bus and introduced to our guide for the day (I believe her name was Feo (pronounced fee-yo)...although I am probably spelling that wrong),  We had quite a winding and long bus ride  through the main island of Malta (which included some wonderful information about the island from our guide and amazing views) to a ferry boat which actually took us OFF the island of Malta and over to an adjacent island called Gozo.  We did quite a bit of sight-seeing on Gozo---in a small fleet of open air jeeps that seated 4 guests each----including looking at much of the local geography and towns, an amazing feature of the coast line called the "blue window,"  a small artisan and shopping area with glass blowing and ceramics and silver and wood and iron and lace, had lunch and then had a chance to swim in the Mediterranean.  Our lunch was at this amazing little restaurant right on the coast with an amazing view of the cliffs, geography and water.  Here is a picture of our appetizer, which was some bruschetta, roasted veggies, a salad and a locally made sheep cheese (that was very strong and very firm).  My main entree was a pasta dish which was basic but yummy.

So here are some more details and images from our trip (broken up into the three main categories).....

History/Culture:
From our guide we learned a ton about Malta----more than I could ever possibly capture here----but here's  a few interesting points.....Malta is actually part of an archipelago nation (meaning a chain of islands) that is made up of several islands.  Only three of these (if I'm remembering correctly) are actually populated, however.  One of the islands is widely believed in this region to be the island that the Apostle Paul (from the New Testament of the Christian Bible) was shipwrecked (a story that is also featured in the Bible).  Here is a picture of that island----it's one of the unpopulated islands but does have a monument:
As you might expect, with a history that includes some christian/Biblical relevance, the island of malta is a deeply religious and Catholic one.  There are tons of churches and cathedrals and many stories in the country's history that in some way revolve around its religion.  (I mention this because when we are in our Italian ports, there will be much focus on churches and religion----so this is kind of the beginning of a trend you'll see in severl later ports.)  One interesting fact, related to their religion, that our guide shared with us about Malta:  their nation has NO divorce! (which I thought was an interesting claim to fame).
The very creation of the island(s) of Malta is kind of interesting, too----because the islands are very populated with TONS of buildings and development....even though, for all intents and purposes, the islands are pretty much a wasteland.  There are, apparently, NO indigenous animal species save for a one or two birds kinds of birds and a couple kinds of small lizard (We didn't see any birds or wildlife of any kind during our visit which I thought was odd and prompted me to ask about it.)  In addition there is very little vegetation because there is both limited soil and limited rain.  The islands are basically huge chunks of limestone raising up out of the sea (and they use quarries to get that limestone as a building material).  In addition to the being very little rain...there are NO natural sources of fresh water on the islands (no rivers, no lakes, no mountains from which to collect melted snow, etc.).  Because of this, the island has really two ways of getting fresh water for its population----the first is that they use large plants to desalinate sea water (much like a cruise ship does).  In fact they told us that about 20% of the island's energy resources go towards removing salt from the sea water to provide fresh water to the islands.  In addition, all the houses and buildings have large containers on their roofs to catch what little rain DOES fall in the area so that it can be utilized.  Here is a picture of some of these reservoirs:

Experiences:
Our primary experiences in Malta & Gozo were the Jeep tour of Gozo that took us to the Blue Window, visiting the little artisan village and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.  The Blue Window is an amazing natural rock structure that creates large archway above sea level.  It's really beatiful and was quite a sight to behold.  Here are some pictures from our jeep tour and from the Blue Window:

one of our tour jeeps

One of our tour jeeps from behind (with a few of our fellow adventurers)

me riding in jeep through the island of Gozo

The "Blue Window"

Jason & I posing in front of the Blue Window

Our next experience was visiting the little artisan village which featured local craftsmen (and women) who did glass blowing, ceramics, silver work, iron work, pottery, and created lace.  The glass blowing was both beautiful and interesting....and they gave us a free blown glass paper weight as a gift, too!  Here are some pictures:

our guide, Feo, talking about the glass blowing process and holding up an example

one of the glass artists at work

the free glass gift we got----Jason and I chose blue---along with our pin of the day (this is the last pin of the day I'll post on a day to day basis...I've decided instead to post one picture later in the trip that features all 10 of our limited edition collector pins on our Adventures by Disney backpack)

Swimming in the Med was also amazing....the water is a little chilly and SOOOOO salty...but beautiful.  Here is a picture of us swimming in the Med in a little cavern just down the coast rom the cafe where we had lunch...and also a pic of me with the souvenir towel they gave us as a gift:

swimming in a cave in the Mediterranean

Souvenir towel...a nice surprise (pic is blurry because there is a water droplet on the camera right over my face LOL)

.....OK...well it is 4:29pm local time and all aboard on the ship is 4:45....so while I have a LITTLE bit more about Malta and Gozo that I'd like to share...I have to log off and get back on board or they'll leave me here!! LOL   I will email a "Part 2" of Malta with a few more pictures to Hadley later this evening so she can post it for me....and be on the lookout for more posts in the next few days as we try to catch you all up with our adventures!!!