Christmas and New Year's in Malta

With so many places in Europe that I haven't been to, I probably should have found another place to spend Christmas and New Year's, but I really enjoyed Malta the first time I went. I was only there for a couple of days that time, and this time, I spent a week and got to see a lot of what Malta has to offer.

I can't believe that I didn't see the Co-Cathedral of St. John on my first trip, and I was more disappointed when I saw how incredible it was.

I learned that the Maltese cross has eight points because there is one point for each of the eight "langues" of the Knights of St. John. Each langue came from a different geographic area of Europe, and each one had a specific alcove inside the cathedral. Nearly all contained crypts of Grand Masters from that langue and impressive displays of paintings and sculpture. Each of the rectangles on the floor of the cathedral represents a knight buried in the cathedral. Simply amazing.

The altar was beyond belief. The light level in the cathedral was quite low, and I'm glad the camera in my phone can take such great pictures. I may finally have been convinced to give up the separate camera and only use the phone.

On my previous trip, I spent a day on a hop-on hop-off bus that went through a fishing village called Marsaxlokk. I wanted to see other places on that trip, so I didn't hop off, but I spent a couple of hours this time. Enough time to learn how to pronounce the name -- Mar-sa-shlok.

The village square:

This time, I also really got the sense that the norther end of the island was almost entirely fortified against attack. This picture of Birgu is a good example.

And there was a nice sunset: