Arrival in Malta (population 410,000)

My parents met and got married in Malta 59 years ago, so this was a trip down memory lane for them and an opportunity for me to learn more about their early lives than I’ve known until now. They signed the deal at St Andrews Church of Scotland in Valetta, because Leith born dad wouldn’t dream of entering the house of any other lord. The minster’s parting shot ‘I hope I’ll be seeing you again’ probably raised the silent response ‘not likely!’ They moved from ‘his and hers’ navy barracks to live at 55 St Katherine’s St in the south western town of Birzebbugia for their final six months on the island. Mum became a navy wife as WRNS had to be single women. Dad stayed in the Fleet Air Arm through this, and later postings back in Scotland and Germany.

The house looks exactly the same, apart from a new coat of paint, and massive fuel storage tanks are still around the corner. Things staying the same is not an uncommon scenario on an island where remnants of the built environment date back to 3000BC and buildings from the 16th century are still in daily use - more on this in later posts.

Much has changed however, and development shows no signs of slowing down. After the Brits left and the Navy Shipyards closed down, independent Malta needed some means of making a living. The strategic position that had served it so well and so disastrously during WWII came into its own in peace time, and a massive transfer station for container cargo coming and going through Suez and throughout the Mediterranean is right on our doorstep.

A tanker depot sits to the landside on a point between two sandy beaches, and the next town round the coast Marsaxlokk (pronounced Marsaslock) is the main fishing port for the southern and western ends of the island. There'ss also a major power station there. It’s all amazingly clean for all that industry going on.
A large, ornate Catholic Church sits at the heart of Birzebbugia, like all other Maltese towns. It is also home to many smaller churches dedicated to different saints, and for the pleasure of passing amateur photographers. A tour guide told us there are 365 churches on the island – one for every day of the year. Not bad for an island with less than half a million people! Many churches have two clocks - one with the correct time and one wrong to trick the devil who may be waiting to catch the faithful as they go to mass.
More about Malta in later posts - for facts, figures and a better picture of the history than I am going to produce in two weeks check details on Wikipedia.