We start the day with a lecture by Mr. Lawrence Ancilleri, a retired Maltese history teacher. His focus will be the Cottonera Experience. Composed of the three adjacent cities of Cospicua (aka Bormla), Vittoriosa, (aka Birgu) location of the Inquisitor’s Palace and Senglea (aka L'Isla), they are collectively also known as the Three Cities.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Cottonera
After the lecture, we board the bus to visit the area and view the various rooms of the Inquisitor’s Palace.
http://www.malta.com/en/attraction/culture/museum/malta-inquisitor-s-palace
http://heritagemalta.org/index.php/museums-sites/
We have lunch at a harbor-side restaurant. For a special treat, we board boats, called Dghajsa. Look a bit like a gondola we will sample when visiting Venice Italy in a few weeks. Unlike the gondola being paddled, this one has a brief time the “captain" paddles us away from dockside and then fires up the gasoline engine, since we will be spending about an hour traveling around the harbor area to view various sites, like the many fortresses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzzu
http://www.maltesewatertaxis.com/home/
While traveling around the harbor, my eye was attracted by a LARGE beautiful sailing ship – the Seacloud II. A 3-mast, 350 foot long ship launched in 2001. The styling of ship and cabins are of an earlier age. Think 1930s with beautiful wood and brass fittings.
http://www.seacloud.com/en/the-yachts/sea-cloud-2/
Wow, we find out too, we will be playing bocci. Most of us are expecting the Italian version so many are familiar with. No, the Maltese have a variant that we wonder how the game has changed from what we might have had a chance to play. Instead of bocci balls, we toss around what feels and looks like a can of soup.
Bocci Malta Part 2 played at Thalassalejn Bocci Klabb St Paul's Bay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBxQTeRL8M
http://malta.cc/traditional-maltese-games/playing-bocci-in-malta/
Photo 1. Mr. Ancilleri drawing a map of the area we will be visiting.
Photo 2. A sign at the entrance of the Inquisitor’s Palace.
Photo 3. A display show the 500 year history of the building that has had many uses after the most infamous one )-:
Click below for today's online photo album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/magwheel44/2013C2CDay10of28
