Solid as the Rock of Gibraltar

The Rock of Gibraltar, the Pillar of Hercules, famous in legend and advertising, stands guard at the narrowest point between Europe and Africa.  WRONG !

Actually it is several miles east of the narrowest point where the distance between continents is about 8 miles..  We were scheduled to arrive at about sunset so we could see the sun setting over Gibraltar.  It did not happen.  Strong headwinds delayed us, so we arrived well after dark.  This is what we saw.

I circled the Rock.

A Taste for Tomatoes

Malta, a small Island nation, has lots of people and very little land to grow crops, so family farms are small and the land is terraced and divided into many small family farms.  The Mediterranean climate favors the farmers with a long growing season.  However, tomatoes, the main crop grown on the farm we visited, are grown in a greenhouse.

Since the same soil is used year after year, they sterilize the soil by flooding it, covering it with clear plastic and letting the sun heat it up to a high temperature for 2 - 3 months before planting.  The growers start their tomatoes from seeds from Israel which has a similar climate.  When the plants reach about 2 feet high they attach a string from the top of the plant to a wire overhead.  As the plant grows the string is shortened and the lower leaves removed.  As fruit forms on the lowered area it is picked and the plant lowered so it has more room to grow and the stem, now without leaves or tomatoes, is coiled on the ground.  This way, tomatoes are ready to pick every 7 - 10 days, and all picking is at a reasonable height.  The greenhouse is totally enclosed, so pollination is done by boxes of bees imported from Holland.



Most of the tomatoes are sold at local markets, but some are sun dried or processed into sauce, jam or sauce.  The farm also grows other crops such as artichokes, olives, zucchini, figs, prickly pears, strawberries, grapes and peppers.  These are processed, bottled and sold, either individually by the jar or combined into "Christmas baskets" which are sold by mail order.  The local grapes, 2 kinds, are made into wine.  The wine must be aged in either stainless steel or glass, usually in small batches.  They tried oak barrels, but for some reason it did not work out for them.  The wine cellar is 10 meters (over 30 feet) below the surface in a cave dug out of solid limestone to keep the temperature constant.






















Now that we had seen how the food was grown and the wine made, it was time to taste all that they had grown, processed and made.

We were served fresh strawberries (the best!), dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sweet zucchini pickles, artichoke puree, olives, home made bread, tomatoes, olive oil, bread with tomato spread, olives and onions and a baked bread with a filling of diced vegetables and olive oil.  All of this could be washed down with water or your choice of red or white wine from their wine cellars.

The old cathedral in Mdina

Our drive to the farm took us out into the countryside with several towns in the distance.  We could see the churches in Mdina and Mosta in the distance, but did not go into the towns themselves.

The old Cathedral in Mosta

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We passed fields of wheat and all kinds of flowers and vegetables.

Since we had to stay in Valletta overnight due to Tunisia being cancelled, we went to a local chamber orchestra and choir concert at the huge, old cathedral in the old capital of Mdina.  The Cathedral was very ornate, huge, acoustically perfect and the perfect place for the concert, one of the best we have ever attended.

The town of Valletta on the north side of the island of Malta has been a trading center for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years, partly because of its excellent harbor.  The harbor is highly fortified with walls and buildings made of the local limestone.  This makes it one of the prettiest harbors to sail into and out of.

Our docking site, right by the Old Town

The harbor entrance

Once we were outside the harbor, the pilot ship came along side so the harbor pilot could leave us to go to another ship.  At each port of call a local harbor pilot is required to come aboard and guide us into the harbor and get back on board when we leave to guide us out of the harbor.

Alexandria the Great

Actually, Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria, Egypt, around 300 years B.C., and at one time it was the greatest city in the world.  It had one of the 7 wonders of the world, the lighthouse that was at the entrance of the harbor.  The Library of Alexandria held copies of all the known "books" in the world.  Alas, its glory was not to last.  The library was burned down not once, but twice.   The city was hit by earthquakes, tsunamis, storms and finally it sank into the sea when the African tectonic plates collided with European plate.  What was left returned to a sleepy fishing village.




The city has regained some of its former glory.  It is now the largest city on the Mediterranean Sea and has a new Library of Alexandria.  This one has all the advantages of the digital age.  You can go to its web site from anywhere in the world and search the books, pulling them up in many languages.  There is a section of books for the blind or sight-impaired.  Rare books have been scanned, so it is possible to study them without causing further damage. 

 The design includes special lighting and window elements which allow daylight in all the reading areas without any direct sunlight.










One of the outside walls has "letters" from all the known alphabets in the world.  To round out the project, there are several mini-museums in the building including one which has artifacts discovered during the construction of the museum.  There is also a separate research building and a planetarium.




We also visited the Alexandria Museum, a small museum residing in borrowed quarters until its real home is up-dated.  Our guide led us through the rooms, pointing out specific items of interest in each area.  That was much better than letting us wander on our own, since there was so much to see.  As it was, we had some free time, but couldn't begin to cover the floor which held the more recent (100 and after) pieces.  She pointed out that mummification continued well into Roman times, but it was not as well done and the sarcophaguses were not nearly as ornate.














The field of underwater archaeology is relatively new, but it is now discovering some of the "lost" city of Alexandria.  Divers locate pieces, carefully mapping the location.  If the piece is going to be removed from the ocean, it must be place in water, with several changes of water to remove the salt.  Then, when it is dry, it can be studied and/or go on display.









Modern Alexandria has its share of tall buildings with mosques often huddled among them.

It also has the Asian disregard for traffic rules and has the resultant traffic jams.
Even graffiti looks better when you do not know what it says and it is written in Arabic script.

Where are the locks?

There aren't any.  What ? A canal without any locks?  Well, you only need locks when there is a significant change in elevation, like going over a mountain range, and there is only a few feet difference between the elevation of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.  That is why the Suez Canal is nicknamed "The Ditch."

When the canal was dug in 1869, it was done by hand, a monumental task covering (or rather uncovering) about 78 miles.

In the south part of the canal all you could see was mountains of sand lining the canal.

The canal zone includes the canal itself, 2 lakes and the land immediately surrounding them. The zone is separated from the rest of the land by a fence.  In some places there was new construction on the other side of the fence.There were occasional piles of things that looked like shipping containers and roads leading to the canal, but mainly just sand.

I have no idea what this is.

The military presence is shown by "guard towers" and various installations.

       At one point there was a landing pad for a helicopter with a road leading to the canal.



















Originally the canal itself was only wide enough for one ship, except in the 2 lakes.  In 2015 a second parallel canal was dug, so the whole thing is now a "2 way street."

As we approached the Mediterranean Sea, more signs of civilization appeared.

Sea-ing Fish

The Red Sea has some of the world's most spectacular coral reefs.  Some say they are better even than Australia's Great Barrier Reef.  There are three ways to see the beauty.

Scuba:  This takes equipment and training.  We have friends who do this regularly.  We do not.

Snorkeling:  This involves minimal equipment and cost,  However, this does involve getting into the water and swimming or at least floating with some kind of flotation device.  Those of you who know me well will realize that this is something which I am not comfortable doing.

Glass bottom boat.  Now, that is something I can do, so I did.  After about a half hour drive through Sharm el Sheikh, we arrived at a resort, one of many, which had a floating dock out to glass bottom boats.  The arrangement was to have 8 windows in the bottom of the boat with seats all around, so you can see whatever is below the boat.  Our boat traveled to an area where the coral is close to the surface.  Fish like the coral area because some eat the coral and others like the plankton churned up by the boat.  Without further ado, I present some of what we saw.

Yes, this is a fish, but just the front half!

Our boat left from a nice resort, one of many which lined the beach. 

Where there was irrigation, the plantings flourished.  But away from the tourist area, this, too, was a desolate rocky area.


Sharm el Sheikh is at he very tip of the Sinai Peninsula.  It looks as if it could be a part of Africa, but it is actually part of Asia.  Arabic is the main language spoken here, as in the rest of Egypt.