Malta - Tuesday

Well it’s Tuesday evening and we have finished all of the maths coding. Nicole and I had a nice sunny day on Sunday but the weather has turned and we are fine sitting inside all day doing the coding. It’s times like these you know that you’re on an island in the middle of an ocean! We have had gale force winds and I can hear it whistling all night…. Not particularly conducive to a good night’s sleep!

Anyway I took this photo from my balcony shortly before it got dark – it will be another night eating in the hotel tonight I feel – last night we only ventured across the road and nearly got blown away. Anyway to those of you in sunny Melbourne – enjoy!

I’m really looking forward to being home now, particularly as Karen had a baby girl last night (or this morning) - Hannah Rose welcome to the world! I am so excited, I can’t wait to see her! Congratulations Karen and Jeff...

Malta - Saturday

Arrived in Malta last night, hotel is ok, although full of tourists – mainly oldies off on a “Discover Malta” adventure. I bet they don’t make Campbells Cream of Chicken Soup like they do back home! hehe

Anyway off early this morning on one of the amazing buses. Most of the buses on the island are beautifully restored old Bedfords and the like from the 50’s and 60’s. They are pretty amazing but the suspension is what you would expect and they belch the most god-awful diesel fumes! However they are a relatively cheap and regular mode of transport so what the heck!

First stop was the Tarxien (Tarsheen) Temples. When I was dropped off by the bus I couldn’t find where they were, so asked a local walking down the street. When she heard my accent she asked where I was from, and then told me that her son lived in Melbourne, in Sunshine! Small world hey! The Tarxien Temples were excavated in 1914, and are thought to date from between 3600 and 2500BC. The carving decorations were pretty impressive, as was the large stone statue that is thought to be of a broad hipped woman – perhaps representing fertility – but then of course this is all pre-history and so supposition. However given the dates of building they are very impressive.
.

Second stop for the day was the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. It’s an underground necropolis, consisting of halls, chambers, passages and a temple, constructed 4000BC or before. When it was excavated after 1902, they found the remains of some 7000 bodies interred there. It’s pretty mind-boggling to try and imagine how people of that era could have cut rock down to 10m below street level and formed such amazing chambers. The walls and ceilings of many of the areas are smoothed, and there are niches cut for the bodies to be interred. The temple has an alter, and a corbelled ceiling, which means it’s carved to look like you’re looking up at the ceiling in a church.. sort of. One of the most fascinating things I thought was that at the equinoxes the light comes in through one doorway and filters down through three others into the innermost sanctum of the temple, about 10m below the original ground level. It’s all now a world heritage site, and access is limited as too many people breathing out carbon dioxide have already irreparably damaged some of the paintings inside. So no photos, but there are heaps on the Heritage Malta web site.

After this I caught a bus back to Valletta, then another to the walled city of Mdina. Around 1000BC the Phoenicians built a protective wall around the settlement here. The Romans built a large town in the same place, but it was given its present name when the Arabs arrived in the 9^th century – madina is Arabic for walled city. No cars are allowed inside the walls so it’s very quiet, and the Maltese are doing their best to return it to its history – removing overhead wiring, repaving in the style of the time etc. It’s very impressive, and very quiet!

There’s an order of nuns that live in here whose members live in strict seclusion. No man can enter the buildings, and the sisters are not allowed to leave – even when they die they are buried within the walls of the convent. Next door to the nunnery is St Agatha’s Chapel, which was built in the early 15^th century. St Ag was a 3^rd century Christian martyr from Sicily who fled to Malta to escape the amorous advances of the Sicilian governor. When she returned to Sicily she was imprisoned and tortured, and her breasts were cut off with shears. She was then burnt at the stake. Bet that story keeps the nuns in their place! This is the view from the walls of Mdina over Valletta.

OK another busy day done – one more day of rest and then the TIMSS meeting starts, so all hands on decks for the next week!

Milan, Wednesday

The first pics today are all from the Duomo. I had the opportunity to go up to the roof, which was pretty amazing, being amongst the flying buttresses and surrrounded by all those spires! The first photo shows the Italians' dual loves - the church and football! The second is one of the giants on the spouts, the spouts being at the end of the flying buttresses, which have a channel between them to funnel water off the roof.
The third is on the roof, and the fourth is in amongst the flying buttresses. The duomo is marble and stone, and there are huge stone slabs making up the roof. The next photo is the Maddonnina, which is on the highest spire of the cathedral and at 109m high is supposedly the tallest of any of Milan's monuments. It's covered in 3900 gold sheets. The last one is a pretty freaky gargoyle up on one of the high towers!

After this I walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. This bloke is famous for, along with Napoleon III, kicking out the Austrians and becoming the first king of a unified Italy. It's very grand, with it's glass-domed roof, and tres exclusive, as you can see from the shops! Of course on one of the corners is a Maccas. Go figure..Luis Vuitton must be turning in his grave (if he's dead!). On the other side of the Galleria is a plaza with a statue dedicated to Leonardo, who spent some time in Milan.

Next stop on the tour was the Castle Sforzesco, built between 1360 and 1370 as a defensive bulwark. Of course this was burned to the ground, and so they built another one... (this burned down and sank into the swamp.. no just kidding!). So it was rebuilt in the 15th century.. bit by bit. If you have a close look at the last photo, there was a gorgeous grey cat sunning itself - I took this one for you Jess!


On the other side of the Castle is a huge park, and at the other end of the park is the very impressive Arco della Pace, or the Arch of Peace. It was built in the early 1800s, and its construction was urged by Napoleon Bonaparte to direct the gaze to Paris, from whence the Emporer could make a dramatic entrance to the city. However later in the 18th century the Savoia family replaced some of the inscriptions and the arch was dedicated to the new unified Italy.
The last photo is the campanile for the church next door - the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio.. it not only chimes on the hour, but sometimes has an extended chiming at 1/4 to the hour....