Election Day bus tour

It's election day in Malta today. Malta gained independence from Britain in 1964 and became a republic in 1974. 

So Queen Elizabeth, who spent a lot of time here on visits to be with husband Philip when he was stationed here with the navy in the late 40s/early 50s, was officially the Queen of the country of Malta for just 10 years.

Malta joined the EU in 2004.The president is currently a woman but today is General Election day and the winning party's leader will be the Prime Minister.

We did a bus tour of the south of Malta today but didn't see any polling booths, just election billboards.

As we drove around the main island we also saw lots of Maltese flags flying. Malta's flag includes the George Cross. Queen Elizabeth's father King George VI awarded the George Cross to the people of Malta in 1942 for their heroism in resisting massive attacks by Italian and German bombers.

We set out from the heart of Valletta, near the man-made "ditch" which is one of the city's fortifications.

On the way to the south coast we passed a spectacular harbour filled with yachts, a mosque, walled gardens, bare land, and vineyards.

Lunch, fresh tuna steak for Linden and mixed fish for Matthew, was at the fishing village of Marsaxlokk.

After lunch we traveled back to Valletta, past the airport, the blue grotto, limestone quarries and quite a lot of unused, rocky land with old stone walls. Bright splashes of colour from bougainvillea and oleander completed the picture, along with olive trees, cacti, lemon and fig trees. 

We finished the day with a visit to an aristocratic 16th century home, still lived in today by a marquis, and another reminder of World War 2. Under the house a former water storage cistern was converted into a bomb shelter. We didn't take any photos of the house or bomb shelter but you can see great photos of Casa Rocca Piccola by clicking on the link.

We did take a photo of Kiku their parrot though.

Finally, seeing we spent most of the day in a bus, we should mention that in Malta vehicles drive on the left hand side of the road. (The UK, Ireland and Cyprus are the only other European countries that do that).

So that's almost the end of our Malta stay. So much still to see. We've loved Valletta and would come back in a flash. Tomorrow we're off to Sicily.