AM Meetings and 1/2 Day Valletta City Tour

We had our morning meetings and a yummy breakfast!  They provided us with sack lunches after our meetings-- they were HUGE!  Way more food than we could eat, but it was good!  We went back to our room and ate them on our patio.  We toured Malta's capital city of Valletta this afternoon.  It was built by the Knight's of St. John-- a religious group seeking to fortify the island from invaders.  Malta has quite the history!  Malta is a very strategic place in the Mediterranean and EVERYBODY throughout history wanted control of it and pretty much did!  You name them, they were here!  It was fun to walk around the old streets and see the buildings-- built in the 1500's and onward.  There are forts and fortifications as far as the eye can see when you view from the Grand Harbor-- supposedly the biggest and deepest in Europe!  (That's what the Maltese say anyway.)  I enjoyed the gardens, as well.  There isn't a lot of greenery here, as water is scarce.  We had free time and poked around all the little shops along Republic Street-- the main street of the grid patterned city.  We saw a 5D film about the history of Malta.  It was used as an air and naval base during WWII and was heavily bombed by the Nazi's.  They didn't manage to gain control of it though...thankfully!  It would've been very strategic for them, as it would've shut down the Allies ability to refuel to fight the war in the pacific! Malta was under British rule for about 200 years until their independence in the 1960's.  They speak Maltese and English here because of it.  They also drive on the wrong side of the road and are still considered a Commonwealth country of Great Britain.  Maltese is a mixture of Arabic, Italian and a little bit of French on some other languages, as well!  I enjoyed our tour guide who was very knowledgeable and friendly.  She did a great job!  After we got back to the hotel, we ate the rest of our lunches that we didn't finish and just relaxed in our cool hotel room!  (It is VERY hot and sticky here!)  Later, we took a walk going left out of the resort this time, down to to the sandy beach but Katelyn wasn't feeling well so we came back.  She had tummy problems-- probably from eating her sandwich that had been left out.  Bill stayed up to watch a movie, but I kept dozing and falling asleep.  My body is just worn out and exhausted from the past couple of weeks!  It has truly been crazy and now we are jet lagged on top of it all.  Looking forward to relaxing a bit here in Malta!