2016 By City

Annual year by city post. Each of the below cities included at least a one-night stay in 2016. Cities denoted by an asterisk included multiple visits.

• Puerto Peñasco, Mexico
• Dorado, Puerto Rico
• Washington, D.C.*
• Tysons Corner, VA*
• Waterloo, Belgium
• Münster, Germany
• Schallodenbach, Germany
• Sliema, Malta
• Sedona, AZ
• Huntington Beach, CA
• Saratoga, CA
• Houston, TX
• San Diego, CA

Europe 2016 - Malta Day 2

On day 2 in Malta we started the day at the Sunday Fish Market in Marsaxlokk. The market consists primarily of fish that was caught in the Mediterranean during the same morning, but also sells locally produced honey, fruit jams, vegetables, souvenirs and clothes. The market is right where all the brightly colored fishing boats are anchored.

I bought some Maltese honey.

Allen bought breakfast at the market.

More brightly colored doors...

We then went to St. Peter's Pool, which is a natural pool and supposedly a popular place with the locals.

The water was so clear.

Allen and I both cliff jumped from this spot. I wasn't going to but Allen talked me into it and I am so happy I did...would have regretted it if I didn't jump.

We stayed at St. Peter's Pool for an hour, maybe two. It was in a secluded place and roads were not great to the pool, so you had to park and walk for a bit. Once we got back to our car (which was parked in this family's backyard who we paid a couple of euros to park) we drove to the opposite side of the island to catch a ferry to Comino.

There were lots of jellyfish in the water where we were waiting for the ferry.

On the ferry to Comino.

Comino - this is a small island and a popular tourist spot so it was extremely busy.

The water was beautiful though.

This was our spot where we hung out for the afternoon.

On the ferry back to Malta.

We got back to our place and got cleaned up and walked to dinner again. We both had seafood that was most likely from the Marsaxlokk market. I had Mediterranean sea bass and I forget the kind of fish Allen had. Mine was very similar to branzino (maybe the exact same thing) except I had to de-bone it and eat around the head - I like it better when the kitchen does that for me :)

And finally since this was our last night in Malta we stopped again for gelato.

Europe 2016 - Malta Day 1

After an exciting time getting through security in Frankfurt (long and short of it is I had 5 armed German police officers surrounding me because my bag tested positive for explosive material on it), we made it to Malta around 10pm.

Allen got our car all checked out, and he knew it was a stick shift, but neither of us knew the driver side of the car would be on the right-hand side. We loaded our bags into the trunk, and I went to get in the passenger side, only to see the steering wheel. Allen did a great job driving, as well as parallel parking the car on the steep, crowded streets. I never felt like I was going to die and was so thankful I was not driving...because we might have died if that were the case!

Saturday morning leaving our Airbnb for the day.

The view from breakfast Saturday morning.

Driving around the island. I was surprised at how much desert landscape there was - I was thinking it was an island like Hawaii.

Our first stop was the Popeye Village. This was the set for the 1980 movie, Popeye, starring Robin Williams. I had never seen the movie but Allen said he had many times. 

Popeye and Olive Oyl

Strong like Popeye

We then stopped at Golden Sands Beach for a couple of hours.

Our afternoon stop was St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina, Malta.

During one of Paul's missionary journeys he was shipwrecked and spent 3 months on the island of Malta.

The site of this cathedral is supposedly the location where the Roman governor Publius met Paul following the shipwreck.

The town was decorating for the celebration of St. Paul which was happening the week following when we were in Malta.

As we walked the neighborhoods, we noticed so many different colored doors.

Our place didn't have an interesting color door.

We were staying in Sliema, which is a major residential and commercial area. We were able to walk to dinner both nights. This was the patio we had dinner at on Saturday night.

Allen ordered the Maltese sampler.

After dinner we stopped for gelato since it was also right around the corner from our place.