What a cool day for our last day in Malta! 

We woke to find a marathon ruining outside our hotel!  8 years ago we were in Barcelona and had a similar experience!  They ran on the street right below our hotel room here!  A 5K walk passed first,  then the elite runners,  1 and 2 passed by.  i believe best time was 2 13.

We took the ferry over to Valletta with the intent to see the war museum at Fort St. Elmo.  To our surprise  and delight, there was a reenactment of grandmaster Valletta and the Knights of St. John coming to the islands of Malta in 1530.  It only happens occasionally,  the next in about 2 weeks,  so we were very lucky to come at the right moment!

The ceremonial arrival of the Grandmaster Valletta, the founder of the city.

Each flag was presented to the Grandmaster and the flag of St John, the red field with the white cross

The flags and who they represent,  knights of St John came from each of these regions, originally in the 1100s to liberate Jerusalem from the Turks, then to Rhodes, where they ran hospitals for the pilgrims.  When the ottomans drove them out, they came to Malta in 1530. 

The first 3 flags are representative of regions of France

They also enacted a sword fight

After the reenactment, we visited the war museum which covered the entire history of Malta.

The George cross,  awarded to the countrymen of Malta, the only time in history it has been awarded to a whole country

We walked to the Lower Barakka Gardens for the view

Then we decided to walk up to the city center for lunch.   We stopped again at the Valletta market.  Soup and sandwich,  Maltese street food style

We encountered another,  our 3rd serendipitous event!  A competition for Carnival in Malta, where dance teams were competing in the Republic square in the heart of Valletta.   We had seen a group on Gozo, practicing,  when we visited from St Paul’s Bay!  We just couldn’t figure out what that group was practicing for! 

Just a few more street scenes,  then back to the hotel for a rest.