June 26-29, 2024
We sailed from Dubrovnik to its close neighbor – Montenegro. Although both are European countries, crossing the border by land can be a challenge since there remains a fair amount of animosity between the countries lingering from the breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent war in the early 1990’s (reports of hours long wait for those driving from one country to the next). Montenegro is also one of the more friendly countries toward Putin. Nonetheless, the sail along the southernmost fjord in the northern hemisphere into the walled city of Kotor is popular with cruisers, with most ships anchoring in their harbor and taking a quick tender into port.
After Montenegro, we had an actual sea day (hurray!) to recuperate as we sailed on to Malta.
The island of Malta was “given” to the Knights Hospitallar of St. John by Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530 to defend it against the Moors after European powers retook the island in the early 12th century. Initially, the Knights settled, along with the populace, along the southern bank of St. Elmo Bay, but when the Siege of Malta began in 1565, it was apparent the middle isthmus was the most strategic. The Knights withstood the 4-month long siege, and planned the city of Valletta on the isthmus to prepare for future invasions. The Knights ruled the island until 1798, when some of the French members of the order, sympathetic to Napoleon, allowed the French troops in to rest, and turned over the island to the French without a shot. The townspeople were not fond of the French soldiers, as they looted the churches and “would not respect the locals”, so they tricked all the soldiers into Valletta and locked them in – for 18 months. In 1800, the British agreed to “help” – and as is often the case in the world, ended up making Malta a British protectorate in 1801 and a colony in 1813. During WWI the island was “The Nurse of the Mediterranean”, hundreds of doctors and thousands of nurses treated the wounded. Unfortunately, a British colony sitting strategically in the Med was a tempting target for the Axis powers and was heavily bombed in WWII but never fell, the valor of the people of Malta earned all of the island the St. George Cross. The war rooms became the launching pad for the Allies invasion of Sicily, and at the end of the war, Churchill and Roosevelt met here prior to meeting with Stalin in Yalta.
Yes, the walls are high. Luckily, there is an elevator ( €1 roundtrip) from the port area up to the top of the city wall. Not much to look at while waiting on the way up, but you are in the Upper Barracks Gardens while waiting on the way down, where I hung out and chatted with friends Ann and Tabitha.
Then onward to Sicily. The island – the largest in the Mediterranean, has been controlled by almost every major power in history, from The Phoenicians in the 11th century BC to the Greeks, the Romans, the Vandals, the Moors, the Vikings (briefly), the Normans, the Spanish, the French, briefly by The British, self governed and finally part of Italy in 1861. 163 years later, the people here refer to themselves as Sicilian.
But the “official” symbol is the Trinacria – the three legged man. Each leg symbolizes the three promontories of the island of Sicily placed in a pattern of rotation suggesting energy and movement.