I had fun seeing family for Christmas in Germany, and enjoyed missing Michigan's weather while in Malta. Between Rothenburg, Frankfurt, Mainz, Malta and Tunis I saw more churches, temples, mosques, and other religious sites than you can shake a stick at. That wasn't entirely what I had expected the trip to be, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
Rothenburg was a small, pretty town with a nice wall, Christmas markets and a famous Christmas store. It was a good place to spend Christmas. The streets were narrow, the buildings were old, and generally what you'd expect from a stereotypical German town from a Christmas movie, because it's the town in a lot of those movies.
The weather wasn't quite what you might want for Christmas - not enough snow - but it was fine for us walking around.
The valley below Rothenburg was quite green while we were there, and the rest of the family insisted that we needed to go into the river somehow on Chrismas. As you might imagine, our feet were very very cold. There were some interesting sights in the valley though, including the fortified house built by a former mayor of Rothenburg.
Finally, the Christmas Store was much larger than I think any of us expected, and would probably be quite entertaining to see outside of the Christmas season. On the 23rd of December? It was packed.
Frankfurt was big, cold, and with a decent number of churches, museums and galleries. It was definitely far more modern than Rotherburg, but that's not entirely a good thing? It's just a thing.
Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany, and very nearly the financial capital of Europe. As such, it's the home of the European Central Bank, and there was some art exemplifying that.
The art museums were quite varied, from classical to modern, and with some ivory sculuptures I was quite impressed by.
I also visited Schloss Johannisburg, a very modern castle.
Mainz had a pair-and-a-half of Gutenberg Bibles. Honestly worth the train ride from Frankfurt for that alone, but the cathedral was quite impressive too.
Malta was small but the weather was nice, it was easy to communicate, and there was history everywhere - whether that be some of the oldest prehistoric structures known to man, Medieval fortifications, or second world war era bunkers.
I arrived on New Year's Eve, and spent the start of the year in the main square. Not the best concert I've ever seen, but it was a fun atmosphere and a good start to the visit!
The city of Valletta, and Malta in general, was quite hilly, with stone construction and narrow streets. It was actually less walkable than I had expected - once you got outside of the main areas, things weren't really planned for pedestrians. Still, the streets were pretty, and the walls of the old city were quite formidable.
A funny part of Malta was that I saw four cathedrals in the country, despite the country being quite small. This came from three sources: there was an Anglican cathedral added by the British, the Catholic cathedral on Malta was located in two places, and the second-largest island gained a cathedral in 1864. All told, I would not have been surprised if there were more cathedrals per capita in Malta than any other country bar Vatican City itself.
The Cathedral of St. John in Valletta had some of the most impressive stonework I've ever seen, with the entire floor covered in marble grave markers. It was the home of one of the world's most successful military religious orders, and it showed. The ceilings were incredible too - if you have the chance to visit, I highly recommend taking the belltower tour to get to see things up close.
The existence of four cathedrals in a city of only 550,000 people wasn't enough to stop them from builing far more churches throughout the country. From St. George's Basilica in Victoria to the Rotunda in Mosta, there were a ton of churches in Malta, and many were quite beautiful. The most unique was certainly the Grotto of St. Paul, where according to tradition St. Paul lived and preached during his three-month stay on the island.
Perhaps the more modern churches shouldn't be a surprise though, considering the archipelago's history. Malta is home to some of the oldest prehistoric structures known to man - older than the Pyramids of Egypt or Stonehenge. The sites of Ġgantija on Gozo, and Hal Tarxien, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra on the island of Malta were constructed around 3500 BC, and originally stood much taller. After falling into disuse, they were buried under layers of soil, with exposed stones eroding away over time. After excavations in the 19th century, the remains have unfortunately deteriorated further - but several of the sites are now situated underneath protective structures.
The islands weren't abandoned following prehistory either - seemingly everyone from Phonecians to Romans to Arabs decided to settle here before the it was conquered again by the Normans.
Visiting these sites was a nice experience, and the included audio guides (here and at other government sites in Malta) were honestly the best I've used anywhere, only lacking a text transcript. One further site that I was able to visit that I do not have photos for (sadly forbidden) was the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, a three-level prehistoric burial site discovered in 1902. Unfortunately, the excavations and general treatment of the site were badly bungled, and many remains were not properly preserved, and the site was used for a variety of inappropriate purposes including as an animal pen and bomb shelter. Today, the site is limited to 80 visitors per day to prevent further deterioration of the wall paintings.
Nearby the sites of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, there is a wonderful natural site to visit - the 'Blue Grotto'. A series of caves and arches along the coast, you can visit in a small boat for, and it was quite worth it.
Finally, Malta has some more modern history to offer as well - whether the 100 Ton Gun from the late 19th century (obsolete nearly as it was installed) or the bunkers used during the Second World War.
Sicily was a last-minute addition to the itinerary. There is a daily ferry from Malta north to Sicily, and I decided to take a tour offered by the ferry company. I ended up seeing yet more churches!
Tunis, built on the site of ancient Carthage, was only a few dozen miles from Malta, and so I planned to spend a weekend there. However, the only airline that flies between the two was TunisAir Express, which rates a solid 9/10 on the "airline sketchiness" scale. It's the feeder airline for TunisAir, which is rated as one of the worst airlines in the world, which was a major warning sign. The airline operating two planes because they crashed the third into the Mediterranean was another warning sign. I still booked the flight, but things went wrong even before my first flight was due to take off - my return flight has been totally cancelled and I was rebooked a day earlier. That's not enough time to spend in Tunis, so I spent 2x more for a 7x longer itinerary to fly back to Malta via Paris instead! A great start.
Tunis itself was definitely... Something. In general, there wasn't a huge amount to do, but there were a few must-see attractions like the ruins of Roman Carthage and the mosaics of the Bardo Museum. Food options near downtown were quite limited, despite the restaurant within my hotel being quite good. During the day there was quite a bit of life, but things closed up fast when the sun went down. This may have been different in other parts of the city, but not mine. Still, I'm glad I visited - even if I probably won't be back for a while.
The Bardo Museum was incredible if also not as well taken care of as I would have liked. The mosaics were incredible, but there were far more empty display cases than I was comfortable with, and while there were icons+NFC tags for audioguides I was unable to find one. Entry was so cheap as to be almost free, and it wasn't at all crowded - though that might have been the season.
It is hard to describe the number of mosaics without saying that ancient mosaics of a quality sufficient to be displayed in a museum overseas were used as flooring here.
Not everything in the museum was mosaics though, and there was some impressive Arabic decoration, and an early Christian baptistery.
I also visited one of the first mosques in the country, The Ez-Zitouna Mosque.
The main attraction of Tunis though was the Roman ruins of Carthage. The ruins were quite accessible, and almost nowhere was roped off or otherwise off limits - though the ruins themselves were not always the most spectacular.
Seeing ancient mosaics outside and exposed to the elements wasn't really a pleasant experience, though.
Still, the ruins were interesting to visit, and taxis to get between them were cheap. I do wish I had been able to pay for the uber-equivalent with a credit card though, instead of with cash.
There were two more stops I made within Carthage. One was the Ennejma Ezzahra Palace, with a stunning (if small) interior - apparently the first museum to open in the country following Tunis's independence.
The final stop was the United States North Africa American Cemetery, which I had not known existed. 2,841 Americans are buried here from the Second World War, with an additional wall for the names of 3,724 missing.
