Malta is of course a sovereign country. Tiny Gibraltar, by comparison, is one of those little political oddities, a relict of Britain’s colonial adventures, that has its own parliament and generally administers its own affairs. And like Malta, Gibraltar is part of the European Union.

A thin veneer of Englishness

Malta and Gibraltar both pack a few surprises. Folks jet in from other parts of Europe and expect Cockney voices or fish and chips; a dash of England with the big plus of more sunshine. And in truth, tourist-oriented businesses in both Malta and Gibraltar do pander to just such expectations.

But you only need to scrape below the surface of either to find that neither Gibraltar nor Malta have more than a thin veneer of Englishness. Both have their own distinctive languages, a reminder that British efforts to impose their own language on these communities were not entirely successful.

Malta is noted for its fabulous old-fashioned buses.

An intriguing ethnic mix

Many visitors to Malta who have Middle East experience comment that Maltese sounds uncannily like Arabic, and they are not far off the mark. Maltese is closely related to Arabic. Gibraltarians speak Llanito, which draws heavily on Spanish but also has words of Arabic, Hebrew, English and Genoese Ligurian origin.

Culturally, both Malta and Gibraltar are an intriguing mix, each community reflecting the respective patterns of migration that have underpinned the development of the two territories. Who ever would have guessed, for example, that Gibraltar has a thriving Jewish community? Or that the threads of Armenian life are alive and well in Malta?

Malta and Gibraltar are both incredibly interesting places to visit and linger, and more in spite of their historic links with Britain than because of those connections.

One of our favorite travel writers, Jan Morris, has written a novel called Hav about a fictitious port in the Mediterranean. Ms Morris certainly had somewhere much further east in mind when she imagined Hav (and in truth, her chimerical Hav, which has a rather Levantine demeanor, enjoyed direct trains from Russia). Yet there is just a hint of Hav as you wander the alleys of the Maltese capital Valletta or explore the backstreets that cling to the west side of the Rock of Gibraltar.

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Since 1867, London has placed blue plaques on many of its most historic homes and buildings.  Today, there are hundreds of little blue signs all over London. You can make full day trips just touring one neighborhood, like Bloomsbury, trying to locate all the plaques.

According to English Heritage, which sustains the signs and decides which buildings will get the plaque treatment, they serve to “celebrate great figures and the buildings they inhabited.”

Who’s who in blue

Perhaps the city’s most famous (and photographed) plaques are those for the writers and scientists who made their mark on London. Virginia Woolf’s can be found in Bloomsbury while George Orwell’s blue ‘do resides near Hamstead Heath. J.M. Barrie is just off Kensington Gardens.

Other notables include William Pitt the Younger, Nancy Astor (the first woman to ever sit in Parliament), Evelyn Waugh, H.G. Wells, and Samuel Pepys, to name but a few. You can see the full list of plaques here.

May we suggest a blue plate walking tour? Here’s one option to get you hoofing.  Or, create your own.  Best of all, all field trips are free!

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