Maestro On The Move: #maestroonthemove - The Maestro in Malta

Monday began with a having a decent nights sleep and then breakfast in the hotel. Good way to start the day. As part of the wedding week, it was an option to go on a boat trip that explored some of the areas and other islands off the main coast of Malta. The boat -

A Hornblower Yacht at that - took us off the coast of the mainland of Malta

We passed by St Paul of the Shipwreck island. Kinda cool

Random Pics of the sea and rock formations

We made it to “The Blue Lagoon” where we docked and got to swim in the Blue Lagoon. We were allowed to jump off the boat and even use the slide that was connected with the boat.

I opted not to swim as salt water and I don’t really get along. So I took a little walk on the island and grabbed a cocktail in a pineapple. It was a Blue Hawaiian - which I’ve never had before…

It was just OK. Hard pressed to find any brown liquor in this area. The hotel bar has Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels.

We took a side-trip to the island of Gozo. The boat took us there and we took a bus up to the town part of the island.

Just picture this, a tour bus on very narrow streets - where people drove on the left and didn’t seem to have any traffic laws - talk about major anxiety. I’m glad I wasn’t driving the bus.

We ended walking up to a square where there were artists selling things, people selling Malta merch and there were several restaurants. We didn’t have too much time, however I got to go into St James Church. As a rule, churches in Europe are simply the best.

And even Ben and Jerry’s!

We got back to the boat and headed back to the mainland

That evening, I had dinner with Megan and Katie, two teachers that used to work at OLA. Many drinks were consumed, as well as some awesome Sea Bass… I never eat fish, but this was really great.

The next day (Tuesday) was wedding rehearsal day! Rehearsal was at the church at 4:30pm and I had these great plans to do some tourist things before rehearsal. Well, to get the real story about what went on before the rehearsal for the wedding, you’ll have to wait for the memoirs.

The wedding was at St. Gaetan Parish. This is a google image as the front of the church was being worked on and there was scaffolding everywhere.

When I got to the church, I went to hunt down the organ. Now in December, Kathleen sent me this picture

OK - so there are pipes. They look interesting…. So we’ll just have to see. All pipe organs are different, so I had no idea what to expect. SO - I get there and the pastor had to find the key and we finally got the organ open. The first thing I noticed that there were no pedals. This is what I saw when I opened the organ

1 manual and 6 stops. Well, the first thing I thought was, “Well, I don’t have to take my Docs off to play as there are no pedals an no volume/shade pedal to deal with. But what will it sound like? 6 stops can’t be that powerful - after all - I had some pretty triumphant pieces to play. Well, mostly flutes and maybe one principal stop. It was quite like a calliope - without the steam. I’m not sure where the pipes actual where as some of the sounds were coming from the organ console. I didn’t have time to even see if the pipes were real or for show. Anyway - it was what it was.

Pictures of the Church

So, on we went to the rehearsal dinner. The venue was incredible. The dinner was held outside.

Wedding Party

The food was incredible. I started out with this appetizer salad- thing…. Pretty much all Maltese ingredients including octopus! It was incredible.

The rest of the dinner was so good that I didn’t take any pictures. Pork, Meatballs with peas and carrots, swordfish, potatoes, and ratatouille - not to mention some awesome Maltese desserts.

The next day was the wedding. In the morning, I had breakfast in the hotel, went back upstairs to begin to pack as I was leaving at 5:00am the next morning. I took a walk and visited the Barretts and the Phillip’s at their place and hung out for a while. Then it was time to walk back and get ready for the wedding.

We were all busses to the church and the reception, so it was important to be on time. The wedding went well. Kathleen’s 7 year old niece sang “Ave Maria” by Daniel Kantor and did a great job. I couldn’t take any pictures as I was a little busy. I did pen the responsorial psalm for the day - I guess it was OK. The reception was at the Saluting Battery in Malta. It was very beautiful. The food was incredible