Malta/Sicily Day 12: Malta to Home

Thursday, June 25, 2026

Kenna and I woke up extra early today so that we could have our bags packed and placed outside our cabin door by 7 am. We beat that schedule by a few minutes, which gave us time to take a final stroll around the Sea Cloud II and get some coffee. Breakfast at 7 was with Dave and Jan, discussing future travel plans.

The expedition leaders noticed that there were quite a few people with outgoing flights around 1 pm, so they arranged a bus tour to the Rotunda of Mosta and then onward to Malta Airport, timed to arrive at 11 am. Right on schedule at 8:10, we were called to disembark, say good-bye and thank you to our tour leaders, identify our luggage, and board the bus for Mosta.

Mosta is a smaller city near the center of the island of Malta. The Rotunda is a parish church that is noted for being the third-largest free-standing stone dome in the world. It is also notable for having been bombed in World War II. A large bomb came through the Rotunda dome during a religious service but did not explode. The rotunda interior is beautiful, having been painted in a calming Wedgewood-ish shade of blue, with many paintings around the circumference. The ceiling (dome itself) was beautifully restored and decorated with a tiled pattern. We also visited an adjacent World War II shelter in front of the church, another reminder of the many attacks Malta weathered during that period.

We arrived at the airport exactly as planned, retrieved luggage from the bus, and checked in. The premium lounge at Malta airport was very pleasant, although a bit crowded, and had a number of Maltese foods to try before we left.

Our flight to Frankfurt was routine, and we saw a number of our fellow cruise passengers on the plane. We had just enough time to pass through the queue at immigration and on to our flight home to San Francisco.

This article is the final installment in a series about our recent trip to Malta and Sicily. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.