Day 10 Off to Malta

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This is it. Today we are off to Malta where it has been 42 years since I last set foot on this little rock in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

A very early start today. We had to get up at 5 am to leave before 6 o’clock to get the car back to Avis before 7 am. Anyway we made it in time so no extra charges for late return. We did complain about the state of the car when we got it and they gave us an upgrade voucher for our next car hire. Only problem is, is that it’s only valid for six months.

After we returned the car, we were taken to the terminal by courtesy car. We had to wait about an hour before the check in opened for our flight to Malta so we had coffee at one of the coffee shops. Once we checked in, we still had about 3 hours before the flight; we had breakfast at a restaurant which was actually very good.

PS to all: No wi-fi at Heathrow. Just like Australian airports.

They started boarding our Air Malta flight about ten minutes before our scheduled departure so consequently we were over thirty minutes late taking off. As it turned out, we must have had a strong tail wing as we arrived at Luqa about 5 minutes early. The flight seemed to be so short, in no time we had flown over France with magnificent views of The Alps. We then flew down the Mediterranean, down the coast of Italy and over the island of Sicily.

After we arrived in Malta and went through immigration, our driver was waiting for us in the terminal. The drive to our villa was exciting, the driving here is maniacal. Anyhow, we arrived safe and sound at our villa, which is really a flat. The complex comprises of 2 x 2 bedroom units and 1 x 1 bedroom unit with the owners residence on top. It has a pool, which at the moment is freezing, and a guest laundry. The main thing is that it is clean and well maintained.

After we settled in, we went for a walk up the hill to Mellieha village to get some supples to start off our couple of weeks here.

The weather today is clear and sunny but the wind is very strong and after the sun went down it got quite cool although the unit inside is warm. The family next door invited us for a drink and we were actually shivering in the wind until we put our jumpers on.

We had a reasonably early night here as we intend to go to Valletta tomorrow.

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