Malta Travel Blogs, page 17

Europe » Malta » Malta » Mdina June 5th 2010

Today is Saturday and we went to Mdina and Rabat by way of Valletta. After visiting Valletta on Wednesday, we realised we only had a few shots of the old Royal Opera House. We came to take some shots of the ruins, just inside the city gates before we headed off to Mdina on the bus. Even this week, there has been a bit of debate in the Times of Malta about the rebuilding of this structure. Very much an ongoing debate here in Malta. The Triton Fountain outside the gates was also working as well. We finished a few things in Valletta and then headed to Mdina on the bus. On the way we passed an impressive row of arches which we finally realised was an aqueduct built by Grand Master Wignacourt back in the ... read more

Day 13 Mellieha

Europe » Malta » Malta » Mellieha June 4th 2010

01 Old Mill Restaurant

pedwards98

Today we had a very quiet day and just spent a bit of time around Mellieha village. We also spent some time around the pool just soaking up some rays. We did a bit of shopping in town, bought some scratchies (winning €5) and just wandering around doing the touristy thing. In the evening we had dinner out at an old mill in Mellieha. This mill was built during the time of the Knights of Malta and so dates back to around 1600. The meal was extremely enjoyable. I had Norwegian Salmon with a pernod sauce and Gina had pan fried rabbit. The fish was good however some of the rabbit was a little tough. As I said, a quiet day but lots more to come tomorrow when we plan to go to the old capital ... read more

Day 12 Mellieha Bay and Sliema

Europe » Malta » Malta » Sliema June 3rd 2010

00 Sunset over Gozo

pedwards98

Today we went and did some exploring around Mellieha and Sliema. This involved an awful lot of walking and we should have had the iPod with us as we could have created a world record for steps taken in one day. We started out by leaving our villa complex and walking through the Santa Maria estate down to Mellieha Bay itself. The road is quite steep and on the way we passed hundreds of villas, some of which are huge. There is certainly an awful lot of money tied up in real estate in this part of Malta. Mellieha is situated at the northern end of the island and the bay is well protected by ridges on either side of the bay. As we got to the bottom of the hill, we noticed that there were ... read more

Day 11 Our first day on Malta - Valletta

Europe » Malta » Malta » La Valletta June 2nd 2010

01 On the way to Valletta

pedwards98

This is our first full day on Malta and we are going to Valletta, the capital city. Valletta is built on a peninsula with the Grand Harbour on one side and Marsamxett Harbour on the other. There are couple of parallel streets down the middle of the peninsula and all the right angle streets head off steeply down to the harbour, or in Valletta’s case, the fortified battlement walls. The panoramic view above is off The Grand Harbour and is approximately a 200 degrees view. We started off by walking up the hill from our villa at Mellieha. It takes about ten minutes and it’s uphill all the way. There are very frequent buses to Valletta from here and we bought a 7 day pass for €13.98 each. This is a good value ticket as it ... read more

Day 10 Off to Malta

Europe » Malta » Malta » Mellieha June 1st 2010

00 Coming in to land

pedwards98

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 ... read more