Advertisement
Published: September 12th 2022
St Julian's Bay
Lovely beach areaWell we have arrived in Malta, on descending down the impression wasn't that great reminded me of flying in Cairo Egypt, with the dryness, dust and white washed and cream buildings and on getting in the taxi, chaos!!! There seemed to be so much building and roadworks going on at present we seemed to go around in circles to get into town. We are staying in Gzira in a lovely little boutique hotel and they have a rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking the harbour and their pool is across the road right on the harbour. After walking from Gzira to Valletta I had thoughts of Havana Cuba as we walked the old streets with the house and buildings in disrepair and dusty, dirty streets. Though when we arrived in the Valletta area it seems that a lot of money has been spent here, we had no idea Malta had so much history and ancient history! Our first day we did not move far, John spent the arvo in bed and we headed outvery local for a pizza for dinner. We are so disappointed that we have not booked two weeks here instead of one, its a great R&R place and we
115 The Strand Hotel
Our hotel overlooking the pool from breakfast area have the most brilliant pool area at our hotel! Its like a beach club where outsiders can come in and pay 20 euro but because we are guests we get it for free. There is so much to see here and we want to get a good balance of relaxation and sightseeing. So we have bought a public transport ticket which gives us unlimited bus travels, ferries and a day on the Hop on Hop Off Bus..... one thing that Malta does have is a brilliant public bus transport system and you can go nearly anywhere Malta and Gozo! This ticket has been the best 39 euro for a week, used it like multiple times day, extraordinary value. Thursday we went out to the Blue Grotto, which was so beautiful, then to Dingli Cliffs and onto the walled city of Mdina, which is an absolute gem of a place, then to St Georges Bay (a bit too Gold Coasty for us) lots of big chain hotels are here, St Julians Beach and back to Gzira... a great day! No big bus tours where you get caught up with too much information sometimes and a lot of time wasted with free
115 The Strand Hotel
Beautiful pool area after a big day of 34degrees time and people being late. Gee it is so hot here 34 degrees today, so many stops for nice cold beers! We are finding Malta is quite easy on the purse too being able to buy great food for reasonable prices. Went to a Michelin Restaurant last night which was brilliant and had a fantastic bottle of Maltese wine to go with it....YES I know unbelievable but it was nice! Apparently Maltese wine was very ordinary but in the last 20 or so years they have imported vines from Italy and with great winemakers are now able to produce really good wine. A day trip to Gozo has also been a highlight, caught the fast ferry from Valletta and bused it around Gozo.... you probably need a couple of days not one but we did get a feel of the island! We were a so sad with the Queens passing, I don't think England will be the same again, as my English friend Paula said to me, how poignant to be in Malta when she died, when the Queen was first married she moved to Malta, her happiest time, as a navy wife and supporting her husband, so true Paula!
Valletta
Gorgeous bays around every corner Even the few Maltese locals we have spoken to love the Queen and are so sad with her passing. I know there are a lot of church photos along the way, not that we are super religious, but the craftsmanship just blows us away, so many beautiful buildings! Interestingly Malta is pretty much self sufficient, even with a rock as their island, there are some lovely valleys around the island we have seen with loads of veges growing, vineyards, fruit trees, heaps of chooks, cows for dairy, rabbits (rabbit always on the menu and these rabbits bred in their private homes), goats and lambs etc, as a small island they have done a great job! Sunday took the Hop on Hop off on the North Route and also down south to the gorgeous little fishing village of Marsaxlokk, it was a lovely trip had a nice walk around and a snack then came back to Gzira. Monday north up to Mellieha which is another little gem on the coast with a population of about 10,000 people and the restored Red Fort (Saint Agathas Tower) a large bastioned watchtower, it was built around 1647 and recently restored in 1999 finished in
Valletta
Amazing statues all over the Island 2001. John was keen to see Popeye Village so took the bus there but its been made into a tourist attraction, with all the buildings still there from when the movie was made in 1980, its very cute but the pictures don't do it justice. Monday our last day we had booked a while ago to do Underground Valletta, tried also to book Hypogeum Malta but that is booked out for 6 weeks for more, we were warned by Greg and Ingrid but did not book it far enough in advance, anyway we did enjoy very much the Underground Valletta which was a great tour, deep beneath the city of Valletta, built first as a fortress then a city. Apart from tunnels for the movement of troops, grain storage, water cisterns, both vital for the survival of the city in war and also during peace times, we had not experienced the underground water cisterns since we did the underground ones in Istanbul, the ones in Instanbul had been completely restored and used as function areas etc. The cisterns here in Malta were very raw but gave a good idea of how things worked. When Malta had 17,000 tonnes of bombs
dropped on Valletta during World War II its people moved underground to this myriad of rooms and streets underground,......unbelievable... with our crash hat and torch fitted.......I can tell you the palms of my hands were sweating up a treat the more we descended under the city but our guide was fantastic and this was a great experience on our last day. The city of Valletta was ridiculously busy today because Monday being a cruise ship visiting day, couldn't wait to get back to the pool for our last dip! Up 3.15am in the morning to catch the ferry to Sicily, Pozzollo Port at 5.00a.m.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0431s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ernie & Roni
non-member comment
So love your blogs they make me feel as if I am travelling with you. So informative. What a wonderful trip you are having good on you.