Blogs from Sliema, Malta, Malta, Europe - page 2

Good sleep, always when it rains.. We made a go of it & went into Valletta...bus from Leyland just around the corner. It was light rain but manageable. We had a great stroll down Archbishop Street. Lovely shops & usually there would be many diners on the pavement. The city is beautiful with it's huge limestone blocks on the super grand sized buildings. Influences are many including Sicilian, Arab, French, Greek, Phoenicians, Turkish, Nth African., Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Spanish, Knights of St John. We walked back up the hill via Merchant Street to the Battery Salute point. We could see quite clearly across the natural deep harbour to the 3 cities & all the shipping movement. It's really nice to share travel experiences with Mary & John who share the same passion...& really nice to ... read more

Malta is positively heaving with tourists during the summer months, but still a surprisingly popular destination in winter. The islands of the archipelago are rich in the history and unique culture of the Maltese; what a thrill to be finally able to visit! From Barcelona bargain hunters can snap up a cheap fare to Malta with a stopover in Rome, my visit to the Basque region of Spain providing the catalyst for this exciting new travel destination. Due to it's strategic location Malta has long been attractive to foreign powers as a naval base, with the islands having lived under many different rulers down through the millennia. Featuring a temperate climate, Malta can be the perfect getaway from harsh northern hemisphere winters, and I'm glad to be able to base myself in the resort town of ... read more

We‘ve been on the go for a few days in a row now, so we decide that today will be for sleeping in, domestics and hanging around the hotel. We've run out of clean clothes. We don't particularly want to pay the hotel's exorbitant laundry prices, so we decide to wash them ourselves. We order laundry detergent from reception, and it turns up as a liquid in a tiny plastic cup draped in Glad Wrap. I start to wash clothes in the bath. Issy soon tells me I'm doing it wrong, and gives me a lesson in how to do it properly. I hadn't realised it could be so complicated. We try to hang the clothes on the inflatable hangers that Issy brought with us, but they‘re too heavy; the plugs keeps popping out, and the ... read more

What a celebration in a most beautiful setting. Richard and Catherine being married in Villa Rosa overlooking St Georges Bay. Family and friends were gathered from UK , Sweden Malta and Dubai. After welcome drinks the ceremony took place on the terrace with myself and Christer as witnesses signing away my son and his daughter in a happy union. At 5.30 pm as the sun shone down on us we were glad of the fans which had been provided for the ladies!! And so to greet and congratulate the bride and groom we wandered in the gardens by the pool ( 2 swans-not real ones-swimming happily around). Then we were seated for a gourmet 4 course dinner along with toasts of sparkly and lots of wine. The best man , Ben - a friend from uni ... read more

This morning the tour group rode to the south side of the island of Malta to see the World Famous Blue Grotto. I'm not sure how many Blue Grottoes there are in the world, but this is one of them. We didn't get to do the boat ride into the grotto or through the natural arch because the seas were too rough today, but we had a nice view from the cliff (see picture). Next we visited Mosta, which boasts a church with the third largest unsupported dome in the world (see picture). From there we went to view the catacombs in Rabat (see picture). These catacombs are not nearly as extensive as the ones I have seen in Rome, but on the other hand, I was allowed to take pictures. Uncle Jim and I shared ... read more