The holiday in Malta was lurvely! I had a fantastic time with Amydillo and Naomi. One travelled from Edinburgh to Stansted, one from Denmark and I came along from Wales on the plane before we all left the airport a few hours later to make our way to
the Selmun Palace hotel, Malta, where we arrived at about 5am. (Even with the hour change ahead, Ouch!)
Unsurprisingly this meant that the first day was spent mostly passed out near the pool. Split between being in the sun and in the shade to reduce my lobster-like abilities! The breakfast waiters (who we ended up naming after all seven dwarves and Snow White) had asked in the morning where we were from. One Amydillo had uttered the word England, two of the dwarves teamed up to say "you must be very careful of the sun or you will die!". A lovely welcome which had us laughing :p ..well, up to when the tomato-effect had taken two of our number (see also lobster, burnt), myself I remained luminous white of course. In fact the reflection off of me had probably contributed to the tomato-effect of the others! (*No, neither of you are allowed to blame me!)
Once we'd had our day of recovery, the appeal of
Gozo took over and we took the ferry over the clear waters, past the blue lagoon of Comino (an even smaller island) North to Mgarr harbour. The
Maltese buses (which are worth following the link for and an adventure in themselves - making all rollercoasters suddenly tame by comparison and not to be used straight after food) took us to the capital city of Victoria. Once there, we went in search of the
Cathedral - laughing on the way as we passed a nunnery with a cannon on the roof which pointed at their neighbours washing line. We also went on to explore the town a bit and then over to the
Azure window, where we had the compulsory photos and ice cream. As we travelled back to Mgarr we picked up a couple of souvenirs and postcards, before travelling back to the hotel via a pizzeria in the nearby Mellieha.
The next day we had decided to go in search of the capital city,
Valetta. Arriving at the crowded bus terminus and walking through the gates we joined the throng of people walking down the high street. Exploring took us to
St Paul's Shipwreck Church, which although impressive, I can't say I was a fan of. Large amounts of gold on display is not uncommon, but I hate the pictures promoting the rascist views or the approach of showing as much gore as possible to make people repent. Not my thing. Good vs evil is not the white man versus the black man. Complete bull. Aaaanyway, there was also the display of St Paul's wristbone... I don't know, follow the link if it interests you! We wandered down to the Victoria Gate, where you could see the Grand Harbour - which appears in many lovely oil and watercolour paintings - including one I saw at the Wallace Collection in London on my return! We also found the Siege Bell, Oliver Reed's last pub (for Amydillo to explore), Fort St Elmo (which was a little odd and not really what I'd recommend as a tourist attraction, but we have the photos anyway...) The bus ride back will probably be remembered for some time. For a fairly long ride back, we spent remarkably little time actually touching the seats!
A rest day was very needed again by this point. There was a bit more of a breeze than there had been, but it was still nice so we occupied our spots by the pool with the teeny magazines we'd picked up in Stansted and dissected the advice given and the
beautiful free gifts! (Oh dear! Why people have a love of purple footless tights we don't know!) In the evening we walked over to Mellieha and found
Il-Mithna, a gorgeous restaurant that has been converted from an old windmill and serves lovely food. This restaurant I would recommend to anyone visiting Malta. Really enjoyed!
After our day of rest, it was the turn of
Mdina, the silent city, to be invaded by our group. We explored the Cathedral of St Paul here too, as well as the Cathedral museum and the
Knights of Malta - a walk-through museum of lifesize models. We enjoyed the views from the Battlements of the island and getting swallowed by the glass shop, before heading via St Paul's Bay and Bugibba, back to the hotel to pack and be ready for our early return!
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