Valletta; Sunday, 18 March, 2007

For some unknown reason the hotel had decided that everyone should have a full cooked breakfast this morning (I'm not quite certain what the vegetarians had other than Baked beans and bread - and I saw other guests using the baked bean spoon to shovel up sausages so that probably took them off the menu as well!, perhaps Malta hasn't heard of vegetarianism). Sadly, I would have preferred the cold buffet as the full cooked buffet was a little greasy!

Partially sated I headed off down to the bus stop and into Valletta, where I changed busses and caught the bus out to the South coast.

As a land mass, Malta is not massively old, being formed when the African and European plates fused together, forcing parts of, what is now, the Mediterranean sea floor above the water line. In Human terms, though, Malta is ancient. Some of the temples even pre-date the busses! First stop of the morning were the temples of Hagar Qim and the temples of Mnajdra, both of which are within half a kilometre of each other. In both cases there are at least three separate temples that have been built over time. At Mnajdra almost on top of each other. The oldest temples date back to before 4000BC, putting them back beyond the Egyptians, and Stonehenge, battling for age with some of the sights in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The temples are completely open to the elements (the fifth and most destructive element being tourists) and you wan wander around virtually the whole site. The only places they don't let you in are where scaffolding are holding bits up whilst they conserve them!

A kilometre or so back along the road from the temples, and the previous bus stop is a viewing platform where you can look down the cliff face and see the massive natural cave that has been carved out by the sea - the Blue Grotto. You can walk down the road that winds its way down to the small harbour side village of Wied iz-Zurrieq where boats regularly leave to take in the Grotto, and many of the other caves that the sea has formed in the cliffs. However, when the sea is smashing against the rocks as heavily as it was when I got down there, then the boats do not leave (not good for the tourism, regularly drowning visitors!). After having a quick look around the village I walked back up the road (and I do mean up!) to the bus stop and caught the bus back to the main town of Zurrieq. As the bus terminated there (no real reason, it should have carried on into Valletta) I decided to have a quick look around the town, which as it was 1pm on a Sunday was shut. I walked back to the bus stop and caught the next bus back into Valletta.

From Valletta I went back to Sliema, getting there just after 3, just in time to catch the last harbour cruise of the day. Several different companies offer cruises around the harbour, each taking exactly the same route and the same amount of time. The cruise sets off around the Marsamxett harbour that is formed by the land that Sliema and Valletta are on, before briefly entering the Mediterranean sea to move into the Grand harbour, formed by Valletta and the three cities of Senglea, Vittoriosa and Cospicua. Whilst the Marsamxett harbour is almost exclusively marinas and luxury yachts, the Grand harbour includes the main port of Malta, and the ship yards that provide a healthy proportion of Malta's income.

The tour lasted just under two hours, by which time I had realised that, yes it was sunny, yes it was warm, but yes it was still only March and the wind takes the edge of the temperatures. I popped back to the hotel to change out of shorts into trousers to prevent the early stages of hypothermia from setting in. I headed back out into Valletta and had a wander around the top end of the city, near the bus station, past the ruins of the Royal Opera House, destroyed by German bombing in 1942 and never rebuilt, and up to the Upper Barraca Gardens.

These are a pleasant set of gardens set high on the cliff face, the offer stunning views over the grand harbour and across to the three cities. After spending some time up here, I wandered back into the centre of Valletta and found a restaurant to eat in, before catching the bus back to Sliema and bed.

Weather

Sunny Haze
AM PM
Warm (10-20C, 50-68F)
18ºC/64ºF