Sliema; Saturday, 23 January, 2016

I was intending on having a bit of a lie-in, but the builders in the neighbouring building were having none of it and had the drills going just after 7am, so I was forced into an early shower and an early breakfast.

It did mean I was out of the hotel early and on my way into Valletta to pick up the bus out the caves at Ghar Dalam for a look around them and the interesting attached museum that tells some of the history and geology of the islands, including relics that would suggest that there once might have been pigmy Hippos and miniature Elephants roaming around the islands.

From the caves I hopped back onto a bus to head back most of the way into Valletta to change onto the bus out to the spectacular temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. The temples, along with those on Gozo are possibly the oldest man-made structures on the face of the planet pre-dating anything the Egyptians or Mesopotamians have. I spent a long time looking round the site, so long in fact that I missed the hourly bus back to Valletta.

Thankfully, I was in time for the hourly bus, a few minutes later, round to Rabat which took in large parts of west coast of the islands, including the impressive Dingly Cliffs and radar station. From Rabat I hopped onto a bus back into Sliema and popped back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out for dinner.

I was heading out for dinner quite early as I’d seen there were a large number of nice looking restaurants around the harbour in Maraxlokk when I’d gone past on the open-top bus the previous day, but getting there would be a relatively lengthy bus ride so I set off with the clock only just gone 5pm.

Having changed buses in Valletta I finally made it down to Maraxlokk just after 6:30, by which point it was obvious that the bustling harbour side restaurants clearly do a better trade during the day in January than they do in the evening as most were closed.

However, I managed to find one that was open and had a decent meal before heading back over to the bus stop and making the bus back to Valletta by the skin of my teeth (and thus saving myself a half hour wait). Back in Valletta it was a quick change onto a bus back to Sliema, my hotel and the fun job of packing ready for an early departure the following morning.