Exploring Valletta & surroundings

The hotel had stocked the fridge with milk and juice and placed a packet of Weetabix on the bench as well.  After a light breakfast, we met the receptionist at 1000 to pay then ventured out.

First stop was St John’s Co-Cathedral.  Nothing had prepared me for the rich baroque interior.  It seemed that not a square inch was left undecorated with gold carvings unless otherwise decorated. With the help of an audio guide, we wandered through the various side chapels and also admired the main altar.  Numerous cemeteries lined the floor, each beautifully inlaid marble motifs and inscriptions.

It is called the Co-Cathedral because Malta already had a Cathedral in Mdina but this one being so beautiful had to be elevated somehow.

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Kim wanted to go to Fort Renella as part of his military interests.  Just by chance while we were at the Uppder Baraka Gardens, they were running free transport there.  We were just in time.  It was quite a long drive to the location about three peninsulas away.

It wasn’t really my kind of place even though it was mildly interesting learning about bayonets and the world’s largest ever cannon.

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We took the bus back to Valletta not knowing it had a long stop during which the aircon would be off and the driver taking a rest break outside for about 30 minutes.  Arrgh!  It was a stinking hot day.  We were so pleased to get back on board.

We only had about 30 minutes in the apartment before having to go out again for a walking tour of Valletta.  The 2h tour was highly interesting as we learnt about the history of the county and how “everyone” had had a go at running the place, from the Arabs, French, Italian, British etc.

The most important influence was the Order of St John which used the island as a stopover on their crusades to the Holy Land.  Of course, the Order is the precursor to the ambulance organisation that’s now in many countries.

Finishing up the walking tour, we weren’t quite ready for dinner yet.  So we wandered down the steps to look at the other side of Valletta peninsular from our accommodation.  Sliema is a very built up area with very little historical value so we were glad we didn’t choose to stay there.

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We had a lovely dinner in an alleyway in the relative cool of the shade.  I was running low on water. The local water is extremely hard and didn’t taste good.  All through the old city, there was nowhere open that I could buy a bottle of water!  I resorted to buying a large bottle from a bar, which turned out to be worse value than buying one from the vending machine at the apartment.

Through the day, we had heard firecrackers and fireworks being let off.  I thought it was rather pointless during the day as one can’t appreciate the beauty of fireworks.  So when it continued through the night, we paid a token interest by having a look on our rooftop.  There was nothing spectacular so it was back to bed.