St John’s Co-Cathedral
Despite the one-hour time change from Larnaca, we had a lazy start to the day, making our way to the St John’s Co-Cathedral at 0900 when it opened. I had pre-booked the tickets online but there wasn’t much of a queue, so it was really unnecessary.
For me, this church packs such a punch in terms of its ornate beauty that I could consider it the most beautiful church I’ve ever visited. Perhaps even better than St Peter’s in the Vatican. Its beauty is rather expected because of its simple exterior.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Looking towards the altar.
-
- Looking towards the altar.
-
- Looking towards the altar.
-
- The remains of several Grand Masters are in the crypt.
-
- Gorgeous frescoes.
-
- Gorgeous frescoes.
-
- Gorgeous frescoes from the rear balcony.
-
- Gorgeous frescoes above the rear balcony.
-
- Gold reliefwork adorn the co-cathedral everywhere.
-
- The floor of the co-cathedral is full of underfloor tombs.
It was worth paying the EUR15 per person to repeat the visit after six years but we made the most of it staying 45 mins inside. It isn’t well-marked, but one can climb 45 steps to the balcony at the rear of the church, above the main entrance.
We wandered around the old city a little, down on the northern shore of Valletta’s peninsula, looking towards Sliema. We returned to the apartment for home-made eggs on toast, then sit out the hottest part of the day.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Buildings along the waterfront.
-
- Looking towards Sliema.
-
- Buildings along the waterfront.
Cannons & Three Cities
We headed out around 1530 in time for the 1600 cannon-fire at Upper Barakka Gardens. There was a large crowd and we couldn’t get to the front of the balcony. With a hand held up high, I managed to time it right and get a short video of the single blast at 1600. Oh, why did I expect four blasts at 1600? It’s kinda reasonable though but 12 blasts at midday (the other time they do it) may be a bit much though.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- On the right hand side, one can see that the city is built on rock.
-
- Looking towards the Three Cities.
-
- Looking towards the Three Cities.
-
- Looking towards the Three Cities.
From here, we walked down to the ferry to get to the Three Cities (referrring to the three fortified cities Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua in close proximity to each other). The ride gave us a good view back to Valletta to appreciate its height above the sea level.
Once there, we lost interest, thinking that it would be “more of the same”. We had taken long walks around the area on our previous visit. After a drink, we took the return ferry back. The ticket included a free ride on the elevator up to the main city area where we found dinner on the pedestrian mall.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Looking towards the Three Cities.
-
- Lookking towards the Three Cities.
-
- Lookking towards the Three Cities.
-
- The inlet arriving at Three Cities.
We had a seafood pizza and a Chicken Caesar salad. While the topping and flavours of the pizza was awesome, it couldn’t compare with the ones we had in Constanta earlier in the trip.
We treated ourselves with a McDonald’s apple cake (that’s what they call it but it is really a deep apple pie). To my great surprise, it was top notch with apples that hadn’t been over-stewed and hadn’t been over-sugared.