Malta

Saturday, August 31

Stepping into the evening heat of Malta, we dropped our bags quickly at our 400 year-old hotel to source our evening meal. We witnessed the golden hour on Fort St. Angelo on the far side of the harbor and found delicious food before we passed out.

Sunday, September 1

Valletta is an old walled city, home to the Order of the Knights of St. John, a famous siege against Turkey in 1565, and a week-long stay of Napoleon. The walking tour was great as always. For lunch, we ate at Caffe Cordina, the oldest cafe in Malta for its ftira, a tuna sandwich stuffed with pickled onion, capers, and olives. The palace armory had a huge collection of helmets, weapons, and well, all implements of war. I fell in love with the long corridors painted in trompe-l’œil. The museum was renovated during the pandemic so some of the statues painted on the ceiling had masks added. I loved this detail. The archeological museum illustrated what happen on Malta in all major time periods back to Neolithic times. Wow, amazing. I’m glad we saw ancient figurines there because the next day we saw where they had been unearthed. Dinner was a combination of a lunch repeat and excellent people watching. At sunset, we walked to St Elmo fort, ambled between the outside fortified wall and the water edge, and rode the elevator up the wall back to our hotel.

Monday, September 2

The bus to the car rental agency at the airport was an hour late but at least I had a place in the shade to sit. Did I mention it was HOT on Malta?

The first stop on our car adventure was the blue grotto and although we only viewed it from above, it was spectacular. Next was the archeological sites of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra which date back 5000 years and where the items in the museum had been found. The sites were canopied for protection but the blazing sun drove is to leave quickly to find lunch and a slush puppy. We had to stop at the highest point in the island which was literally 3 meters off the road.

Mdina was our final destination for the day and I fell in love with the well maintained walled city with its narrow, twisting walkways and sandy hues. Some Game of Thrones scenes were filmed here and we watched young influencers setting up their Instagram shots. We visited the shop that claimed to have the best pastizzis and ended the evening with cactus fruit wine.

Tuesday, September 3

On the way out of Mdina, we visited the ancient mysterious tracks carved into the limestone. The archeological site of Tarxien was in the middle of the in the Port region of Malta, canopied, and not as complete as Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. Good to see nonetheless. Our final Malta destination was to Fort St Angelo, but again the heat cut our visit short.

We returned the car, ubered to the ferry port and ended our Malta adventure.