Malta

Saturday 30th April 2016:

Disassociated with the New Year and Easter, this weekend was the first bank holiday (long weekend/public holiday) of the year to be just for the hell of it. Our flights to Malta were out of Luton Airport, an airport that is literally still a work in progress. For us, Luton manages to hold the unimpressive title of being both the most inconvenient London airport to get to and also the most awful, just in general. Our flight departed at around 7:30pm Saturday, arriving in Malta just before midnight.

Stepping out of the terminal to our shuttle bus, Brendan was surprised by how developed Malta actually was. The small archipelago nation covers a total area of only 316 sq km and Brendan kind of expected more of a developing feel – to the standard of say, Luton airport. We jumped onto a shuttle bus, which our driver must have mistaken for a Formula 1 race car, and were whisked off towards our accommodation at the Golden Tulip Vivaldi Hotel, in the trendy Paceville district of St Julian’s.

After a few hours’ sleep, we awoke on Sunday morning and joined an open top bus tour. Although Malta is a relatively small island, it is still sufficiently large enough to require transportation, and there are both north and south routes offered. Malta does also have its own public transport bus system; however we were warned by reception staff the night before that it is not very reliable. The sales rep in the hotel, who was apparently already on liqueur coffee at around 10:30am, signed us up for both tours.

Roslyn was keen to see the Blue Grotto near Zurrieq, a group of sea caverns. When the weather permits, you can take a ride in a little boat through the caves. We’d been warned by both the reception staff the night before and the sales rep that conditions at the Grotto for our entire weekend were not good and that the boats were not running. Luckily for us, the sales rep called the boats office and confirmed that they were currently running. With that news, we were decided upon the south tour for today and being keen not to miss out due to inclement weather, wanted to get there as soon as possible.

The first part of the trip passes through Sliema, a town adjoining St Julian’s that is a major commercial and residential area. Like much of the touristy areas, Sliema hosts an interesting assortment of buildings fronting onto the waterfront ranging from completely dilapidated to old and functional, right through to new and ultra-modern.

Sat on the upper deck of the bus, we took in plenty of sun and enjoyed some stunning coastal panoramas. There was also a mix of the bizarre, the further out of the tourist centres into the countryside we went the more “developing” the scenery became. Although the bus stopped at a number of other points along the trip, the Blue Grotto was our one “must do” and so we didn’t get off anywhere else.

Once we reached the tourist hotspot, we were straight down the hill to the boat office. Despite having been at the front of the line, the combination of easy going but disorganised staff and tourists who were highly strung considering that they were on holiday, meant that entire boatloads of people pushed in front of us. After this happened 3 times, Roslyn managed to complain our way to the front of the next boat, meaning we had the best view.

The boat ride lasted just under half an hour, visiting the spectacular 30 metre high Blue Grotto as well as six other caves. The iridescent blue waters are a truly amazing sight, and the colours vary in each cave depending on the amount of light entering the cave and its reflection from the sea bed.

(Excuse the distorted bow of the boat in this next photo, we hit a wave midway through taking a panorama)



Afterwards, we went up the hill to get fresh seafood for lunch. Our pale British skin hadn't taken long to absorb the UV rays; after only a few hours in the sun, Roslyn was already looking quite burnt. While waiting for lunch, Brendan went off to buy Europe's most expensive sun care products, sun screen and after sun spray coming in at more than the money he had on him but the shopkeeper ended up combining them for €20.

We boarded the bus again as it meandered back towards St Julian's. After a swim in the pool back at the hotel, we strolled down to the Spinola Bay area for dinner. We settled for Cuba, a casual restaurant with a large terrace elevated above the bay, and enjoyed watching the waterfront transition from dusk through to night.

Across the bay, we watched tow trucks arrive to clean up several vehicles in a collision that appeared to have involved an Alfa Romeo crashing into a parked van, and the van having then been pushed backwards and up onto the car parked behind.

The next morning, we arose and made our way down to join the north tour. The start of the tour followed much the same path as the south tour the day before, then diverting after the capital city of Valletta. We passed through the town of Mosta which lies roughly at the geographical centre of Malta, and is home to an impressive domed church that can boast being Europe’s third largest unsupported church dome.

We got off the bus at the old capital of Mdina, a fine example of a walled city filled with historic limestone buildings. Mdina is strategically set elevated above the surrounding areas and from the wall edges, there are clear views across the surroundings.

Given Malta’s proximity to Italy, the food is quite similar. A Maltese specialty is rabbit, and although in our travels we normally have an adventurous palate, Brendan’s sentimentality meant he wouldn’t try it.

Following on from lunch we went for a wander around in the sunshine and grabbed a gelato. The weather took a fairly fast turn for the worst and as we were dressed for the summer, we headed back to the bus and took a seat inside. Within only a few minutes of the bus setting off, it was pouring with rain and all the people who’d been sitting upstairs started teeming into the enclosed lower section.

The drive back towards St Julian's went by some stunning coastal scenery. Back at the hotel we went for a dip in the pool and then wandered down to Hugo's Terrace, a swanky looking bar and restaurant. Positioned adjacent to the beach, we'd assumed that we'd be onto a winner with the Poseidon seafood platter, but sadly much of the flavour was masked by salt.

On Tuesday morning we spent our final few hours wandering around the local area, going for another feed at Cuba and dipping our feet into the water at the beach but it was definitely not warm enough to get in! We also tired (unsuccessfully) to find a cocktail made using prickly pear liqueur, and then it was time to head back to the airport.



Highlights:

- Second experience with Luton Airport
- Open top bus tour, north and south tours
- Plenty of warm sun
- Boat ride to the Blue Grotto
- Seafood lunch
- Europe’s most expensive sun care products
- Dinner at Spinola Bay
- Mosta Rotunda
- Old capital of Mdina
- First summer sunburn