Nov 9 / Administrator

October and November 2018 – Malta

At the end of October we embarked on a week’s holiday in Malta. We stayed in the same hotel as previously and used local busses to travel all over the island. We managed lots of walking and some lovely seafood meals. On our first full day we set off to walk along Dingli Cliffs. Unfortunately, the clouds descended and enveloped us and the rain was torrential. Our waterproof jackets and shoes worked well but we still got quite wet. Not only was the rain horrible but also a restaurant where we hoped to find shelter and food had closed down since our last visit!! After the rain eased we visited Mdina with its narrow streets – it was a good end to a rather wet day (we found out later that Dingli Cliffs had had 76mm of rain).

The next day was much better weather and although it did rain a little we had a lovely day in Valletta meeting up with friends David and Bridget Lindley who were also staying in Malta

We spent another day visiting the island of Gozo.

Originally, we had intended to use ordinary buses to see the island but we were offered half price tickets on one of the open top sightseeing busses. It was brilliant and we saw a lot of the island.

We were impressed with the cleanliness and relative smartness compared to the main island of Malta. There were many splendid looking churches on our trip including the one shown below.

We got off our bus to spend some time in Victoria the capital of Gozo located in the centre of the island. The town was busy and full of narrow winding streets and certainly built before the advent the motor car.

After a glass of wine in a little café we climbed up to the Cathedral which is situated in the Citadel high above the rest of the city. The Cathedral is a fine 17th century baroque building the interior of which is quite beautiful.

On the Sunday we took the bus to Mellieha and spent the morning walking along the top of a ridge before descending to the shore line and returning to the main road. It was a walk we have done several times and find quite enjoyable.

We then caught a bus to Golden Bay. The weather was lovely and the place very busy with families enjoying the aptly named beach. Not being beach people, we enjoyed a light lunch overlooking the sea before catching a bus directly back to our hotel.

The weather for our last full day was forecast to be good so we set off out early and spent an hour and a half walking on the cliffs at Dingli. From there, we caught a couple of buses to get to a place called Pretty Bay. From there we walked along the coast to Marsaslokk and a well earned lunch in an open air restaurant on the sea front.