30Hrs in Malta
Though we hadn’t planned much time in Malta, we had planned for more than 30hrs. Alas, it was not meant to be (read my last post), but our short time there definitely affirmed that it is a place we will have to come back to.
Marina in Senglea, just across the Grand Harbor from Valletta, Malta.
After arriving Saturday afternoon, we walked through the marina to a great place for happy hour with delicious, two-for-one Pina Coladas and a front seat view of multiple mega-yachts. The weather was perfect and a welcome change after the cooler weather in Puglia.
Dinner at a waterfront restaurant serving Chinese and Thai food was a nice break from all the pasta, bread, and cheese we’d been eating throughout Southern Italy. We finished the night with a glass of wine on our rooftop.
View of the Senglea Marina from our rooftop terrace.
With a "scheduled” 10:20pm flight out of Malta, we had a full day on Sunday to explore and thought we’d make the most of one of the Hop On, Hop Off open air buses. The bus promised an easy way to see all the highlights of Malta in a day. Unfortunately, this was the start of a day filled with delays.
After a nice start to the morning, we took a quick and inexpensive ferry ride to the Valletta Waterfront where we could pick up the bus. Having checked the prices, but not purchased the tickets online, we were pleasantly surprised to find a gentleman selling tickets for about $10 less than the online price. After buying our tickets we headed over to pick up the bus, supposedly arriving within 20-30mins. Normally, I read all the reviews before booking a tour and this was a great validation that it is time well spent. Had I done so this time, I would have known that there are multiple bus operators/tour companies and would have avoided buying from one of the lower quality ones.
The bus we were supposed to take had a maintenance problem (which seems to happen a lot with this company) and offloaded all its passengers at the stop we were getting on at. We waited for over an hour for the replacement bus that never arrived. We finally boarded an already full bus in the midst of its route, meaning only half our group could be up top on the open-air portion and the other half had to be down below, inside the bus, which had no air conditioning, windows that wouldn’t open, and no remaining headsets to hear the recorded information about each of the historic sites along the route.
With limited time and a pretty inefficient operation overall, we got off at the one stop we all wanted to see - Mdina, the silent city (and location of filming for Game of Thrones Kings Landing scenes). The silent city is absolutely gorgeous with incredible architecture, vibrant colors, and delicious cakes at Tea Houses around every corner.
Not wanting to test our fate with the bus company again, we jumped in two cabs to old town Valletta for a stroll before heading to the airport for our flight. Unfortunately, with heavy storms across Sicily, our 10:20pm flight was significantly delayed and we didn’t depart till after midnight. And what happened next is worth a separate blog.
Until then, I’ll leave you with a few more pictures from Malta.
