Day 2–Malta

After an early big hotel breakfast I headed off again, across the water courtesy of the ferry service, back into Valetta. My aim was to take in a few museums before jumping on the bus for a hop-on-hop-off tour.

First stop was the Palace Armoury which is basically two rooms filled with all sorts of armours and weapons. There is also plenty of history to take in, especially about the Great Siege of Malta back in 1565 when the Knights Hospitaller were able to repulse a large Turkish force bent on invasion.

Also in the grounds of the palace is the State Rooms exhibit that is also included price. It sits around the lovely gardens that now form part of the presidential palace.

There is not a huge amount to see here but none the less I found it very interesting to look inside all the state rooms and admire the decorations and the reliefs on the walls and the ceilings.

The state rooms surround a lovely court as you can see above.

I believe these rooms are still used today to hold official parliamentary functions. Nothing like having a state dinner in a room with over 500 years of history!

On the way back to the ferry I popped into the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which is the large dome you can see as you approach Valetta across the water.

Close by is St Paul’s Anglican cathedral.

I then grabbed a tour bus and headed on a 3 hour (yes, 3+ hour!) tour of the western and north part of the island.

The tour headed in a clockwise direction so we firstly when near Valetta and to the sea port.

where one of the big cruise lines was about to head off.

From there we headed to Rabat through some typical ‘middle eastern’ type landscape. Although I was staying on the bus it looked like there would have been lots to see in Rabat had I chosen to get off.

From there we did wind our way through some other interesting sites it would have been great to take the time to stop and see but alas not for today.

As the tour began to approach the north coast of the island the more ‘'resort-ish’ it became, filled will massive waterfront hotels, seaside apartments and what appeared to be English tourists seeking the sun.

This was pretty boring I thought and given the intensity of the sun beating down on me, I probably would have been better off in a museum. Alas, I was stuck with the tour until we returned to Valetta and I did pay the price getting somewhat sunburnt during the process.

With the remaining time for my time in Malta running short, I made a beeline for the war museum at Fort St Elmo.

Luckily the museum was still open, even though it was late in the day.

In hindsight, I think I would have gotten more value (and less sunburnt) if I’d stayed in Valetta and toured the museums and monuments.

I really enjoyed this museum and learnt quite a lot, which is always a good measure of a museum. It is housed in an old fort and inside a number of different room, with each room covering a historical period. The displays and the multi-media presentations are top notch and I highly recommend this as a ‘must see’ if you are ever visiting.

I grabbed dinner in an open air cafe in Valetta, amongst all the pigeons, and took my last ferry ride across the bay, knowing that I would leaving very early tomorrow for a new location, in a new country.

Although I was only here for a short while, I’d certainly come back. I’d give the ‘resort’ stuff a miss (I’ve had enough sun here thanks) but ensure I visited all the historical sites as well as the few that are in the interior. History is what makes Malta so interesting for me and you’d need a few days to do it properly. So avoid, the typical ‘holiday resort’ stuff and head for the relics and you won’t go wrong here.