Malta. Day 1. Flickums braves another scare-o-plane

We have arrived in Malta.

Hired a car. Helpful man showed us how to get the seat down because a Peugeot 106 has less boot space than Thunderbird. Couldn't work out how to slide seats forward to access back seats.
Holly the evil SatNav took us to the hotel. We found Malta's only free parking space, and checked in. Then went on a food hunt. Found a place with a nice selection of food and cocktails, after taking a slightly odd route into the restaurant part of town. Took a more direct route back.

First impressions; St. Julians seems to have a lot of strip clubs. Hotel room is a bit grotty, but the bed is nice and big. We seem to be next to Little Scotland.

Went up to the pool. It was shut. Opening times are a bit short. Not the best hotel. Nice weather though, and it is a bustling part of town even aside from strip clubs.

Malta day 2 Summoning Goza on Gozo.

Gozo is a lovely little island just next to Malta. Much less densely populated, and full of exciting places to visit. We drove there, found the ferry, and just missed the boat. Still, they run every 45 minutes so not a massive wait. Got a bit lost getting back to the car and got shouted at by ferry crew.

Started to follow the driving tour reminded by Lonely Planet. Got lost. Found Xewkija, with its massive church visible from most of the island. Got a bit lost trying to find somewhat to park.but eventually found what we were looking for. Sure is big. There's a lift up to the top, for views of the island. Got back on the road tour, and went to Nadur. Everywhere was surprisingly shut.

Flicking through the guidebook, I saw mention of the Ggantija Temples. Seemed just the place to summon an Eldritch horror. If we could find the damn place. Signs pointed in the general direction, and then stopped. But we did find the place. Nice visitor centre with air con, and the temple itself, is showing its age a little, 5000 years does that to a place. Still, certainly possible to see how it was laid out, and signs explain what we're looking at.

I think by this point we'd abandoned the tour. Decided to head straight to the beach. Ramla Bay is one of the best beaches I've been on. Golden sand, warm water. Not horribly crowded.

Realised we hadn't seen the walled city in Victoria. Also needed to eat. As luck would have it, there is a restaurant in the walled city. So we found somewhere to park, and climbed up the hill to the city. There was a lot of climbing, on account of fortresses generally being designed to keep people out, rather than initially as tourist attractions. Still, we climbed up, and then up the steps to the restaurant. And finally arrived. Where we were directed up another flight of stairs, and a narrow winding staircase to the terrace. There was a lot of climbing. Very small selection, but a couple of Maltese items. I had rabbit. flickums had goat.

Covered, we struggled back to the car, got lost trying to escape Victoria, but made it to the Getty terminal despite Holly's frequent attempts to send us the wrong way down 1 way roads. Meet a cute doggy on the ferry.

So that was a pretty complete day. Have done all the things I felt I had to do on this holiday already.

Mdina.

Had a morning chilling in the pool and hot tub before heading out to sightsee.

Visiting Another walled city.  This one on the mainland. Mdina - Pronounced Em-dina or possibly Mmm-dina rather than Madina.

Started with a tour on one of those little trains. flickums was disappointed it wasn't a real train. We  were bounced along Malta's dishevelled roads as a recorded voice pointed out the things to look at. Gave a nice overview of what we want to look at later. Also showed that the city itself was just behind us.

It's a nice city to explore. Lots of narrow streets and passageways, apparently to thwart knights and archers.

Had a look at St Paul's cathedral. Were about to pay for tickets to get in (Flick was, I'm less willing to pay just for a church) but apparently entry was free two minutes later so we waited.

Thought we should see something else before everything closes so bought tickets for the audio - visual tours. We bought the triple ticket, in part because I was a bit confused about what we were buying.

First shiw was in another buikding, so we started off with an escort mission where we followed someone to the first venue. The show was a series of static displays about knights. Each segment  has an audio description. Then the tour abruptly ended.

Second escort mission took us to a display of life in Malta in historic times. No audio stuff here. Just signs explaining stuff. Seemed to end before it really started.

Finally it was "The Mdina Experience - audio visual spectacular", or "Movie"... still, it was an interesting documentary, and well worth the money to sit down in an air conditioned room

Found a lovely place for foods. They had wifi I had  delicious steak, Flickums had a burger and we ended with chocolate mousse.

Mdina - after m' dinner

Tasty tasty food at a restaurant that seemed to close at 7pm. Didn't want to go straight back to the hotel, so went for a wander. We meet a nice horsey and his owner persuaded us that we should go on a horse drawn tour. Quite good fun, and both horse and owner were friendly. Learned about a few things we missed.

There was enough time to do a bit more exploring, so we tried to find a secluded bay mentioned by the guidebook. After bouncing down lots of increasingly narrow roads, Holly the evil SatNav decided to take me through an obviously closed road. Decided to rage quit at that point.

Now at the hotel bar drinking local beers, and bemoaning the fact that I only have a few more hours of being in my 30's.

In other news; The discovery of the rear doors on the car was quite a revelation.