Farewell Malta

Andy and his favourite barman!

David chose a Tabasco based shot for him and Andy.......

.....Oh yes, they regretted it!

Claire chose a Bailey's based shot,

you would think it would be ok?

Nope!

All smiles again!

The biggest chair EVER!

We would like to finish this trip report with pictures of our various nights out in Malta. We met some interesting people and ate in some lovely restaurants. We like to buy souvenirs when we are away as a nice reminder of where we have been. From Malta we bought ourselves some Maltese glass, it comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and various colours. We chose a large paperweight in a swirl of pretty blues.

We met an American couple one night out in St Paul's Bay, who were interesting to say the least! They entertained us with their tall stories about knowing Britney Spears very well amongst other famous American figures! Whether the stories were true or not, they were entertaining. The couple liked us so much, they even invited us to go stay with them in the states! They had drunk quite a lot, so I guess we won't be taking them up on their invitation as I could hazard a guess at, 1. they wouldn't remember us and 2. it would be pretty busy at their place as they invited a lot more people!

Coming up....

The next trip report will be about a long weekend in Milan, Andy and I took in November 2007 for Andy's birthday, but we won't start writing this until we get back from our trip to Crete, so expect it around the middle to end of May.

In the meantime (until we leave for Crete), we will be updating you on TSFC, a Sportsman's dinner we went to and the Easter break.

Valletta

All along we had decided on a visit to Valletta, but the day we went we did on the spur of the moment. We get very restless sometimes and just cannot sit by a pool all day, so this day we got in a taxi and headed for Valletta.

We we were dropped off just outside, you enter through the city gate. Driving is almost impossible in the city as there are many narrow streets and streets of stairs. We made our way to what could be said the main square. We took a drink just outside the Bibliotheca, a grand building, built in the late 18Th century. The building houses rare and priceless works, with a small section on display in the main hall. We also passed St John's Cathedral, which was absolutely packed with tourists, so we decided to visit the Palace of the Grand Masters. This was the official residence of the Grand Masters up until 1798 when it went on to become the home of Malta's parliament.

The Grand Masters were Knights who were given the islands by Charles V of Spain in 1530. The palace houses portraits of the Grand Masters and European monarchs, beautiful furniture and art. You can visit several rooms, including the small council chamber, the throne room, the hall of the ambassadors, the yellow state room and the armoury. At the entrance you are given a recording which is included in the entrance fee, it tells you the history and interesting information.

We found the armoury the most interesting as it houses armour, weaponry, etc...

It felt like a worthwhile visit.

After leaving the Palace, we hired a horse and carriage which took us on a tour of the city. This way you can visit at your leisure without being too overcome by the heat. The driver was very useful in his knowledge as well. We took in the city walls, the grand harbour, fort St Elmo, the gardens and the narrow streets.

Valletta is a very imposing city which still remained whole after intensive bombing during World War two, Malta experienced over 6000 tonnes of bombs falling in one month! In 1942, April 15Th, the people and the island of Malta were awarded the George Cross for gallantry by King George VI.

Valletta is a must when visiting this island.

The Blue Lagoon

We booked a cruise with Captain Morgan Cruises, this would include a leisurely sail to Comino Island to enjoy the Blue Lagoon and the Blue Grotto, a sight seeing opportunity of Malta from the sea, taking in places such as the Grand Harbour at Valletta and a lunch on board.

This trip would be very touristy, especially when reaching the Blue Lagoon. This could not be helped as it was August!

Comino is a very small island between Malta and Gozo, about 2.5km by 2km. There are no roads on the island which in turn would indicate no cars, there is one hotel which is only open during the summer months.

Diving, snorkeling and leisurely walks are the main activities of this island. It is best to bring your own food and drink, unless it is included in your cruise because otherwise you can only get food and drink at the hotel.

The island is a wildlife sanctuary, but is named after the cumin plant, which surprisingly, turns out to be very hard to find!

It seemed like a lifetime before we arrived at the lagoon. Although we had a pleasant cruise, the boat was packed so you were almost permanently in your seat. It was extremely hot and not all seats had shelter from the sun. The lunch was nice and we enjoyed as much as we liked.

Finally arriving at the Lagoon, we were offered a speed boat trip to the Grotto at an additional cost. We accepted and we have to say, it was definitely the right choice! The ride in the speed boat itself was absolutely fantastic! It was like being on a roller coaster and nobody could stop laughing! We were soaked to the skin and a fellow passenger just about managed to film us all with his camcorder (how the camcorder survived the soaking, I don't know!). The recording was hilarious!

The Grotto was interesting enough. The caves and coves were brilliant shades of purple and glistened when the sun caught reflection, very pretty. The waters were extremely clear, just unfortunate they were spoiled by the odd bit of rubbish that had been discarded.

Arriving back at the lagoon, we couldn't stop raving about the speedboat ride!

Fighting our way through the crowds, we managed to get down to the lagoon. Snorkel and underwater camera ready we made our way in.

I was slightly disappointed, yes the water was clear and a brilliant shade of turquoise, but I think the amount of people scared away the marine life. We settled on enjoying a bit of relaxation and some swimming.

Andy spotted some kids jumping off a pretty tall boat into the lagoon and decided it looked like fun! Hey, its good to just act like a kid sometimes, I think you enjoy some things better that way! The kids loved him!

To get into the water where we were, the rocks were quite sharp, obviously slippy, so due care and attention was in order. We spotted a child of about 3-4 years old trying to get in, no adult helping. The child was going to fall, so we assisted and led the child to a more shallow part near the sand and away from the rocks. Eventually, a parent called to the child, but made no effort to supervise. We kept one eye on the child as drowning is possible in the most shallow of waters.

We kept an eye on the time as there was no roll call for our ship and they did warn they would leave on time with or without you!

To avoid the crowds, we would suggest visiting outside of the popular months or stay at the hotel on Comino and visit the lagoon when everyone is gone.

We sailed with Captain Morgan Cruises, departing from Sliema Harbour. Included in the cruise was a pick-up and drop-off coach from our hotel, lunch, Comino and the Blue Lagoon and a cruise around the coast of Malta. The speed boat trip to the Blue Grotto, is an optional trip at an additional cost when you arrive at the lagoon.

Mosta and Mdina

We hired a small car from a local leasing company a short walk from our hotel. Driving in Malta should be pretty straight forward as they drive on the left like we do in the UK. We had observed in taxi rides that a speed limit doesn't seem to exist, or if it does, it is ignored! Steph was the driver, so she just drove with good care and attention!

We decided this trip would be a visit to Mosta and the famous Mosta Rotunda, the walled city of Mdina and to Golden bay beach.

As Malta is such a small island, it wasn't long before we had arrived in Mosta. We parked up and found that we were a little early as the Rotunda hadn't opened yet, so we went to a nearby cafe and enjoyed some breakfast. In Malta they like you to respect their dress code when visiting churches, so shoulders and knees covered is the way to go.

Mosta dome church (The Rotunda) is a pretty amazing site, it was built in the mid-19th century with the worlds largest unsupported dome. This was possible as it boasts walls which are up to 6m deep. The church is just as impressive on the outside as it is on the inside. There are six side chapels, marble floors and murals by Giuseppe Cali.

It was very awe-inspiring when entering. The design and structure is not just why it attracts visitors, but is known where miracles have happened. In 1942 during the second world war, the church was hit by a 200kg bomb while the church had a full congregation. The bomb failed to explode and also didn't land on anyone, everyone escaped unhurt. The church also managed to withstand two more bombs, which apparently just bounced off the dome without exploding!

The church today has on display a replica of the bomb that came through the dome and if you look up at the dome from the inside, you can see one tile that has not been fully restored, marking where the bomb came through.

If visiting, take your time to wander and appreciate the beauty of this church.

Our next stop was a short drive to the Mdina walled city. The Arabs built a 19m wall around Mdina, leaving the poorer people outside in the area that is now known as Rabat. Mdina was the capital of Malta until Valletta became the capital in 1571.

As you can imagine, Mdina was certainly not built for cars with its narrow winding streets, so we parked nearby and let loose on foot.

You can enter Mdina through a rather grand entrance called Greek's Gate or Mdina Gate. It is so named as a small group of Greek's settled in that corner of Mdina.

Mdina is full of interesting things to see with excellent views over Malta. The city has an aviation museum, Roman antiquities, dungeons, St Paul's Church and Grotto amongst numerous cafes and interesting architecture. As you can see from one of the pictures, there are good views from the wall. We enjoyed walking around this interesting walled city and would recommend it as a worth while visit.

Our car hire trip ended with a visit to one of Malta's few sandy beaches, Golden Bay.

Golden Bay was very busy (not surprising really as its one of very few sandy ones). It was large enough with plenty of water activities if you so wished. Golden Bay does have some history, it was where British naval forces trained during world war two, but as you could probably guess it is today full of sun worshippers.

We enjoyed some relaxation and we were very much entertained by a dog that belonged to an Italian couple. This dog was having the time of its life, jumping in and out of the water!

Mediterranean Marine Park

We decided on a trip to the mediterranean marine park to see Dolphins, Sealions and Seals. The park doesn't consider itself as providing entertainment, but to put on educational shows and teach about conservation. They certainly did that and as well as learning about how intelligent these mammals are we learnt that the tricks they were doing are actually capable abilities and not tricks.

It was stunning to see how beautiful they were and see them in action, how quick and agile.

St Paul's Bay

Beautiful blue waters

The site of St Paul's shipwreck

The fish farm

We took a glass bottom boat from Bugibba to view sea life and to see the site where St Paul was shipwrecked in AD60. St Paul brought Christianity to Malta. Before his landing, Malta was a Pagan society which has now stayed predominantly Christian since St Paul, apart from the period of occupation by the Arabs.

The story goes that the church of St Paul was built upon the site where St Paul built a bonfire and threw a viper into it ejecting all the poison from Malta's snakes.

The glass bottom boat was small and very pleasant, with few passengers. The glass bottom was clear, if not a little claustrophobic. You climbed down some steep steps into the bottom of the boat where there were benches. A few passengers decided against it and were quite happy to go back above on deck. The sea life was clear to see, but there was nothing exciting, no unusual fish, etc.. just schools of the same small fish, interesting enough seeing them weave in and out. We weren't down there long and simply enjoyed the ride. The crew were very helpful in pointing out sites of interests and knowledgeable in their history.

We sailed leisurely passed the point of St Paul's shipwreck site and passed a fish farm which was guarded.

The trip didn't last more than a couple of hours, back on shore we enjoyed a nice lunch and some swimming to cool down.

We used Captain Morgan Cruises for our Underwater Safari in the glass bottom boat. Departing from Bugibba from 10am onwards.

Qawra, St Paul's Bay

Celebrating our Engagement

Fun in the roof top pool!!

Qawra at dusk

The view from the hotel roof top

Our hotel was nestled up a slight hill in Qawra. We only booked into one hotel during our entire stay because Malta is a small island with 27km being the longest distance from southeast to northwest, so having one base seemed plenty.

On our first morning we decided to check out the hotel before taking a walk along the promenade to see what day trips we could take during the rest of our trip. The hotel indeed did have three pools, one large one on the terrace which was more than adequate with the most stunning views (beyond the other rooftops!), one smaller one hidden in a courtyard surrounded by the rooms and one inside in the basement which was a lovely pool but very warm. The basement was also a gym.

The lobby was quite grand looking and the staff seemed friendly and pleasant enough.

There was a bar and indeed restaurants. Just down the road from the hotel was another little bar, which we were to enjoy a few nights at!

Our complimentary breakfast wasn't anything to shout about and decided there was probably better breakfasts out there. We don't always tend to constantly have all our meals in our hotels as we like to go out and sample different cuisines at different restaurants, so we weren't really disappointed.

After our stroll down the promenade which took us into an area called Bugibba we had decided what we shall do. We booked ourselves onto a glass bottom boat which would also take us along the coast to where St Paul was shipwrecked, another booking secured us a place on a boat that would cruise us to the Blue Lagoon just off Comino island. There is also the island of Gozo as well. The blue lagoon is a tourist hot spot, but considering the time we had decided to visit, there was no escape! Mosta and the Rotunda and the walled city of Mdina with a trip to a beach would all be done by car hire. A trip to the capital Valletta and water park and marine park were also on our list. Malta doesn't have 'proper' beaches, they are mainly pebbled and very small, the one we visited was a sandy beach called Golden Bay.

After our first day of exploring our immediate surrounding and deciding on our sight-seeing, we returned to the hotel to get ready for some nightlife! Now as I was in the middle of getting ready, Andy starts to act all strange, being a bit more lovey-dovey than normal, I finally click and he has proposed! Of course I said yes! Claire and David were a little shocked, not because of the proposal (they knew), but the fact he had done it already. The plan was that they would leave us so we could have a nice meal together but Andy 'chickened out' figuring that our hotel room was a safer bet! No matter as you could probably imagine we were all ecstatic and enjoyed our night out immensely!

Where did 2008 go?

Well, apologies are in order. We've been away from the blog for quite a while, but intend to get back to it after a busy 2008 for us. Towards the end of 2007 we took a trip to Milan for Andy's birthday, in 2008 Andy was very busy with TSFC as success came easy to them, but unfortunately they narrowly missed out on promotion, I had essays and exams galore, joined a netball team and we attended 5 weddings with one being our own! Our trip to Malta turned out to be our engagement!
I will finish the report on Malta first, then have trips on Milan, Malaysia and Thailand to post. In May we are off to Crete for our honeymoon, we plan on taking the dogs somewhere again and TSFC have lots of important matches to look forward to, the rest of 2009 is yet to be decided!
Good Times!

First Impression

Upon, inspection, Dave decided the beds were fine!

We landed late at night so therefore we couldn't really check out the view from the taxi on our way to our hotel. It wasn't a long ride, but as Malta is such a small island, no trip would be that long!

First impressions of the hotel Soreda in Qawra, St Paul's Bay were good, it was classed as a 4 star and the lobby seemed to be a good representation.

Unfortunately, our good impression fell dramatically upon entering our room. We had booked a self-catering suite and the size of the rooms were good, but it was in need of some TLC! The walls were cracked and peeling and our bedroom window over looked some pipes. The room was clean, but we were not too sure about the sofa. Unless it was just the pattern, none of us were keen to sit on it.

The room in our opinion did not meet the standards of what we thought was a 4 star hotel. It was our first night though and we had arrived late, so we put it down to tiredness, we didn't plan on spending too much time there anyway!

The hotel did boast two outdoor pools, an indoor pool, gym, jacuzzi, evening entertainment and restaurants, so we looked forward to finding out about those!

Also, we had our complimentary buffet breakfast to enjoy in the morning.

Soreda Hotel, Malta

Malta

At the airport.

Please accept our apologies for the lack of posts. We both have been extremely busy of late. Amongst other things, Steph has had exams, Andy has had Football commitments and we both have had a party to organise and lots more organising! All will be revealed soon.

For now, as promised we will start to tell you about our trip to Malta.

We went to Malta in late August 2007 with Steph's brother and our friend Claire. We only had a week there, but think we made the most of our short trip.

We had an afternoon flight, so no early mornings which suited us just fine. We decided to pack on the day we were flying out as we thought we had plenty of time. Little did we know! As we rushed to pack, our lift had arrived in the form of Andy's patient mum, we realised we hadn't packed any towels, so another rush to get them! We find that you never get enough towels from the hotel, so we always like to pack our own.

We were flying out from Birmingham, but by the time we were on the road we had plenty of time.

At check-in, we almost thought that Steph may not be allowed to fly as the attendant had to get her passport checked. Steph is coming up to her 10 year expiry and the passport was showing its age and it was a bit dog eared! We waited a nervous 15 minutes! When the attendant arrived back, he just got on with finishing checking us in! We asked him that we gathered the passport was ok? 'No problem' was the reply.

Ok, panicking for nothing! Steph decided to apply for a new passport on our return anyway!

We always like to try and arrive early, so as usual we had a bit of waiting around. We hadn't had lunch so we decided to do that and then a browse around duty free.

The flight was pleasant enough and it wasn't full either. We had a friendly lady sitting with us all, she is a regular to Malta, so we got some tips and advice!