Christmas is early in Valletta

18 November
Leaving the hotel, turned left and headed towards the building diagonally opposite our room window, thinking it might be a church or exhibition space, but was the Malta Stock Exchange. To the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which were quite pretty, with a fantastic view across Grand Harbour, 2 arched colonnades with a garden, trees and many statues, and balconies to admire the views. Below the gardens, set on a terrace, was the Saluting Battery, with patches of healthy green grass behind the black cannons. There was a small kiosk in the gardens where a bunch of cats lazed and prowled amongst the pigeons.
   Walked down the hill, seeing a Hop-On Hop-Off bus, flagged it down as it was about to leave and boarded it. It drove to Lascar's Wharf, paid for our tickets and were handed a pair of earphones each. We eventually boarded a Hop-On Hop-Off bus, but unknowingly took the wrong one – we were hoping to get the one that went past Blue Grotto, but instead took a shorted Violet loop bus. It was OK as it was, except that the commentary wasn't playing on our side of the bus. So, we just watched the scenery go by, going thru various suburbs or towns, not sure what we were seeing, but the housing was like legoland, 2-3 story structures side-by side, like boxes or variations of cubes, mostly built of the yellowy-cream coloured limestone. Small shops set underneath, narrow roads, and every now and then glimpses of farmlets.
   We arrived at Mdina, and when a pile of people disembarked from up top, we moved upstairs to the open top for a better vantage point. Mdina looks really interesting, and we'll probably take a bus out there in our own time. According to the Hop-On Hop-Off bus info book, "Mdina is the old capital city of Malta, dating back to pre-historic times. It's a medieval walled city and is surrounded by Baroque style palaces and churches". We passed thru an arts "colony" called Ta' Qali Crafts Village: "shortly before WWII, the area of Ta' Qali was used to build a military aerodrome and served as a station for the RAF". Here you find Mdina Glass and jewellery production, as well as other arts and crafts. We passed thru the town of Mosta, whose Church of Santa Maria – better known as the Rotunda [styled after the Pantheon in Rome] – is quite impressive … another place to check out. We also passed by the beautiful marina which can house 900 yachts … it looked quite swanky indeed.
   Back to Valletta, time for lunch, and we noticed hordes of people in the streets, courtesy of the cruise liners, so thought finding a space in a cafe would be very difficult. Sheryl found a small place and we had a lovely lunch – toasted sandwiches with the nicest crustiest rustic bread [yum] and small side salads, and drinks, again, very cheap. We had a hell of a time trying to work out how to get to our "free" harbour cruise, as part of our Hop-On Hop-Off tickets; Sheryl went to our hotel concierge, who helpfully explained we need to cross over to the other side of the city [only 300m] to take a water taxi over to catch a ferry from Sliema. Was tricky to work out how to get down to the jetty from the battlements, bought our tix, then waited for the taxi. A beautiful sunny day, it wasn't a terrible thing to have to do, the view over to Sliema was very interesting as it was obviously where all the holiday apartments are being built, looked very ritzy and Gold Coast without the high rise towers.
   The ride over to Sliema was a little hair-raising as the water was quite choppy, was fun. Once there, we found out we had to change our Hop-On Hop-Off ticket for a Cruise ticket, found an gelati van and for 3 Eu each, got a large waffle cone with 3 different scoops, amazing value! and yum, yum, yummmmmm! Boarded the rather large cruise vessel, and after c10 mins we were off, at a nice gentle pace, travelling around Manoel Island, withe the Fortizza Manoel at the tip, to the Lazaretto Bay, with yachts and what looked like Malta Navy vessels, used to patrol Malta waters for illegal immigration, etc. We then headed out to the tip of Valletta, past Marsmaxett Harbour, past all the fortifications, bastions and watchtowers which were quite ominous, onto quite choppy waters so that even our large vessel bobbed quite a lot. We entered the Grand Harbour and visited the dry docks, spotted vessels in for repair, as well as a RAN vessel docked opposite the dry docks. I think I heard the commentary saying these were the largest dry docks complex in the Mediterranean. Some of the cranes there were HUGE.
   Visited the 3 cities Cospicua, Senglea and Vittoriosa, with Fort St Angelo and Fort Ricasoli and their battlements and watchtowers adding to the mix of houses stacked against eachother, churches, marinas, etc. The views across the water to these towns were unique and wondrous, especially with the now golden sun slowly sinking. Valletta has 3 km of battlements surrounding the city, and is the only city of Europe to be contained by such walls; they are huge and imposing and an amazing feat of design and engineering. You could imagine how forbidding all the fortifications we could see would have been over the centuries of attempted blockage and invasion. We retraced our path thru the choppy, heaving entry to the Grand Harbour before returning to the jetty at Sliema. We were told all the buses head to Valletta so we caught the next bus to arrive back to the main bus terminus. Went for a wander down streets we hadn't visited, to get more of a feel of the place, before heading back to our hotel after picking up some cold drinks. Saw a Christmas tree with lights in one of the built-in baconies, as well as Christmas decorations being installed in Market Street.
   All in all a lovely day, loved the cruise, highly recommended. Noticed during our saunter that there are many shops/houses that look locked up and perhaps not lived in; wonder how many people have left this area for the more swankier parts of Malta, if they're vacant? not able to be sold? what? More questions to ask …

19 November
With map in hand headed down into town to try to find The National Museum of Fine Arts, as we wanted to book for the Hypogeum. Had trouble finding the Museum, stopped a passerby for help, and once we found it, we booked for 4pm tomorrow, as well as entry tix for us [2 Eu each]. A small museum, 2 floors up, one floor down, mainly paintings, some wonderful wooden furniture, many with inlay, as well as religious artefacts, and a fresco dating back to the 14th century. Downstairs was a small exhibition of contemporary acrylic paintings by Maria Dalmas, some of which I'd be happy to take home with me. The paintings were exhibited below, on the walls of the interior courtyard, when you looked up you saw 2 floors with balconies and to a square of blue sky with white clouds whizzing by overhead. It was bright, cool, and quiet, a lovely space.
   Headed back up the hill towards the St John's and St Michaels' Bastions, a quick wander into hastings Gardens, with views of to Sliema, the Black Pearl and the marina we visited yesterday during our harbour cruise. Due to some major works, there was a diversion, and walking back we encountered a very genial Maltese man in his 80s, who gave us quick directions for a shortcut, and a chat for 10-15 minutes. It's times like these I truly enjoy being a traveller, as you bump into so many lovely people who welcome you to their country, offer little insights into history, politics and a "slice of life" of their hometown. The impression we've gotten so far is that they don't like German or the French very much … haha! He thought we might have been English, but when we said we were Australians we were asked if we had a kangaroo as a pet, with tongue in cheek. We thanked him and bid him a fond farewell, and made our way to the main bus terminus, via the works of the new Parliament House, designed by the eminent Italian architect, Renzo Piano.
   Asked for information on how to get to The Blue Grotto: take the X4 or X5 to the airport, then the 201 to the Grotto … easy! Bought day tix, 2,60 Eu each, and perhaps 45 minutes later we were buying tickets for the Blue Grotto Boat Service. Once the small boat was full, we were asked to put on lifevests, and off we headed, in choppy waters with perhaps a 1m swell, which was quite fun, the vessel bobbing about in deep blue waters, following the cliffs round to various caves and the Blue Grotto, where, if it was a bright sunny day, we would have experienced a deep blue shimmer to the waters … we got a reasonable approximation, and in one cave, where there was a sandy bottom, the clear waters indeed looked a beautiful pale aqua, beautiful. We saw abseilers at the bottom of cliffs, ropes anchored up top, looking upwards … glad it was them, not me. There was an arch formation too, which was quite impressive. It was a fun little cruise, and after about 30 minutes, we returned to the jetty, then up to a local cafe for lunch and hot drinks.
   Returned to the bus stop for the bus to take us to the Heritage Malta Visitor Centre for the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Temples. Lots of dry stone walls made of the local cream and honey coloured limestone, bordering small farmlets, lanes and properties, plenty of prickly pear cactus, dark brown coloured soil … looked very rustic, charming. Arriving at the Visitor Centre drive, we walked up and around, bought entry tix, then waited a few minutes to see the short video presentation. There was a very informative display to take in, on exiting the cinema, a great introduction to what we were about to visit. A short walk to the Hagar Qim Temple, which, according to the brochure, "consists of a group of monumental megalithic buildings … built during the late Neolithic, around 5000 years ago". In short, damn old, the oldest free-standing human structures, older than the Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge! Being constructed of the soft local limestone, they were severely weathered and are covered by massive steel and plastic sheets. Nonetheless, what we entered was awe-inspiring and incredibly impressive … there were some massive pieces of limestone arranged in walls and doorways, with no metal tools! There was something deeply moving by these structures, human hands moved these stones, shaped them, drilled holes into them, carved shapes and decoration into them, all that time ago … a 5 minute walk down a slope was the Mnajdra Temples, built 3600-3200BC, again, impressive, and amazed that one piece of limestone there was about 20 tons! According to the brochure some of the doorways were built aligning to the rising of the sun at equinoxes at various times of the year, which is impressive. Couldn't get over the fact of the age of these structures, the landscape looking rather bleak and rocky, weathered, ancient …
   We returned to Valletta via the airport, noticing that Christmas lights were illuminated at various points along the way. Headed down the hill for dinner. We saw people congregating outside St John's, with banners and instruments, and as we paid for dinner, the band struck up and a precession wound it's way towards us, and then along Market Street … love a good brass band! We followed the procession for a while, with the bannermen stopping for a few minutes every 50m or so. We asked a lady standing next to us what it was all about: it was for the Feast of St Cecelia.
   Tomorrow we intend going to the Sunday Market, maybe see a film about Malta, then off to the Hypogeum in the afternoon. Monday is our last full day here.