Malta

We bus back to Slimea from Valetta and stroll the quay to find a cruise. As it's late it turns out there's only one left today, leaving at 5pm. But it's a luzzu, there are only a few people on board and we can have a beer so all is well.

It's a thoroughly pleasant trip. The sun is shining, we have beer and we're out on the water. Puttering along you can see how fantastic this harbour is - sheltered, lots of different inlets and big. No wonder it has been so strategically important for so long.

We see the Grand Harbour first and then swing round Fort St Elmo into the Three Cities harbour. There are three cruise liners in today which probably explains why Valetta seemed very crowded earlier. The industrial part of the port can hardly be described as attractive but it's a working port so this is a necessity.

The queue at the bus stop afterwards is massive so we cunningly walk back one stop to be ahead of them. Our ploy doesn't work as not one, not two but four buses sail past all packed to the gunnels. After at least twenty minutes one finally let's us on. It, too, is packed but we're on the move. We're heartily sick of the buses now.

Dinner's at Bianco's this evening. We enjoy a trio of Maltese sausages, don't enjoy a beef cappuccino much and enjoy the pizza with double mozzarella and Parma ham.

I bring up the subject of Gozo tomorrow and the buses. We're both in agreement : we can't be bothered with hassle of the buses so we're not going to go...zoLeggi altro