South to Malta

After a night in the airport hotel, we had a late morning flight to Malta, arriving late afternoon. We collected our hire car and headed towards Sliema, our destination for the night.

On the map, Sliema is the city across the bay from the capital Valetta, so looked like a good place to base ourselves for a few days to explore the area. In reality it's the most densely populated town on the island, with a plethora of apartment blocks, amongst the tallest buildings in Malta. This has resulted in significant traffic and parking issues.

We certainly had our fair share of traffic issues on the way, not the least being understanding Aussie Karen's street name pronunciations on Google Maps. We ended up ignoring the voice prompts and relying on Oliver's navigation skills to navigate the many one way streets.

Parking the car was a whole other issue, as hotel reception informed us that the hotel car park was full and I'd need to park on the street. The parking gods were on our side, as a vacant spot appeared directly across from the hotel entrance. And with no time limit, it may stay just there for a couple of days as we explore the sights of Sliema and Valetta on foot!

We started that exploration with a short walk down the promenade to familiarise ourselves with the area. During that walk we came across a bust of Albert Rizzo, the first Maltese to enter the Guiness Book of Records, for treading water for 132 hours. He subsequently won the Maltese Sportsman of the Year award. And was later town mayor.Read more