Malta - The Another Bloody Fort Tour

Malta - so many superlatives, so few paragraphs!

We have stayed for a week in Haz-Zebbug, a village in the interior of the island well known for... well, not its tourism industry. We would walk through town on the way to the bus stop each morning and be stared at as if the Martians had landed, although maybe that was due to the number of slabs of beer we bought from the local convenience store (the owner has now retired and is living in Monaco).

Our villa, though, accommodating all thirteen of us, was excellent, a labyrinth of bedrooms, sitting rooms, kitchens and stone spiral staircases leading up to the roof and down to basements unknown. All in all it was a good fun base from which to terrorise the locals and explore the island.

Valletta has a beautiful setting on a peninsula with a harbour on each side, incredible fortifications all round, attractive buildings and enough souvenir shops to drive the economy of a small city. It also has so much history it just about oozes out of the stonework, from the bloodthirsty knights of the 16th century to the incredible hardships of World War 2.

We got out of the capital a bit too, visiting the old capital of Mdina (yet another fortress), the 200 metre high Dingli Cliffs, the Island of Gozo (yet another fortress) among others.

Probably the best thing about Malta, though, was the chance to share this adventure, and the odd Cisk beer and Aperol Spritz, with such good, warm and funny friends.Read more