We were so sorry not to catch up with Annabel and Alphonse, next time for sure.

Gozo had given us certain expectations about Malta and how it would be. This time round it was not exactly what we had anticipated.

But, first things first. Breakfast, again, was lovely. What will we do when we are on land and have to organise food for ourselves. We may lose weight – hmm, there’s a good idea, because we sure found some weight on this ship ha, ha.

We had a tour booked in the afternoon so we decided to go and explore the city of Valletta ourselves.

Valletta is only 1 square kilometre, so we opted to walk the circumference and then discover the inner city. There was a religious celebration of sorts going on so a lot of the city was closed and there were all sorts of fireworks, chanting, wailing, and crowds. Very interesting. The city is not as pretty as Gozo but still has a lot of history and the fortifications are stunning.

The centre of Valletta, such as it is, is lively and beautiful. You never get tired of the old buildings and little historic surprises. But you do get sick of all the rubbish that seems to be the norm, so disappointing when the beautiful surroundings are covered in plastic and food wrapping.

There were three cruises all converging on Valletta at the same time, so that made it busy and a little unpleasant in places.

After an a couple of hours of walking, in the beautiful sunshine, we stopped for a quick beer and wine before heading back to the ship, lunch, and then departure on our tour. At least that was the plan. Ho hum.

The shuttle that was running between the boat and the port was meant to depart every 20 minutes. We had allowed over an hour just in case. We missed one by about 90 seconds so picked up some duty free. Jason was thrilled with his 10 euro bottle of run and I restocked on Maltese wine, you know, just in case. And then we waited, and waited, and waited.

For an hour. No lunch, and the hope of even getting on our tour was fading fast.

So, those of you that know Jason well also realise that no lunch is not a good thing… I was beginning to really worry.

Finally the boat turned up, we got on and it waited another 15 minutes before departing. Island time and there is no arguing with island time. We dashed on board, dumped our stuff, got our tickets and made it to the tour.

The tour that was surely put on by candid camera (anyone remember that show, where unsuspecting people were put in ludicrous situations to see how they would react)?

Our guide, clearly in his 90s (Jason and I, when we were talking again) recited “30 and 2 no matter who” and kept an eye out for a defibrillator. Most people could not understand him and those that could wanted him to stop talking.

It is amazing everyone made it back to the boat. Our three city tour included two cities and I seriously wondered if the dude was Woody Allan in disguise.

The first city we visited was called Marsaxlokk, really it was, it’s a fishing village and the fish looked amazing and fresh and yummy. Unfortunately it was also the Sunday market where they sell all sorts of crap, and the crowds were awful. We were left to our own devices and miraculously made it to the bus before it left without us. Unfortunately the tour guide made it too. Ha, ha.

Then onto Birgu where we walked the city and were told about a whole bunch of stuff no one cared about. Ha, ha.

We were informed that each of the individual cities still has the original access through the fortified gates. Very cool.

Anyway, parts of the tour were lovely including the boat ride and commentary around the harbour. Some really stunning views. We had eaten by this stage, as Woody was giving an explanation about a particular building, I had enough time to go into restaurant, order food, have the food cooked, and delivered for takeaway before he was done. Oi!

When we made it back to the boat we were on time to go to the gym, have a swim and dinner before watching the sailing as we departed Malta. We did not depart until 1000pm as we are so close to our next port.

It was so cool seeing all the lights as we left the city.

Ideally visit Malta when there are not so many people, and truly ideally, go to Gozo.

xxx