Malta Part 1: Heading for the sun

Continuing in the spirit of doing something different this year, we decided we needed a bit of sun and booked a long weekend in Malta in the middle of February. In my job in travel, I'd heard that Malta was a bit of a love it/hate it place, but it was good value and warm, so we though we'd reserve judgement till we got there.

The flight was fine, but Cyclone Charlene was hovering over Malta (what is it with us and storms this year?), so we were a little nervous about the landing and rightly so, as it turned out to be a real white knuckle ride that had us both sweating and clutching at the armrests. Bro actually grabbed my hand at one point so it must have been bad!

Somewhat shakily, we got to the hotel and lovely it was too, right on Valletta's harbour front. We even had a balcony courtesy of a room upgrade which was a nice start.

valletta - like rome in miniature

The next day, the weather was warm and calm and we set off to walk right round the city which actually isn't that big. With my professional hat on, Malta has a huge history going back to prehistoric times and everyone seems to have left their mark from the Romans to the British, and the result is a beautiful honey coloured city that looks like Rome in miniature with a really friendly feel.

We walked about eight miles along, up, down and through all the main streets and a fair few smaller ones too. We saw St Paul's wrist bone, beautiful war memorials, lovely parks and lush, flower filled gardens. The weather was wonderfully warm and we felt much better and more relaxed.

In the afternoon we took a ferry across to the Three Cities area; we actually went to Birgu (or Vittoriosa) and wandered through the marina with its vast collection of huge yachts including what we found to be the world's largest mega sailing yacht, the Maltese Falcon, (owned by a woman I’m proud to say), narrow cobbled streets and stunning views back to Valletta.

Getting to the ferry from the Valletta side was a little hairy; you need to negotiate the monstrous Upper Barakka Cliff Lift or else walk miles round to the Grand Harbour. The lift is 58 metres high but we didn’t actually fancy it, so we decided to walk down the hundreds of stairs which spiralled round quite tightly with a horrible little open viewing area at the bottom of each flight letting you know how high you were. We did go back up in the lift which wasn't so bad.

the maltese falcon

yes, you walk the plank to get in

the narrow streets of birgu

The evening's entertainment was provided by a drink and a snack in the lounge of the hotel looking down on the dining room with its huge Chinese buffet. We watched in amusement as people wandered round, picking at dishes they obviously weren't sure about, or those who took huge platefuls and went back for seconds and thirds. The highlight was a lady dropping a dumpling, looking round to see if anyone had noticed, then nonchalantly walking away. It was then a matter of waiting to see who would tread on it!

What do they say; little things please little minds, but bigger fools look on........