Whatever I expected of Valletta it didn’t measure up, what a beautiful city! There must be a planning law that everything has to either be constructed from the local limestone, or painted to look as if it is. Build a city from such a flexible substance and ship in all the artists from neighbouring Italy and you have an ornate, decorative city that begs you to wander the streets.
We took a walking tour around Valletta itself for the morning stopping at both Barrakka Gardens, then strolling both the streets and harbour side for a few hours. This tour was designed for kids meaning Gab and I hardly saw ours all morning as they played with the other kids. We also had a few kid features in the tour, dramatic stories about the knights, and a visit to a toy museum.
After the tour we humped our second send home package off to the Post Office, I think in an attempt to clear room for Gab’s Parisian shopping spree, or mine. Then got a taxi to take us out to Mdina, the old original capital of the island, and home to the original gates used as the gate to King’s Landing in Game of Thrones.
We had a little time around Mdina, then headed all the way across town to Fort Ricasloi, the gates of which are used as the Red Keep. Unfortunately Fort Ricasoli was closed for filming today, so we couldn’t go in to poke around.
On the way across the Grand Harbour the Taxi driver was the second person to day to tell us that Birgu was the marina where Abramovich had his super cruiser (what’s the correct term?) pulled up recently. A spectacular Marina packed with impressive ways to blow a fortune, so we stopped for lunch by the water and a few of the local beers - Cisk.
Loads of exploring today and now b*****ed, ready for a hard earned sea day tomorrow, our last day of the cruise :(