Sunday 27th May Another day in the life of the weary travellers. Another late start after d*** went on a go slow. Crossed to the basilica at 9.30 to watch the procession of 'First Communicants'. Everybody was dressed up to the nines with the girls in very elaborate, full length white dresses & the boys in white suits accompanied by the proud parents also smartly attired, with the mothers' tottering on their bizarre high heels. The processing didn't s...

Wednesday 23rd May Had a later start this morning as d*** tried to get some progress re the visa card farce. After a somewhat frustrating call it turned out that all Australian transactions are frozen, so on to another card to keep the world rolling. After breakfast we went to catch a bus to M'dina the old capital before Valletta & Rabat its suburb outside the wall. This proved harder than we expected as there were 2 stops about 100m apart & natural...

Monday 21st May Had Dick's nightmare over the last 2 days when his computer refused to do anything as a download appeared to have stopped it in its tracks. Today we found a computer repair place close by & took it over. Having found a repairer we set off into Valletta &took a ferry to Vittoriosa, formerly Birgu, the original settlement before Valletta was founded after the Great Siege of Malta by the Turks in 1565. The town is on a peninsular & ...

Friday 18th May After breakfast across the way we caught a local bus to the airport & spotted about 6 flamingos still at the salt lake well after they should have moved on. The flight of 2.5 hrs was quite pleasant & we were picked up at the airport to be taken to our apartment, which is clean & neat if a little spartan but not that well located. Then the fun started. At last we had our mobile phones working again but the first message from the b...