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 start until 10 & the service at 10.30 so d*** retired to the unit for a rest whilst Jane walked the streets to see greater Floriana.

After quite a long snooze & some lunch we set out to see the waterfront, after the regulation coffee. Descending in the lift to the sea level we walked quite a way along the quay side & eventually back to the unit via the gate in the bastion.

One of the oddest sights in Floriana is a couple of large squares with, what appear to be pillar bases at regular intervals, just as if buildings had been demolished. Thanks to google we found that these 'pillar bases' are actually covers to granaries excavated below between 1657 - 1660. Apparently, there are 76 of them, each holding 60 - 80 tons of wheat & were in use until 1962.

After dinner in Valletta we went to the Teatru Manoel to see a performance of 'El Tango' an exciting stage show of a reinterpretation of the Tango in contemporary dance. It was 90 minutes of wonderful music & dancing, a mixture of song, dance & great musicianship in this beautiful little theatre.

Monday 28th May

Today we took the 133 bus in a loop around Valletta returning to our street for Jane to put the washing in the drier before we caught another bus to Marsaxlokk the main fishing harbour of Malta SE of Valletta. The harbour edge is lined with seafood cafes & market stalls & is full of colourful Maltese traditional fishing boats about 20 m in length with high prows & sterns. Unfortunately, just along to one side of the bay is a big power station & nearby was moored an LNG tanker which doesn't really add ambience to the locality. We wandered around, had a coffee & caught another bus back to Floriana where we caught up with Ryan who looks after the units. He was very obliging re some requests we had made & had replaced the fan heater in the room with a portable air conditioner which will be vital as the temperatures are rising & we could have done with it over the last couple of nights. As we go tomorrow all our clothes have been washed & ironed ready for the trip to Edinburgh