Day 573, 6 Jan '16, Malta Pass Day 2, It had to happen... by the end of Day 2 our feet were just too darn sore to visit the final planned attraction. Just a cave. Ice age mammal fossils. Probably cold and dark and another 40 minutes driving on bone-shaking roads. Seen caves before. Of course up until 3 pm when we called it quits... we went ballistic!

1. (9.00 am) Hagar Qim & Mnajdra Temples. Old. Real Old. Older than the pyramids and Stonehenge old. The stone altars and large ladies at the Archeology Museum yesterday - this is where they came from. Not our favourite old temple spot actually. Weather-proof canopy, ropes everywhere, the odd earth moving machine... sort of took away from the ancient-ness of it all. But there you have it. Had to be done.

2. (10.00 am) Malta Falconry Centre. I admit it - I have a thing for owls. We were also both keen to see the birds of prey - in particular the Maltese Falcon. Short story - King of Spain who was a big fan of the Order of St John, gave them Malta in return for a small fee... 1 Maltese Falcon a year. Of course these were seriously rich guys keen on outdoing each other and everyone else... So one year they gave him a solid gold falcon. None of them in the giftshop. We were initially disappointed as it was too windy for the 11 am show (and we were the only customers) - but the keeper sought us out when were looking at the American Bald Eagle and we handled 3 owls instead - amazing creatures. So one of our fave visits of the day.

3. (11.00 am) Coasting along, it was a quick drive around the corner to the Limestone Heritage Park. We were a bit iffy about every bothering with this. Seriously, how interesting can rocks be. Just because everything on the island is built of limestone/sandstone. Anyway - huge surprise - was incredibly interesting and actually set up in one of the worked out quarries - so massive sheer cliffs of cut limestone. Saw all the workings and how staircases are made and even a cute cat-trap limestone entry/exit block for pet cat. All good stuff. Moving right along.

4. (12.00 noon) Tarxien Temples. Wow - we are lucky to see this ancient site as they got a tonne of EU money to do the place up. Beautiful canopy, new walkways, access into the heart of the temple (via walkway of course), new loos. Oddly - none of this is an issue at Tarxien because it's actually in the middle of a suburb. Next to the site there are houses and shops and it's only 2 blocks back from the main drag... so after a good explore it was pastizzis in the car for lunch and back on the road.

5. (1.00 pm) Right - enough with country/suburbs/quiet... into Birgu/Vittoriosa, one of the three cities, to see the Malta Maritime Museum. As a nation that has served many masters and constantly been fending of folks from the sea, this was pretty fascinating. Excellent models of the original ships that the Order of St John sailed from Rhodes (when they got kicked out of there). Feet were stuffed at the beginning of the day... definitely pushing through the pain barrier now...

6. (2.00 pm) The Inquisitors' Palace. Not the Spanish Inquisition in the case of Malta, but rather the Roman Inquisition. Which, having seen the exhibition, was a thoroughly milder and nicer flavoured inquisition. Usual rubbish of putting women on trial for witchcraft, but hardly anyone got tortured or killed though they did have a torture chamber and prison cells scattered throughout the Palazzo in convenient spots (basically anytime a room was cold, damp, small or in an inconvenient spot, it was labelled "cell").

7. (3.00 pm) Well... kinda... it was supposed to be... the Ghar Dalam Cave and Museum. Mammal fossils from the iceage. Stuff like that. As it turned out, we made a joint executive decision that Qrendi, cute little village where home happens to be was a waaaaay better idea. Play with the cats, take a nap. Take a bit more of a nap. Spot of planning for the third and final day of the Malta Pass. Early night. Yup. Perfect plan.

How'd we do on the €€€? Well, a total of €44 in 'entry fees' each today. In addition to the €73 on Day 1 - so €117 so far per person... as against the €49 price for a 3 day pass. Day 3, here we come!