20th June A loose cannon in Valletta

 


By the time we woke up we were back in Valetta, the first week of our trip over, almost in the blink of an eye. Where has the time gone? Just think at dinner tonight with Ali / Jay and Neil /Sharon well on their way home, we will be the old hands on our three tables for two...FFS!!

With our departure time set for 8.30pm tonight we have the whole day here (and almost a whole day when we get back here in a week’s time due to a late flight home). So we decided to make the most of it by getting of ship early to avoid the heat. This does have a drawback however as it does mean lots of things are not open. There was for example a huge difference in the amount of activity on the main pedestrianised street we walked down and then back up an hour or so later. 

We took the Barracka lift up to the higher levels of the city, we wandered for a couple of hours, managing to avoid most of the steep, stepped, side streets, we had a beer /iced peach tea and then watched the firing of the midday cannon from the Saluting Battery, which meant we could both cross 'cannon firing' off our respective and collective bucket lists. 

We didn't fancy a bus tour of the island or anything on water around the harbour. TOM has spent time here on holiday and so has already seen a lot of the sights and so we were happy to 'mouch'. What was of interest was to try and find however was the spot on the quayside that TOM used as his 'homework' for the trip by watching live webcam footage of people returning to the ship after their trips out. This enabled him to phone home so that his friend Ken could watch us wave like idiots at a camera neither of us could actually see!!!

And then as the temperature continued to climb it was time for us to beat a retreat back to the ship.Over dinner we meet our new table companions who I don’t think will be as engaging as last weeks couples but some you win and some you lose. 

Then with no show on in the playhouse and in an effort to shake things up a bit we spent the evening in the Indian styled Malabar bar where we were soothed by the sounds of the Blue Pitch duo and then the more aurally pleasing Azura orchestra.

Our departure from Valetta was then delayed for an hour due to the late arrival of a couple of flights from the UK so that at just after10pm when I nipped up to the buffet to grab some salt for a niggling tooth, the buffet was absolutly jammed packed with people tuckign into a late night feast having just got on board.

So week one and Greece all done and dusted, an awful lot of which seems to cover most of the cars here in Valletta, dust that is not grease. So it's off to Croatia we go, hoping that there will be more spots of interest and delight on the Dalmatian coast...boom, boom. 

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