Maltese wanderers in Valletta

Russell is now officially Maltese!

We left (on foot again) this morning to walk to Bormla and take the ferry to Valletta to collect Russ’s Maltese passport.

Taking the Valletta coastal route from the ferry

Through the Victoria gate and up the hill

Passed these couple of classics then stopped in at the lower Barrakka gardens

Looking very lush after the last two weeks of intermittent thunder storms.

Standing at the wall with the entrance to the grand harbour and the “Bell” memorial to the fallen soldiers of the 2nd world war in the background

Then across the road

Russ close up and personal with the bell tower.

Last leg of the mornings hike to the passport office

Past the Valletta point seaside cottages (a little Riverhaven carved into the wall of Valletta)

Passport duly collected, we made our way up Merchant street (otherwise known as Cafe Alley perhaps) to a well deserved cappuccino and Maltese bruschetta for lunch!

And the city got busy…

This little tourist train passing very close to our table.

Caught up with Kev and Rols and ferryed back to our side, catching a ride up the hill with them back home!

I will just finish today’s story with a couple of pictures from last nights stroll to the neighbouring town of Zabbar, in search of the cannonball stuck in the stone wall. (Another of Russ’s great finds). This ‘Ball’ was fired from the Notre Dame gate (entrance to the three old cities and about 3kms away) in 1798 attacking the locals, by the French (who were being pushed back off the Maltese land)

There it is! Still there (secured by a cross of wire) to the left of the window frame.

Zabbar is an old city, 6th largest in Malta and has many really old houses

Imagine getting up these after a night out!!

And of course a magnificent church (also hit with cannonballs during this same time when the Maltese insurgents battled against the French)

A couple of great walking exploring days – practicing being car-less in Italy for the next two and a half weeks! Tomorrow’s story will be from a new country!