The last evening in Palermo provided another great dinner and a surprise venue…,
While waiting for our restaurant of choice to open at 8pm…we found a rooftop bar…
With a pool! And amazing views of Palermo in the setting sun…
City side….
And back to the mountains behind!
We then headed downtown to a seafood restaurant…on the terrace in the heat! The meal was fantastic….but the lack of fans in 40 degrees meant we were red faced even without wine!
Saturday we had a full day and just wandered off in another direction exploring the less travelled streets of Palermo.
Ending up once again near the cathedral on the back side…
With a glass house like structure covering ancient rock (building) excavations… it kind of looked like this may have been Roman baths, but (with google help) these are remains of houses from the Roman era on the streets behind the cathedral.
We escaped the vicious hottest part of the day and retreated to our air conditioned hotel for a very late breakfast … a quick pack up and a visit to the underground spa…for Turkish bath, sauna, swimming in the pool under the caves and a massage!
As our plane was not leaving until 10.30pm we felt it appropriate to hit a local bar for a last cocktail and snack before checking out!
Pina Colada and bruschetta….what more could a girl want! Trying to ignore an increasingly scratchy throat! And cure it with kindness!
While being entertained by the local buskers belting out catchy music….
All good things must come to an end, and around 8pm it was time to go and collect our bags and head to the airport.
This is where the day became difficult…the uber driver could not get up the streets to our pick up and…we had to run a couple of blocks to meet him…we got to the airport with 20 minutes before bag drop closed and we were last in a queue of about 100 others. There appeared to be a problem with the bag rolly thing which kept stopping…there was a young girl in tears, another bunch of chaps getting cross with the staff and a very loud American lady who let everyone knew she could swim to Malta faster!
Meanwhile…having exhausted my water supply…throat was starting to scream at me! Needless to say an hour later(half an hour after bag drop off closed) we unburdened ourselves of the backpacks and headed to customs clearance…only half an hour before scheduled departure! More queues and frustrated people queue jumping….rather chaotic really!
That done, it was off to the gate…….where we finally found out our scheduled flight was delayed an hour….no seats, endless queues at the one cafe (to get water), we hung around the gate, leaning, standing, floor sitting and sweating. Yes the aircon had once again given up the ghost in the heatwave!
Sooo….are you all getting exhausted? We were!!! And thirsty (and in my case throat getting to closing stage!)
Another hour after the scheduled hour delay we finally started moving to embark! And a half hour flight turned into a three hour ordeal! We were due to land at 11.30pm…but we ended up getting in around 2pm….
Raiding my brothers cupboards for a much needed lemsip drink and half a gallon of water later, we finally got to lie flat about 3am Sunday morning!
Jill only had three days left here in Malta, but we had to take a rain (joke) check Sunday for me to sleep away my now full blown summer cold! And Jill to just sleep!
Monday…I dragged myself out of bed and took Jill to the Senglea swimming hole…
Where she cooled off and I sat in the shade breathing in the salt air!
Watching a grandad and his grandson fishing with rolled up bread for bait!
We then went to Birgu (one of the old cities)!for our morning coffee and brunch!
The streets closed and adorned with bunting and angels for the town feast – that has either just been or is coming up next weekend!
Yesterday, Tuesday, we had a quiet morning…me feeling a bit better, with a plethora of drugs I had found in Kevin’s cupboards, we went to our favourite sports bar in Marsascala for lunch and watched the morning session of the European Athletics championships…while filing our tummies for the day…which was then home and rest (for me) and pack for Jill, who left this morning for her next adventure in Istanbul!
All who wander are not Lost girls 