Valletta, Malta (Mdina & Rabat)

Pyxis
Karen & Richard
Thu 28 May 2009 21:19

Thursday 28th May – Valletta, Malta (Mdina & Rabat)

35:53.799N 14:29.614E

 

Today was cooler and so we were able to get out and about on Malta.

 

Late morning we went to get a bus into the town centre, to the City Gate and bus terminus, so that we could get the bus to Mdina, the old capital of Malta.

 

There is a bus stop just at the end of our pontoon and a bus turned up just as we did.  We hopped on board for the short journey into town.  When I offered to pay, the bus driver refused my money – the nice man had decided to give us a free ride into town J

 

At the bus terminus we then hopped onto the bus to Mdina.  Twenty minutes or so later we were in the centre of the old capital of Malta and we found it a very impressive walled town that has been very sympathetically left alone rather than shored up with cement.

 

We enjoyed a couple of hours wandering round looking at the great views from the Mdina walls, the various old buildings and exhibitions.  One of the attractions was the old dungeons which offered recreations of the torture chambers from the days of the Inquisition; although we didn’t go in, Richard quipped that they obviously hadn’t tried broccoli.

 

After taking in the sights, we then left Mdina and walked on the short distance to Rabat, albeit via an excellent local pastizzeria for a snack.

 

In Rabat, we visited St Paul’s church where we could see that they are doing substantial renovations and enjoyed the freedom of being able to walk around it and into the back areas where works were being done. 

 

We then went down into the grotto underneath to look around just before a tour party arrived; the curator gave us an excellent guided tour through it.  It is a cave that was hand chiselled out by the Romans and reputedly was occupied by St Paul for three months on his visit to Malta in 60AD.  Such is its reputation that it was visited by Pope John Paul II on 27th May 1990, so we were almost on the anniversary of his visit – we expect it was a little busier when he came, though he couldn’t have had a better reception – we had such a great time.

 

We felt it was difficult to top this happenstance and wandered back to the bus terminus and got a bus back to Sliema.  We then walked the rest of the way back to Msida, through the tourist district, which is pretty much like walking down Oxford Street on a summer’s day – with the same Sales signs in the shops.

 

Shattered, I am putting my feet up tonight and Richard has cooked dinner J

 

Mdina

 

Rabat

 

© Pyxis 2009