Arrival – 30th Anniversary

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It’s super-silly o’clock and we’re off to Birmingham Airport, and onwards to Malta for a long weekend.

We flew with Ryanair and managed to secure return tickets for the both us for around £90 – and that included bagging those leg-friendly seats up the front too!

At just after 11am local time, following a short taxi journey from the airport, we checked-in to our Hotel for the next three days, and were soon unpacking.

The view from room 315


Our Room

We’re staying at the rather quaint and ‘olde-worlde’, Phonenicia Hotel,  located about 30 seconds outside the town of Valletta. As soon as we’d unpacked the essentials, we decided to walk into the town and get our bearings. Perfect timing then – the sun came out, turning a blowy 17 degrees into a really nice warm day.

First impressions were favourable – nice people, nice shops, and a town that’s having a shed-load of money pumped into it, in preparation for becoming some ‘cultural thang’ in 2018!

I’m sure if John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock had visited here in the 30s, they would have named their book and film the 39 THOUSAND steps! Boy, is this place tall! And fortified doesn’t even begin to describe it!!!

The Phoenicia Hotel

More Fortified than Corn Flakes!

Scenes around Valletta

Essential Pit-Stop at Café Cordina

Theatre Manoel –Third oldest Theatre in Europe

Built in 1731

…all fantastically restored…

…and still in regular use!

The Harbour

More Harbour

View from Battery Park

View from Battery Park

View from Battery Park

Out for a Date in Malta!

Around Town

That’s Put the Cat amongst the Pigeons!

A Fascinating Visit to the War-Rooms

Faithfully restored


Final Shot across the Harbour

Phew! What a first day! We walked miles and enjoyed some really good weather. We started mooching about 11.30, and didn’t get back to the hotel until 2.15! Those that know us, know that’s a pretty long time for us to be out-and-about without a car!!!

We’re not sure what we’ll do tomorrow – it all very much depends on the weather. The current forecast for Saturday suggests it’s a similar temperature to today – that’ll do nicely!!