The Museum Of Modern Thinking

We’ve recently returned from a holiday in Malta. We stayed at the Hilton in St. Julians, a very, very nice hotel - friendly staff, great food, excellent facilities (loads of pools, look it up on Google Maps).

We only stayed a week, but did that “day out, day in” thing, so after we arrived late afternoon we had a quick meal in St. Julians and then hit the sack. The next day, we stayed out at the beach club in 40 degree weather - naturally, I sunburnt the hell out of myself. Here’s a shot or two of the beach club (click the pics for a bigger version):

After meeting our rep on Monday morning, during which we booked on a tour so we could see a little more of Malta easily, and then went to Valletta (the capital city) to wander around. We got to Valletta on the bus, at the princely sum of 23 Maltese cents each, which is about 40 English pence per person. For that price, we could travel all around Malta! No wonder there were so many buses - I’m sure they’re subsidised by the Maltese government, but man, that’s transport done right. Valletta was magnificent, full of old, stunning architecture. We wandered around for quite some time, and then felt like going back home, so we struck out for the ferry back to Sliema. The problem was, we missed the ferry loading point, somehow, and then wandered around Valletta for another hour and a half. In the midday sun. Which was about 41 degrees. So I burnt. Again. We made our way back to the gate of Valletta, found a restaurant, plopped down and ordered a Cisk export (the Maltese beer, mmmm). We struck out again, went down a road instead of up (obvioiusly), and made it to the ferry - thank gawd.

We took the trip on Tuesday, visiting a (hyper)blue grotto, headed into Mdina (a fortress city), Rabat (Mdina’s neighbour), a craft village, and then Mosta’s church, which has the third largest unsupported dome in the world. It was also a recipient of an unexploded bomb, a model of which is now displayed in the church. It was a great trip, really enjoyable and informative

Wednesday was another lazy day by the pool, followed by a traditional Maltese meal in the hotel. Well, several Maltese meals, the stuffed chicken was gorgeous. There were also a couple of Maltese knights going around, with the occasional sword fight between the two - needless to say, my son was very pleased and awed.

Our last trip was quite cool - we went to the Playmobil factory Man, it was a long, long bus ride - one to Valletta, one to Hal Far, for a total of an hour and a half, in hot weather, with no air-conditioning. The factory itself was great, with a children’s play area and a pleasant restaurant. The best part was the factory tour: we saw how the people were shaped, dyed, plonked together, placed into boxes and shipped out. Ok, it doesn’t sound like much fun, but the machines were dashed clever, and my son kept of having the workers shove Playmobil figures into his hands. Frankly, we made out like bandits. We scooted out, back to Valletta, back into the restaurant for another glass of Cisk, onto the ferry and back to the hotel.

Our last day was spent by the pool again, and then we headed into St. Julian’s bay for one final meal at Rafael’s, a great inexpensive restaurant. St. Julian’s is an amazing bay, surrounded by restaurants, cafés, friendly locals, fishing boats, etc. - I thoroughly recommend St. Julians if you’re planning a trip to Malta. On our way back, we walked through an area called Paceville, full of loud pubs, clubs and bars - it was quite a juxtaposition from the rest of St. Julian’s, but certainly didn’t spoil it.

In short, Malta was fantastic, and we’re planning another holiday there at some point - it’s great!