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Friday - Fine
We had a good last day in Malta today. After checkout we took the bus into Valetta, and then we walked though the pretty centre to our hotel.
The hotel is really nice, it's down a nice little alley with open arches, and it has a real Mediterranean feel to it. It's a shame we are only here for one night.
After a short break we hit the pavement. Wow! And after the 5hr walk around town I definitely wish we had another night here in the capital.
Valletta is a beautiful city, it's not that big either but it sure has a lot of intriguing history and architecture. The city became the capital after the great siege in 1565. So most of Valletta's buildings are from the 16th century and the city is UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it feels like a historical site, with historic buildings around every corner.
The small city is on a peninsula and starts from near where we hopped off the bus at the city gates to Fort Saint Elmo, and has a population of around 7000. It is the second most southern capital in the EU after Nicosia in Cyprus. There you go.
The city is filled with forts and there are huge bastions all around the waterfronts. We followed the waterfront from the hotel along Marsamxett Harbour. Then we zig zagged our way through the centre, passing big palaces and cathedrals till we got back to Fort Saint Elmo. Along the way through the centre, we were feeling pretty hungry, so we stopped of at a couple different pastry shops and tried a couple of local dishes, mostly pastizzis and pies. They tasted fantastic!
We then walked up to a WWll memorial bell tower for a rest, then down to the Valletta Waterfront. We passed really old warehouses stretching along the water's edge and the huge defensive Walls.
From there we walked from the waterfront up to the Upper and Lower Barrakka Gardens. Where we saw three ginormous cruise ships leave the Gand harbour. One was a cool old timber tall ship. The gardens were nice and filled with monuments, statues and plaques, and also has great views over the harbor and the other forts.
We watched the sunset from up in the garden, then made our way back down through the centre to a shop near our hotel and picked up some drinks to cool off after a warm day, and some food for dinner. We are up early tomorrow to catch a plane so we didn't have a too late a night.
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