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The flight from Perth to London was very good especially as we both managed to sleep for half of it.
Arriving in Heathrow at 5:30am and after picking up our bags we were through customs and immigration, transferred from terminal 3 to terminal 4, all in less than an hour. It certainly pays to arrive early.
With five hours before our flight to Malta there was absolutely no reason to hurry.
After another smooth flight, this time just 3 hour hop, and we arrived in Valletta.
If I thought that the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel was exciting, it was nothing compared to the local bus ride that we took later in the day.
Valletta could best be described as moving ahead at an accelerated pace. That is to say the drivers accelerate to the maximum speed in the shortest possible distance for no apparent reason. The streets in the old town are mostly the width of a small car but this doesn't seem to make any difference; with one hand on the horn and the foot firmly planted pedal, they hurtle along. Luckily, the streets in the old town are all one way, so we can see them coming.
Once we came to terms with this, we set out to explore the place with relative confidence.
Valletta (old town) is quite spectacular, one enormous fortress built into and on the rock base. Once the Romans had dealt with the Punic Wars, they came to Malta and stayed for almost 600 years. Next were the Moors, then the Crusaders, followed by the French and lastly, the British. Throw in a handful of others like the Ottomans, Byzantines, Spanish and the occasional uprising by the locals, it's no wonder there is so much fortification, each invading wave of colonialists building bigger and better defences.
There is no doubt that it was the Crusaders, specifically, the Knights of St John, who made the biggest contribution to the building boom. Their buildings are monolithic. Interspersed with all of this is the unmistakable evidence of WW2. Old stone facades laced with new stone, shrapnel pockmarks, a stark reminder of why the country was awarded the George Cross for bravery.
All in all, we have enjoyed our time here, the weather was kind, the food good and now it's time to head to Italy.
Footnote: It's our last night in Valletta and with 4 weeks of pasta and pizza ahead, we thought a good feed of vegetables at an Asian style restaurant would be appropriate. Having scoped our what was open on a Sunday night in Valletta, we headed for the aptly named Ste.eat Panasian restaurant arriving just after 6:00pm.
We ignored the first warning sign of impending disaster, when we went in the door with the Asian menu board out front, only to find it was a burger and steaks joint - same name Str.eat so not really our fault. The one we wanted was down the street on the other side and up on the 1st floor.
In we go, greeted by a tall guy in tight jeans, white?? jacket of sorts with a cross between a top knot and a pony tail who explains he has only been open for 3 weeks, still sorting out his suppliers, is short of staff ( he is the only one there) and is Michelin star trained. The food takes a while because of the loving care taken and is not just good, it's very good. We order and to fill in the time, he poses matchstick puzzles for the customers, passes around a book for customers to write jokes on ( a prize for the best joke of the month) and generally quizzes everyone on how they are enjoying Malta. We were the second table for the night and the first one already had food.
After a couple of false starts( wrong food delivered) our main meal arrived at 8:30 ( that's 2 1/2 hours after we arrived).
When the bill was delivered, it came with an apology that he didn't have a credit card reader but there was an ATM up the street. We paid cash.
The moral of the story:
1. Never go into a restaurant that has a sprukier out the front; and
2. Places with reading material and or games on the tables and/or very talkative waiters mean the service is going to be slow.
The up side was the food when it did arrive was great.
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