Gardenview Holiday Complex Swieqi

... We sat out on our balcony which looked upon the walls of the city and the quay. Bustling horse and carriages trotted smartly back and forth. The road going up the hill is steep, but these horses are strong and fit, pulling with little effort. They really fly.
We boarded our bus with no security issues( like aforementioned places) and started our tour. I know nothing of Malta, other than ...

I've just popped over to Malta for a day & a bit (as you do!) to say a quick hello / goodbye to my parents (and bring them lots of goodies over for the last time in a while).

The weather is a little warmer than the UK, but not as warm as it's going to be in a week's time (ha ha ha).

Anyway, I'll keep this blog short so ciao for now!

Anita x

... and was going to be towed. Had difficulty trying to communicate that we were sailing on a cruise - so when we return to Italy we may be maxed out in fines on the visa card and have to beg our way home!!!

We were certainly glad we did the cruises in the order we did, The Costa Pacific is only four months old, thus is new and gleaming. It has glass lifts in the in middle which ascend 12 stories all the way up to the retractable glass roof ...

... over the island, giving the entire ancient city of stone a golden glow. I wish I had my camera to capture the weather-beaten yellow and gray hues, because the pictures I took as the boat left the dock are overcast and doesn’t have the morning’s magical light.

We purchased tickets to the “Valetta and Malta Experience” excursion the night before and met Juju and Juma at the seventh floor Stardust ...

One little story so far...a typical Maltese circumstance...as I got on my bike...maybe that part is not so typical but anyway...I headed off to visit my grandmother (battling the Maltese roads and traffic - an adventure in themselves)...I started to whizz down a hill...no traffic for a change...when all of a sudden I screech to a halt (and believe me it was a screech with my brakes) as a car up ahead is stopped at the side of the road with its door open. I look to the opposite side ...

... I can't wait to see it tomorrow! Today was pretty much awful. I got up to shower and such becuase we had planned on going to the 2 euro store and to get phones, but I felt so terrible that I went back to sleep at 11am and didn't get up until 3pm. Then I talked to Peter some on AIM and ate some bread and peanut butter. Then we went to the 2 euro store afterall and I got some tupperware and a closet organizer because the cheapest I could find them for in the ...

... I checked Damo's air but as his regulator wasn't working properly he asked me to check it again and I realised I had turned the air off instead of on (that's what I thought at the time anyway!). So I turned the air the other way and descended to about 6m with our dive guide only to turn around and find Damo still at the top. This time I had turned his air off! We thought nothing of it until the guide said to me "your plan didn't work!". Now I never hear the end of it!!!

... had to take a second look at that one, I mean what are the odds? My cousin Lillian was getting pretty excited about the discovery however I did remind her that as much as I liked the idea I am pretty sure I am a good distance away from being a saint, no matter which way you look at it! She agreed a little too eagerly for my liking! :) From Mosta we drove south west until we hit Dingli cliffs. Unlike the east side of the island where the coast meets the ocean at sea ...

Martha took me to Hagar Qim and Mnajdra the other day. These are some of the oldest known self-standing structures in the world. There's another on Malta's other island of Gozo as well. Oh my god. What is the point in seeing the Acropolis now??? seriously. Like if I was an architect and took a look at what the prehistoric peoples of the 3600s BC were able to throw together, I'd just throw my hands up, call it a day, and get ...

... were a bit unsure about going ahead with it without knowing exactly how much it would be, but didn't really have an option, as there was a 'no washing in the rooms' policy at the hotel. We nearly fell over when we got the bill came back at $40 AUD! We know that you simply can not compare the two, but we were very spoilt when many of the places we stayed at in Asia actually did our washing for FREE - looks like we're paying for it now! We think Malta is a special place. It's pre-history ...