February 20th, 2004
Since it was very cloudy this morning, we decided at short notice to explore the capital Valetta and the surrounding area. By bus No. 40 (0,40 Lm) we went to Sliema. All harbour cruises around Valetta start from here. For the tour we did not choose the largest boat of Captain Morgan Cruises on purpose. We decided on a smaller tour operator (Luzzu Cruises) instead. The boat was quite small, but nevertheless trustworthy. The advantage of that small boat was that we could go deep into all the harbour creeks. In contrast to Captain Morgan Cruises this tour did not cost 6,25 Lm but only 5,50 Lm per person instead and with 1 hour 50 minutes it lasted about half an hour longer. In addition the drinks on board were included. The boat tour took us first through the Marsamxett Harbour and then through the Grand Harbour, the largest European natural harbour with a depth of 4 km. The tour was really interesting and entertaining as well. We were told a lot of information about Valetta and the history of Malta in English with hardly any break. After the harbour cruise we strolled through Sliema for a while before we took the ferry to Valetta (0,35 Lm per person).

It was already past noon. Thus we looked for something to eat after we had arrived in Valetta. We wanted to try the highly praised Pastizzi. In the Theater Street we finally found them. We chose to walk to the Lower Barracca Garden to have our lunch break there. From the garden you have a wonderful view of the Three Cities (Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua) and the Grand Harbour. The Pastizzi were not overwhelming because they were pretty greasy. The Qassatat (small cakes filled with ricotta cheese or tuna and spinach) tasted much better. Filled from our lunch we walked to the Malta Experience and got tickets for the last performance of the day at 4 p.m. (3 Lm per person). Further on we walked to the Market Hall where in the afternoon nothing exciting was happening any more. In the morning there´s definitely a lot more action and market feeling. Opposite the Market Hall there is the Grandmaster Palace which looks quite plain outside. Today the president of Malta and the House of Representatives reside in there. The Armory on the ground floor is open for visitors. Whether the state rooms can also be visited, we don´t know. We rather preferred to stroll along the Republic Street, the main street of the city which is only open for pedestrians, and to walk along the extremely ascending and descending side streets. The Upper Barracca Garden we could unfortunately not visit, because it was closed due to construction works. Next we headed for the St. John´s Co-Cathedral. Also if you are actually not interested in churches, you should have a look inside of at least this one on Malta. Standing outside you might wonder why, but once you have had a look inside you know why. The floor is covered over and over with colourful graveslabs and the walls and ceilings are richly decorated. It´s definitely worth the admission fee of 1 Lm. Taking pictures with flash and wearing high-heeled shoes is not permitted. Luckily Anke did not wear such shoes, because we had to hurry up then in order get to the Malta Experience on time. The multivision show informs vivid about the history of Malta. Next to the seats there are headsets where you can set your language, as long as you choose the right one (Anke had Japanese at first). On the way back to the bus terminal everywhere we saw colourful dressed up children for the carnival. From the 19th to the 23rd of February there was carnival, so at that time when we stayed on Malta. Every day there were processions and events. So it should not be the last day that we could witness the carnival.