Barely a breeze when we started out ...

Today we took the South Tour of Malta on the Hop-on Hop off double decker bus. The tour actually started in Sliema but we boarded in Qawra across the street and enjoy a bit of a cool ride on the upper deck. I had two warmer jacket options hanging in my closet. Ah well, it didn't kill me. 

The traffic was unbelievable and there was a lot of stopping. That happened all day long no matter where we went. However, as it was a Tuesday and the skies were grey, there were no crowds of tourists which is a good thing.

Along the way I snapped a lot of pictures from the moving bus. As we were up top, there is no window glare included, but the pictures aren't spectacular. And of course, I forget what many of them are. Here's one of, um, a gate somewhere in/near/past Valletta.

Somehow the audioguide was saying that one of those passages was fake but I don't remember why it was built. I think it's the right one which looks like the left. There's a good view of a regular bus across the street. How I snapped a picture without showing the backed up traffic I don't know.

We inched our way around the perimeter of Valletta, Floriana and the Three Cities of Senglea, Cospicua and Vittoriosa. The next while was spent inching along other very urban areas. The residents are certainly proud of the city they live in, but I dare any tourist to define where one stops and the next one starts. What they have in common is narrow streets, hills and lots of balconies.

How would you like to carry groceries home on this street?

One thing I've noticed in these crowded cities, if they need more space they just build on top of what's already there. There can't be many cranes to spare as this is a small country with a LOT of construction. I don't know if they have a homeless problem, but there are a lot of empty buildings in poor condition. Given the lack of land, I'm sure they are just waiting for the demolition crews to come along.

We wended our way past places we'd already explored and got off in Marsaxlokk. There's still a market there every day but nowhere near as extensive as on Sundays. There were tourists of course. That's what we are, but no crowds. We had our choice of restaurants.

By this time it had cooled and the breeze was starting up so we opted to eat indoors. We found a restaurant that had tables by the windows upstairs. Good choice. The view was of the harbour and we were out of the wind. The food was good too. Part of my fish platter was two shrimp. I'd forgotten that you get the whole thing. I managed to get a wee bit of the meat out of the shell but abandoned the effort. The two types of fish and the mussels were good. Today's Cisk was the 0%.

The view from our table in Marsaxlokk. I love the colourful Luzzo (small boats)

We wandered through the market to pass the time before the next tour pickup. As we waited it started to rain a little. Fortunately, it didn't amount to much. My rain jacket was warm and dry "at home."

I do love the Bird of Paradise plant, in any surroundings

At the end of the tour we got onto another bus to take us back where we started. What a huge traffic jam we had. One remarkable part on a narrow street is still stunning to think about. Our bus and another one were going to pass, driving in opposite directions. We were holding our collective breath hoping they didn't scrape together. Out of nowhere a cyclist went streaking in between the buses. I saw it and still don't believe it. 

As we drove along we saw that the waves on the Mediterranean were much larger than we'd seen and provided quite a show as they splashed the rocky shore. Farther out we saw a couple of passenger ferries pitching and rolling. We patted ourselves on the back for having chosen calm sea days for our ride to Gozo.

There may not be much to blog about tomorrow. It's the feast of St. Joseph and a public holiday. We have no special plans other that to rack up some steps around the neighbourhood.