The Great Escape from Winter

To see us off, in case we had any stray thoughts of staying home, Mother Nature provided a snowstorm. Not to be deterred, the airport was coping nicely and a parade of plows kept the runways open. We did have to make a stop at the de-icing station before taking off. If there was any freezing rain, it waited until after we had flown off into the clouds.

Our transatlantic journey began an hour later than scheduled, partly because of the de-icing and partly because the plane arrived into Ottawa a little late. Apart from some slight bumpy turbulence from time to time, it was a good flight, with decent meals and no crying infants. 

Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris is massive as one would expect. What we didn't expect was to have to walk so far and take a bizarre shuttle ride that eventually dropped us off one gate short of where we started. The passport check was a breeze, the two security screenings seemed rather unnecessary, but that bizarre shuttle trip gobbled up much of our 3-hour layover time. 

We, quite literally, were issued through a set of glass doors after a very short shuttle ride, did a large u-turn and were ushered out the same doors onto what seemed to be the very same shuttle bus. Not at all confusing. Then followed a very long very boring backstage tour of the ugly part of the airport.

Wandering through what we hoped was 2D by the time we disembarked from said shuttle, we found the area to check in for our next flight. The lineup crawled along slowly but we were rewarded with boarding passes. Then we had to find our gate. All-in-all we took almost 4000 steps in addition to our shuttle tour of the back parts of the airport, and as we arrived at our gate, they were already boarding. This all took three hours. There wasn't time to enjoy coffee and a croissant, or even grab them and run, which we were counting on being able to do.

The flight on KM Malta Airlines was about two and a half hours, during which we were able to purchase a snack for a princely sum. I was very hungry as breakfast had been more than five hours earlier so I coughed up the required cost.

There was no immigration or customs procedure at Malta International Airport, and our driver was waiting for us. The sun was shining and the views were lovely and the countryside much lusher than I'd seen in pictures. Winter rains, promising an encore on Friday, produced the greenery.

Taken from our taxi window en route to Qawra

Getting into the Fort Knox of our Airbnb was quite the exercise. A code to enter the front door worked like a charm. The code for the lockbox holding two sets of keys, worked like a charm. The keys however presented challenges. We had to use one for the elevator and that was fine once figured out. The key to our front door seemed to produce nice clicks indicating a successful opening, but the door wouldn't budge. Eventually, I tried it and added an extra little quarter turn after two full "turns of the screw" and we were in! Then I finally realized that to remove the key from the lock, it had to be turned to a horizontal position.

Our apartment is everything we hoped for and more. We've unpacked and attempted naps, although in my case no nap occurred. Now we're back from dinner at Trattoria Ricardo nearby. Tomorrow we'll spend much of the day getting acquainted with the local area, do some grocery shopping, get our bus passes and maybe even have time for a hop-on hop-off tour. Adventures await.

The view looking in one direction from our very windy terrace

But now, my pillow is calling and I must obey.