Valletta, Malta -part two

Day two in Malta was very interesting and exciting. As I mentioned in my previous post we had only one day to explore Valletta, before we head  to the beautiful island Gozo.

We planned to start our journey right after our breakfast, but the huge rain shower messed up  with our plans. We had to wait for the rain to calm down.

As soon as rain calmed down we took a city bus from the station in front of our hotel heading to the center of Valletta.

The Triton Fountain looked amazing by day as well. The Triton square was lively and colorful.

The old man with accordion on the square corner right next to the city gate was still playing the same song as yesterday evening.

We wondered if he is going to play the same song again in the evening when we head back to San Ġiljan, and he did as we expected.

The song he was playing constantly was the well known beautiful Frank Sinatra’s song Fly Me To The Moon. I suggest you to play the song while you are reading the rest of the post.

Our first stop was the Malta 5D. This was something like cinema or theater where you can feel the “real” emotions of the movie. In a short time, you may explore the colorful and impressive episodes of the Maltese history and culture, magnified with 3D film, moving seats, water spray, air blasts and leg ticklers.

It was really unique experience. An incredible exhibition of works by local artists was displayed in the foyer.

The street in front of Malta 5D looked like it is ending directly on the sky. I really had the the desire to run down straight away just to see what is on the end of that street. 

Our next stop was Fort Saint Elmo. The view from the fort was breathtaking and we enjoyed our visit a lot despite the wind and rain.

We did not visit Malta experience, because we understood that it was some kind of movie, similar to Malta 5D experience.

But we did visit the National War Museum that was located inside of the Fort Saint Elmo. 

This museum has excellent displays showing clearly the evolution and the history of the Island.

You can actually see Maltese history from prehistory to the present days. The museum has a sections divided for every era with artifacts, films , photos, costumes and explanations for each period of history. 

It is worth visiting while in Malta for sure.

We spend there almost three hours and we loved it.

After exploring the Fort Saint Elmo we were kind of tired and hungry. Therefore we went to the Valletta food market for lunch as we planned.

We chose to eat at the charming Italian restaurant called T’Anna Mari fish grill.

Our lunch was tasty and simply amazing, the portions were huge. We accompanied our lunch with some white local wine from the bar, but the wine was kind of sweet for my taste. I don’t remember the name of the wine.

Our next stop were Upper Barrakka and the Lower Barrakka gardens, both gardens offer a stunning view of the Grand Harbour. 

The Upper Barrakka garden, is a must visit while in Valletta.

It is built on the top of a bastion.

Locals and foreigners relish spending hours taking in the sights there is also a very charming cafe but it was closed the day we visited the garden, maybe because of the rain.

A number of statues and monuments adorn the gardens, including one dedicated to Winston Churchill.

A monument dedicated to Captain Ball is located in the center of the Lower Barrakka Gardens.

The Grand Master’s Palace was unfortunately closed for the visitors that day so we couldn’t visit it.

Therefore we visited only the Armory museum.

They have one of the largest collections of its kind in the world, though reduced to a fraction of its former size by the depredations of the French.

Among its principal treasures are a suit of armor made in Milan for the Grand Master Adrien de Wignacourt (1690-97) and a full-length panoply made for Grand Master Martin Garzes by Sigismund Wold of Landshut and many more.

We liked this museum very much.

The next stop was of course the Wembley Store, for the Maltese sweet treats tasting, and later on a coffee at the charming cafe on the St George Square.

We also visited an event organized by Border police forces in front of the Parliament House, where they presented their work equipment, the working techniques and of course the serious difficulties and challenges of their work. It was a very interesting event. We also got some souvenirs as a gift from them. 

Later on we were just strolling around the city center for a while.

Before we head back to San Ġiljan we tasted a dish with four kind of local Maltese sausages accompanied with the local beer Cisk and pizza again. I wanted to try one local dish made with angels hair pasta, eggs and cheese, called Vermicelli Frittata, but the charming Croatian waiter said to me: ”Please order anything else from the menu, but do not order this dish.” When I asked why, he said that he believes that I’m not going to like it. I trusted him therefore I choose pizza again.

After dinner we went back to San Ġiljan. We had one more beer for good night at Hard rock cafe.  

Afterword we went to our hotel to pack our stuff and rest because we were planning to head to Gozo very early in the morning.   

I’m sure that there are still many beautiful places to discover in Valletta and Malta in general, but this is what we managed to see only within one day. I think we saw a lot, but not enough therefore I wish to visit Malta again soon. I really fell in love with Malta and the Maltese people.

One is sure, Valletta is beautiful, interesting and historical city, with  amazing and hospitable people. It is worth visiting and I would recommend it to everyone.