Malta 2015 Holiday - Day 7

Today Rob has left at about 6am to get his flight back to the UK and today is my first day with the family. The plan was that we would be going on a cruise around Malta to Gozo, from there we would be on a tour bus around Gozo, then we return to the cruise ship which takes us to Blue Lagoon on Comino to go swimming.

At 925 we waited for our transfer bus as instructed, but it never arrived. We decided that we would go to the Sliema Ferries to talk to the agents. So we first had to catch the 24 bus to Tas-Sliema, then change into the 21.

Charlotte used my dive bag to shield herself

Upon arriving and finding the same agent that Charlotte used to book the cruise they didn't know what happened but gave us a full refund no questions which was great of them. Whilst the monsoon that has struck Malta continued, we saught refuge in Mason's cafe. Which serves tasty, simple food. The rain has died off so we decided to take a trip to Mdina. First we caught a 12 into Valetta.

 

Because of the rain it was standing room only, clearly at least twice over the legal carrying capacity. 

Arriving at the bus terminal, we then caught the 53 from Stance 9 to Mdina. It took about 40 minutes and we arrived just outside the fortress city of Mdina.

Crossing the bridge into the city, I (being the avid Game of Thrones fan that I am) pointed out that this was the same bridge that Ned Stark (Sean Bean) crossed when entering Kings Landing in Season 1.

City of Mdina behind us

We then walked around the lovely city, clearly steeped in traditional Maltese architecture (unlike St Julian's and Ta Giorni where we were living which were clearly just overwhelmed with apartments for tourists). Walking around, we came to a part of the castle ramparts that offered a stunning view of the surrounding area, the iconic Tower in St Julian's clearly visible.

At exactly 2pm whilst cuddling Charlotte and enjoying the view, I asked for her hand in marriage - and she said yes!

An engagement with a view

To celebrate, and on Howard Shaw's recommendation, we went to Fontenella. A lovely cafe that serves decadent cakes and drinks. I had a 'Dutch Coffee' (Tia Maria, Amaretto, coffee) and a Chocolate cake with Hazelnut and Caramel. The sizes were massive but prices very reasonable.

Feeling of gluttony suppressed for now, we caught the 53 back to Valletta and then caught the 24 straight home which made for a novel change as we didn't have to walk up the [damn big] hill. Once we got home we chilled out for a bit before Charlotte and I headed out to Barracuda Piccolo Padre for a celebratory engagement dinner. For starter we shared Artichoke-pesto Brushetta then I had Salmon with Dill sauce, Charlotte had a trio of seafood (prawn, sea bass and salmon).

We decided to skip desert and buy ice cream from the supermarket, unfortunately it was shut, and the rain was slowly picking up, by the time we finally got home we could have been in a wet T-shirt competition!! Charlotte would definitely have won with her assets of course! ;)