Today Eve suggested we join her and her friends Katie and Michaela on the north route around Malta on the Hop On Hop Off bus. We thought this would be a great way to just get an overview of many of the places we’ll be visiting in more depth over the next couple of months. We walked over the hill down to the Sliema harbor and bought our tickets for the bus. The girls were having breakfast in a café nearby, so we found them and had a cappuccino.
Then it was off to the bus where we sat up top in the double decker. Unfortunately, our audio for the tour commentary wasn’t working, so we just enjoyed the scenery.
Malta is a very congested place in the cities and larger towns. Everyone has a car it seems, so traffic is awful. In the little towns and villages, there is one road in and one road out, it appears, so the traffic is especially clogged. And, with all the tour buses, it really gets difficult to move around. But we didn’t have to worry about any of that; we could just sit back and take in the sights, sounds and smells.
Our first hop off was Ta’Qali crafts village. We remembered this place from our visit in 1985 and wanted to see the glass blowing place we all recalled. The village is much more touristy now. The little streets are lined with Quonset huts and shops where you can purchase souvenirs, jewelry, stone items and glass. Malta is famous for its glass and glass blowing. We did find a place that seemed somewhat familiar and watched for a few minutes men working with molten glass and shaping items.
Really beautiful glass items were displayed. It’s easy to understand Christine’s love of the color teal or aqua. You see that color in the sea and in glass, and all around the island.
Then we hopped back on the bus to our next stop, Mosta. Here is a church, referred to as the Mosta dome, that is the 3rd largest unsupported dome in the world. It’s a wonderful building and the dome is very beautiful. What’s really interesting about the Mosta dome is that during WWII a very large bomb fell through the dome and hit the center aisle of the nave, skittered down the aisle, but never exploded. The dome remained intact, except for the hole where the bomb dropped through. It’s an amazing story.
Back on the bus our next hop was Mdina, the old capital of Malta. It is a walled city that sits high on a hill, a very impressive ride up to it. It has been known as the silent city and when we visited in 1985, no cars were allowed inside the gates. But, it is now a huge tourist destination. The origins of Mdina can be traced back to 1500BC. Impressive nobleman palaces line its narrow, shady streets. Mdina is one of Europe’s finest examples of an ancient walled city and extraordinary in its mix of Medieval and Baroque architecture. This will be a place to which we will return to explore in depth.
We had lunch at the Bacchus restaurant in Mdina. We had to work hard to figure out the bill as the server kind of miscalculated. Eve, Katie and Michaela had their heads down, calculators on mobiles out, trying to figure things out. Christine and I were probably the cause since we asked for a separate bill and failed to identify our total share of the bill. At any rate, things got sorted out.
We hopped back on the bus and stayed on the bus the rest of the way around the circuit. We went through big, lush farming valleys. Most of the farming still is done in small plots by families. Potatoes are a big crop and a major export.
The area around St. Paul’s Bay is beautiful. It was in this area that it is believed St. Paul was shipwrecked and stayed about 3 months before being rescued. It is a very touristy area, but nonetheless, has beautiful views of the sea.

We all hopped off the bus not too far from our flat. Eve, Katie and Michaela were off to meet some other ASL colleagues. So we bid our goodbyes.
Christine and I went to our neighborhood market to buy some food for dinner. Again, we marveled at the amount of stuff there is in that little store. With good eats in hand, we returned to the flat for a nice, low-key evening. We’re really starting to like our apartment. It is beginning to feel like home.