When I got up at about 6:15 this morning and walked into the living room, I said to Christine, “why is it so light out?” At the time, I didn’t think too much more about it, but a little later we were trying to figure out flight times and manage our return flight booking. We wanted to find out whether or not our return flight from Malta to London includes our luggage fee. Unfortunately, until check-in time the day prior to departure, we aren’t able to access the information. But as we were calculating air and layover times, it dawned on us that possibly the time changed to standard time. After Googling, sure enough, all of Europe changed their clocks back an hour, just like we’ll do in the U.S. next weekend. So that’s why it was so light this morning. Unfortunately, that means that it will be dark by 5:30 or so tonight.
The weather was overcast and looked threatening for rain. Thunderstorms are in the forecast, so we stayed put. We sat out on our little balcony looking down from above at all the activity on the street. Our flat is in a noisy, busy area. Tower Road is a main thoroughfare around Sliema, and College Street apparently is a cut-through so lots of cars turn at our corner. I’ve been a little puzzled to figure out the rules of the road as cars turning right onto College St. just seem to turn and the oncoming car stops to allow the turn. They do drive on the left here, having been a British colony for so long. Also, motorcycles abound here and I don’t think any of them follow typical rules of the road. I think they are a menace and very, very noisy.
There is a crosswalk right below our balcony (we are 5 stories above the street) and it is heavily used because there is not another crossing zebra on our stretch of Tower Road. With traffic being so heavy, you take your life in your hands crossing the streets here if you don’t use the “official” crossing points. It takes forever for the light to turn so people can cross, but then the time for crossing is very short. You can tell who is new and who has been here for a while just by watching their street crossing. Those that have been here go very quickly. At any rate, we rather enjoy watching what’s happening on the street below and we provide a running commentary to each other on what we are observing. I know, doesn’t sound very exciting, but we enjoy it.
We had our sandwiches on the balcony and a little later I said, “let’s go for a walk.” With umbrellas in hand in case it did rain, we set off around the promenade around Balluta Bay to Spinola. It’s a lovely walk along the waterfront. Once in Spinola, we decided to go to Portomaso, you know, where the tall tower is, and walk around the marina there.
Considered to be Malta’s most exclusive residential, leisure and business address, Portomaso is a seafront project the comprises 420 luxury 1-3 bedroom apartments and penthouses, the 5-star Hilton Malta, a private yacht marina, the 23-story business tower, a major conference venue, exclusive bars and restaurants, a casino, and a shopping complex. In 2016 we walked around the marina. The facility is pretty spectacular and very swanky. Since 2016, they’ve expanded the marina and built several blocks of what they call garden apartments. These are only 2 stories tall and surround the new part of the marina. It didn’t look like these were quite finished yet, but I think they will be soon.
I like looking at the boats and yachts and I particularly like seeing the names of them.
Because it was really threatening rain, we didn’t get all the way out to the seawall. Instead, we turned back and decided to check out the Hilton Hotel. It was under renovation in 2016. It’s a pretty swanky hotel, too. The lobby is enormous, all marble and glass. The pool is a floor down and is both outside and inside. Many of the rooms overlook the marina. I don’t know what the view would be on the other side, but I imagine it would be the Westin Hotel, which is practically next door.
We then decided to walk over to the Cavalieri Art Hotel. We see this hotel right across St. Julian’s Bay. On the way there we passed the famous cat village. This is an area where volunteers maintain a safe place for cats. Through donations, volunteers feed and care for stray cats, of which there are many in Malta. This place is very controversial because it sits on the corner that a developer desperately wants to build on and public outrage has thus far prevented that from happening. Time will tell.
After checking out the cat village, we went down the street to the Cavalieri Art Hotel. Why named Art Hotel? Well, here’s what their website says about that. “Art has always been more than simple decoration. Artworks are not just part of the space but such stations in life that determine the visitors’ life as well. Beyond the sense of beauty and comfort pieces of Art represent a value which – in ideal case – is shown another face to the viewer again and again. This encounter could last for a lifetime.” That’s pretty impressive. We wandered around a bit and looked at some of their galleries.
After that, we headed back to the flat where we had dinner and actually crashed very early.
