04-28-2024: Great Day for a Walk to Dragonara

I thought the hotel was going to be noisy at night, but surprisingly, we didn’t hear any hallway noise, for which I am grateful. Breakfast is included with our room at the hotel and we set off a little after 8:00am to the 6th floor where the restaurant is. It was a mob scene, so much so that there were no tables available, and it was a large area, three big rooms. We wandered around for a bit hoping to find people preparing to leave, but to no avail. We told the hostess we’d be back later, but as it turned out, we persevered and got a seat near a window giving us great views of the bay. At the next table was a couple from Nottingham, UK and we had a pleasant chat with them. The breakfast was surprisingly good with a buffet having both an English-style breakfast and a European-style breakfast available. The only downside was getting coffee. The queue for the machine producing individually-selected coffee types was very long and was taking forever. I found some hot water and packets of instant coffee and we made do with that.

Today’s weather was beautiful sunshine, but 30mph winds again out of the ENE. The surf was pounding and we watched it from the rooftop for awhile.

In spite of the wind, we decided that we would walk around Balluta and Spinola bays and head out to Dragonara Palace. We’ve done this walk several times, but today the walk was thrilling around the bays because of the crashing waves.

We’ve had dinner on this restaurant’s patio that is right at the water’s edge. Clearly, there won’t be any eating here for a while.

The breakwater at the mouth of Spinola was doing it’s job of protecting the little harbor. Some of the waves hitting the wall went up in the air several yards.

Christine kept saying that it surely was a good thing she got her swim in yesterday. No one was going in the water today, the surf was way too rough.

That big tower we see across the bay is Portomaso. The tower is a mix of and commercial and residential, and there is a casino on the top floor. Portomaso Tower used to be the tallest building in Malta at 23 floors, but with the rampant over-development, several buildings are now taller. Portomaso also has two very large apartment complexes and a 110-berth marina. It is definitely exclusive and swanky. Just next to the Portomaso Tower is a fairly new building that looks ever so much like the back of a cruise ship. We like to wander around the marina and look at all the yachts.

We then headed towards the Dragonara. It’s on a peninsula. The whole complex is actually the Westin Dragonara Resort. There’s a huge Westin Hotel with fancy spas and restaurants and then the casino. Crossing over to the casino provided some more crashing surf views.

We walked around the side of the casino to the end of the peninsula where waves we crashing. Across the water is the very nice Corinthia Hotel and beyond that is a Radisson Hotel. One time we were here we walked to all the hotels in the area and had a cappuccino at each place over our stay. That was our daughter Eve’s idea, and we enjoyed following that advice.

Christine then wanted to go into the casino. Back in 2016 we actually got our casino cards allowing admittance. We hope we would still be in there computer system, but we weren’t. However, we were registered and new cards, so into the casino we went. It’s a typical casino with lots of slots. On a Sunday midday, there weren’t too many people playing, but we walked around and then had a drink at the bar. We sat and watched the goings on for a while. I watched roulette with lots of money being lost; there were very few winners after several spins.

It was time to start our walk, about 2 miles, back to the hotel. Despite the wind, it was a lovely day for walking with nice sunshine. We actually doffed our jackets and Christine was actually in just a tee shirt as this was the warmest day we’ve had in Malta, about 70 degrees. On the way back around Spinola, a guy on stilts was talking up something as his colleague explained what they were advertising.

As we were getting near the hotel, Christine wanted to get a photo of one of the buildings she lived in as a child. It actually was right across the street from our Airbnb, but she wanted to get a better photo from the promenade. There are so few hold limestone buildings remaining on Tower Road. They’ve all been knocked down and replaced by huge condos and apartment buildings. The first time I was here in 1985, there were no buildings higher than 3 or 4 floors and every building was beautiful limestone.

We rested in our room for a bit and then went over to pick up Carol to go to dinner. We walked with her down Dingli Street to a small neighborhood restaurant called Maggie’s. John Tabone, her brother-in-law, joined us for dinner and then after we had eaten, Carol’s daughter Rowena joined us for a drink. Rowena does pop up shows of vintage clothing. She is very fashionable and goes all over Europe buying vintage clothing for her shows. Carol said that Rowena sells all the kind of clothing that she had in her closet in the 1950s and 1960s. It was nice to see Rowena and catch up a bit, and it was lovely to be able to treat Carol to dinner because she has been so kind to us during our visits.

So another great day in Malta has come to an end. Tomorrow is our final day.

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