Friday 7 September - part 2 - Mdina Excursion

Steps:          14,143

I walked down to the Victoria Gate 

That is the hotel, above the gate & to the left.

shortly before 9am and then walked down to the cafe at the bottom of the road, to buy a bottle of water.  I was finally picked up at 9:20 and we were driven out to one of the mariners, which happened to be opposite some of the Embassy's, 

where other people were gathering.  What happens is that the mini-vans pick the people up and take them to a 'meeting' place, where they are then transferred to large coaches, per language. Dutch, German, French, English, Italian etc, all have their own guide.  There was a bit of a glitch this morning but it finally got sorted and we were finally off at 10am. There were about 25 people in our group.

From there, we went to the botanic gardens of San Anton. 

Elephants foot tree.

Spikey Silk Floss Tree

From the Gardens, we then went to the Mdina.  A beautiful old city with small narrow lane ways and some large door knockers.

 

From there we went to Dingi cliffs and Judith S, I had a prickly pear there and also a bottle of the juice.  Really delicious.  thanks for that tip.
After that we dropped off the people who were only doing the 1/2 day excursion and continued on to Chateau Buskett, for some lunch, which happened to be near the Presidents summer palace.  

From there we visited the Catacombs, then a glass blowing factory, then a silver filigree manufacturer/maker and then to Mosta and the cathedral and it's Dome.

After that, we then went to another 'meeting place' and the reverse from this morning happened. As I was the last one in the minivan, I got the driver to drop me near Republic Street, instead of the Victoria Gate. Easier for him and me.

Bought myself some dinner at San Giovanni and I could hear the explosions and fireworks happening down on the harbour.

Back at the hotel, I took a photo of the barges that the fireworks are fired from.

Carole M, it's jazz night tonight.  I've had my door open listening to the jazz being played from The Bridge Bar, just down from the hotel.  

It's now almost 9:15pm, so I think I might go downstairs, buy myself a drink and sit outside and listen to the music for a while and if the fireworks are on later, I'll try and get some photos of them.

I don't think the video thing is working.

I didn't go downstairs, because just as I wrote that, the explosions and fireworks started.  It's now almost 10:30 and they are still at it.  Poor jazz band, having that going on too.