August 9, 2019 Friday Catania to Valletta, Malta

The next morning we had a decent buffet breakfast, but if you got up late you were probably going to be out of luck.  We left our luggage and went out to look for souvenirs.  We were close to the train station, but we couldn’t find anything.  We would have to see what they had at the airport.  Sue waited at the station and I went back to get our luggage.  There was a buzzer/speaker to call the attendant to open the outer door.  Nobody answered, but then I noticed the door wasn’t latched, so I went in.  There was a second button to unlock the door to the stairway.  It wasn’t working!!  I’m swearing, pounding on the second door, pushing the first day buzzer, and getting madder.  Another resident of the building came into the vestibule, I told him the second button wasn’t working.  After he tried it he called someone on the inside to come down and open the door.  After the 79 stairs the door to the office of the B&B was locked.  The window to the office was open so I yelled “is anyone here?”  Fortunately there was, they were cleaning rooms.  They let me in so I could get the luggage.  It was a stressful way to start the day.  We caught the bus to the airport and were there in plenty of time for our flight.   Sue was able to find the souvenir we wanted.  

We had tried to check-in online, but it wasn’t working.  So when we checked in at the counter, again the flight was crowded, yada, yada so our bag was checked.  Again there would have been more than enough room for our roller in the overhead bin.  The flight was only 40 minutes, the seat belt light never went off.  I’m sure we spent more time taxiing at both airports than flying.  Getting our suitcase wasn’t a problem because the luggage beats the buses that takes the passengers to the terminal.  We took a bus to Valletta and then walked through the old town to our hotel.

I actually picked this hotel.  I was thinking of a hotel close to the Cathedral when I looked on Trip Advisor.  This hotel’s listing had a photo from their rooftop deck with a great view over the harbor.  I told Sue that is the one I would pick, and since there were no Accor hotels she gave it to me as a birthday present.  You’ll see from the photos that the view was great.  We checked in and went up to the roof to have a drink.  There are only about 11 rooms in the hotel.  The top two floors have a small bar area where the breakfast buffet is put out, then a floor above that with tables, and then the roof top deck.  They are all connected by a spiral staircase.  When we ordered our beers the attendant told us he would bring them up, and he did.  He has had a lot of practice carrying a tray with two beers up the spiral staircase.  The roof top deck was worth the price.  After enjoying our snacks and beers we went out for a short walk to see where the Cathedral was and scout out a place for dinner.  Sue had checked out the restaurants near the hotel.  We went to one very near and just walked in, and they seated us.  While we were having our beer Sue noticed that several couples came in and were told that all the tables were reserved.  We must have gotten the last open table, although there were open tables when these people were turned away.  Sue had risotto calamari and asparagus (she remembers) I probably had a pasta (but wouldn’t bet on it).  Once again it was a pretty good day.

August 9, 2019 Friday Catania to Valletta, Malta