Monday – Valletta – Day 2

Following our late afternoon wave-crashing adventure of yesterday, we decided something a little more relaxing might be a good idea, so this morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we took a walk into the city of Valletta.

A large double-lift, called the Barrakker Lift provided us with a painless, and swift, passage into the heart of the city itself (painless, that is, except for the 2euros each it cost for a ticket).

Once up on the high, city level, we gorged on expansive views across the harbour from the ornate gardens by the gun battery, and enjoyed the lovely warm weather that the morning had bestowed upon us.

Slowly, we gravitated towards the centre of town, photographing the old buildings and the large town square with its ground-embedded fountain before finding ourselves in Eddies Cafe, where we made use of the wi-fi. After that, we took a look at the newly-restored City Gates and a modern theatre creatively located within the ruins of an old temple, before heading back towards the ship.

It was a short, swift visit because we only had the morning to explore. We needed to be back at the ship early for lunch and to prepare things for my second workshop, scheduled for this afternoon. Valletta is a very easy place to like, though.

2pm was both the starting time of my workshop and sailaway time. There was a general anxiety about the ship returning to sea, however, because the forecast was for rough seas again, similar to those we’d encountered on our way in… but possibly worse. So bad was the forecast that lunch in the Verandah Restaurant was to be cut short and a special musically-accompanied Afternoon Tea was cancelled. I was starting to come to the conclusion that all my classes on this trip were destined to be accompanied by rough seas.

As it turned out, thankfully, the forecast was wrong, and, despite a llittle rockiness as we left the harbour, we enjoyed relatively smooth seas for the rest of the afternoon and evening.