Sometimes you end up with a dud!…

Day 6 Valetta, Malta

Viking Vesta ‘Malta, Morocco and the Mediterraean 16 day cruise from Barcelona to Barcelona

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We woke up this morning to very heavy swells. We really haven’t had very rough seas so far on this cruise. The swells actually woke me up! I noticed we were slowing down because the pilot boat was arriving. Off in the distance we could see the coastline of Valetta, Malta so we knew we were fairly close to arriving in port.

Coastline of Valetta, Malta

We looked down off our balcony and could see the Pilot boat trying to come alongside the starboard side of the Vesta. The pilot tried about 3 times to jump over to the Vesta but the waves and rolling seas were just far too rough for the transfer. The Vesta even cut the engines so we were floating without any power, and the pilot still could not jump onto board.

The Pilot boat drove away and went to our port side and the pilot was able to get onboard and bring us into the harbour of Valetta, Malta.

I will post the videos of the Pilot boat on Facebook because they are incredible to watch how rough the seas were when the pilot was trying to jump onboard the Vesta.

As it turns out we have been mirroring a similar cruise itinerary since we left Barcelona of the MSC World Europa that we sailed behind out of Barcelona. MSC had a day in Sicily yesterday and we had a sea day instead, but otherwise our itineraries have been very similar. Today the MSC World Europa was to follow us into Valetta and with the rough seas, the World Europa tried to get the pilot onboard (we saw them attempting it) and finally abandoned the port of Malta completely. I sure would be upset if I was on a 7 day cruise and Malta was my last port, and I could see Malta, and then the port was abandoned! The World Europa has 2 sea days now instead of a day in Malta and 1 sea days, before they disembark in Barcelona on Friday March 20th. And that is why I am glad we are on a smaller ship that is more nimble than the larger MSC ship which couldn’t get the pilot onboard.

With the delay in getting the pilot onboard this morning, our arrival into Valetta, Malta was slightly delayed. Our 8:20am on the dock for our Group 3 boat tour of the harbour was going to leave a bit later.

We got on Bus 3 around 8:45am and after the bus was full our Tour Guide announced that instead of the included tour being a boat harbour tour of Malta, we would be doing a 2.5 hour bus tour of Malta. We should have gotten off the bus at this point. Sitting on buses is definitely not our thing and we didn’t sign up for another bus tour of a foreign country!

Our tour was awful. Two hours of our lives we will never get back! The guide was coughing the entire trip and of course did not wear a mask. The guide let us off the bus exactly 3 times for 5 minutes each time to take photos and lost her mind when people didn’t come back to the bus immediately after the 5 minutes were up. The guide did not give clear directions either and at one point when we stopped at The Blue Lagoon and wanted to take photos from a cliff down below the bus, the guide yelled at us “It is only because of my generosity that we even stopped here!” I just wanted to get off the bus and get an UBER to get back to Valetta but we continued along on the bus ride wearing our masks to try and protect our health from her incessant coughing.

Whenever we would drive through a small town the guide would say “There is the XYZ church”. No commentary on why the ‘XYZ’ church was important, any historical significance of the church etc. No details on the history of Malta, socioeconomic, political or healthcare situation in Malta…NADA! We just had to listen to her constant coughing fits in between yelling at us and occasionally telling us there was a church or a monument etc.

At exactly 11:11 - only 2 hours into our tour, we were deposited back at the Cruise Terminal. I told Richard the guide did not need a tip. I am not sure if he tipped the guide or not.

After getting back on the Vesta, I went immediately to Guest Services to lodge a complaint about the guide. No one should have to feel indebted to a guide by making a stop at The Blue Lagoon, (when every other bus also made a stop), or get yelled at because of taking 2 extra minutes to take photos. Our tour was supposed to last 2.5 hours and the guide cut it short by 30 minutes. Whether Guest Services does anything or not for future groups and uses this DUD guide again we will never know. I saw on Facebook others felt the same way about our guide. The first morning in Valetta was very disappointing given we were originally supposed to have a wonderful harbour tour, but we understood that could not happen because of safety reasons due to the rough seas.

We did not have lunch in the World Cafe before we went out again exploring in Valetta on our own as I had an idea of a place that we should visit for lunch.

The cruise terminal we were docked at was behind us so whenever we wanted to exit the ship and go into Valetta we had to walk away from the City and then turn back on ourselves to go in the direction of the city of Valetta. An extra 10 minutes of walking ensued every time we left or arrived back at the ship.

Barrakka Panoramic Lift

We knew that the Barrakka Panoramic Lift was about 500 metres from the ship and that it cost 1 Euro each for a return ticket. The lift which was paid for partly by the EU Regional Development Fund replaced a former 1905 field lift that operated until 1973 and was dismantled in 1983. The lift saved a lot of walking up a steep hill to get to downtown Valetta.

We got off the lift just before 12 noon. There were crowds of people waiting for the canons to be fired at the Saluting Battery. The canons have a 500 year historic tradition as a timekeeper marker, tourist spectacle and memorial to Malta’s military history. Historically the 12:00pm shot was crucial for sea captains in the Grand Harbour to synchronize their watches. Since we could not get close enough to the wall for a photo, we decided to keep walking into town.

I have a “I remember when” story about Valetta, Malta. I was having deja vu as we started walking in Valetta.

Back in 2017 Richard and I planned a trip to Valetta for our vacation in October. I was still working at the time and our vacation was planned for about 10 days. We had planned the trip in January 2017 so after 10 months of waiting, we were really looking forward to our big overseas vacation of the year. We flew overnight Thursday evening Business Class to Paris. We spent the weekend in Paris exploring some of our favorite haunts in Paris and then on Monday morning we flew to Malta on Air Malta.

We checked into our Air Bnb, took the bus over to a grocery store in Sliema, Malta got some groceries for the week and had a drink on the cafe on top of Marks and Spencers.

The next morning we went to meet our guide for our pre-booked walking tour of Valetta. When we arrived at the Pjazza Teatru Rjal amphitheatre and met the guide he says to us “Your tour is not until tomorrow. You have the wrong day, but it is ok because we are only 8, so you can stay and walk with us.” We had a lovely 3 hour tour with our guide and he even walked us back to a nice restaurant that we had seen while on our tour. We had just ordered drinks and our lunch when my cellphone rang on the table. I didn’t answer it. Richard said “That was a 905 number, maybe it is your Mother’s nursing home.” Sure enough I called back and I was informed that my mother had just had a heart attack and the paramedics had resuscitated her and she was on the way to the hospital. I called my brother who went to the hospital and by the time he arrived, she had died.

We immediately made plans to return to Canada the next day and cut our trip to Malta short.

Now here we are exploring the same streets that our wrong day, one day walking tour of Valetta explored, but under much happier circumstances!

Our first stop was to Caffe Cordina which was established in 1837 and which served the traditional Maltese pastizz. I had researched places to eat in Valetta and being suckers for history, how could we not eat at the oldest, still operating cafe?

Pastizz are a traditional savoury pastry filled with curried peas and beef.

The pastry is very much like Greek filo pastry. Another variety of this pastry comes with ricotta filling but they are folded differently to tell the difference in the flavours of the pastizz.

We also ordered Greek salads and we must have got an entire tub of feta cheese on our salads! Delicious! It was nice to eat inside an elegant old restaurant in Valetta and relax for a bit over a nice lunch! The pastizz was delicious too and out server told us that she traditionally eats one for breakfast every morning. At 1.50 euros per pastizz we also think they are a pretty good value!

We were glad to be walking. And walking we did! So much walking in fact that we hit 19,000 steps for the day!

The seas were very rough today in Valetta.

The entrance to the port of Valetta, Malta.

Stunning streets of Valetta, Malta.

Richard walking down to the sea in Valetta, Malta.

The old walled city of Valetta, Malta.

We walked and walked and walked and finally we decided to go over to Sleima and walk some more over there! I knew that Marks & Spencers had a cafe I could drop Richard at for an espresso and free wifi while I poked around shopping.

We found the bus stop to Sleima and hopped on the #15 bus when it arrived, paid our 2 euros each and made the 15 minute trip to Sleima. We knew there was also a shopping mall called ‘The Point’ in Sleima so at least we knew where to find clean washrooms while we were out for the day.

I shopped and parked Richard in Marks and Spencers and then we walked to The Point shopping mall. I bought a blouse and some popcorn and then we walked back to the #15 bus stop on the beach strip to wait for the bus. By now though it was rush hour! Our 15 minute bus ride turned into 1 hour and I think both of us fell asleep on the return bus ride. Note to self: do not take the bus back from Sleima in rush hour. If the ferry is operating take the ferry. With rough seas today there was no ferry to Valetta.

We were docked in Valetta overnight so there was no need to be back on board by any particular time. We had responded to an email from Julie telling her we would be back for dinner in The World Cafe to debrief about our day at 7pm.

Gorgeous!

Stunning views out to the entrance to the harbour of Valetta.

Saluting battery, Valetta, Malta

Looking out from the Upper Barrakka Gardens we could see our Viking Vesta tucked to the left of my photo.

As we walked back to the ship from the bus stop the sun was setting and it was ‘blue hour’. A perfect time for me to take some gorgeous photos of the harbour. Valetta is a gorgeous harbour and everywhere we looked there were more cliffs, walls, temples and fortresses etc. Malta has over 7000 years of history and has had many different settlers and cultures occupy it from: Sicilians, Phoenicians, Arabs, Knights of St. John, French and British. Malta is a very beautiful and interesting place to visit. I will delve more into the history of Malta in tomorrow’s blog when we do some interesting exploration on our own.

When we met up with David and Julie at the World Cafe for dinner we found that their bus #4 had a good guide, a 2.5 hour bus tour and learned a lot too.. I guess sometimes you get a ‘dud’ guide and that is all there is to it! Just our luck today I guess! We made our own tour of Valetta and Sleima and really enjoyed the beautiful country of Malta and all of the photography opportunities I had today to take gorgeous photos!

Our tour guide today! “The DUD”.