Valletta

Ferry ride out of Dockyard Creek   

Having spent the morning doing a little sight-seeing and food shopping we took the ferry across to Valletta to get our first close-up look at the city. It was all very convenient with the ferry running from a pick-up quay just the other side of the creek from our mooring.

Saluting Battery, Dockyard Creek, French Creek   

Once across on the Valletta side of the harbour, we took the lift up to the Upper Barrakka Garden and a fabulous viewing point looking out over the Saluting Battery towards St Angelo’s Fort and Dockyard Creek.

Auberge de Castille, now the Town Hall    

From the Upper Barrakka Garden we walked past the temple-like Malta Stock Exchange and into an open square. Looking over the square was the Auberge de Castille.  When they built the city, each of the 8 ‘Languages’ of the Order of the Knights of St John built a grand auberge or headquarters building, where the knights of that ‘Language’ could live and eat.

These auberges are amongst the grandest of the buildings in the city but every building seemed impressive. Many of the buildings have carved stone facades and several balconies, including enclosed balconies a little like the ones we saw in Galicia, Spain.

We were in the high part of the city and as we wandered around we could see the roads dive off down the quite steep slopes.

On the side of the building that had been the Governor’s Palace when Malta was under British rule (we think that it had previously been the Grand Master’s Palace), we saw a stone plaque replicating King George VI’s citation in awarding Malta and its people the George Cross.

(L) Part of Marsamxett harbour   

There are several main shopping roads down the centre of the city but we avoided these wanting to walk around the city walls. The fortifications are just huge. Massively thick walls stand high above the harbours below. At the more vulnerable points there are multiple walls separated by deep moat ditches. No wonder the Ottoman Turks considered the new city fortress at Valletta to be impregnable.

Fort Manoel 

On the eastern side of the city we got our first look at Marsamxett harbour and the fortified Manoel Island.

Siege Bell Memorial   

Continuing around we able to see the southern part of the city and then cut across to Lower Barrakka Garden and Fort St Elmo. Here, sticking out on a stone platform, stands the Siege Bell Memorial. It was built in 1992 to honour the over 7000 people who lost their lives in the WWII Siege of Malta, 1940-1943. The bell is rung daily at noon.

Lower Barrakka Garden   

In the Lower Barrakka Garden there is a temple commemorating Alexander Ball, a British Admiral and Civil Commissioner of Malta who led the fight against the French in the late 1700s.

Taking in the view from the gardens over the Grand Harbour, we were almost back at our start point. From there it was just a short walk down the hill to catch the ferry back to Dockyard Creek.

We took the main catamaran ferry but there is also a small fleet of gondola-like boats which ply their way across the harbour. The boatmen also do harbour tours, dodging in and out amongst the much larger shipping traffic.

Valletta, Malta