9/15/2019 0 Comments Malta with penny at 4 monthsSo we thought as a first family holiday, we would travel to Malta from where we live in Vienna. We chose Malta because it wasn’t too far away (2 hour flight from Vienna) and it seemed pretty westernised and if anything happened, a lot of people spoke English. However, we wanted to keep a sense of adventure to it so we decided to stay in two different places. The first 3 nights were spent in Gozo and the remaining four, in a place called Mellieha, north of the main Maltese island. We chose Mellieha because it had a beautiful beach right next to our accommodation and we thought it would be great to have some time at the beach and Penny could show off her swimming skills she has been practising at swimming lessons. Unfortunately for us, the weather wasn’t exactly beach weather. Quite the opposite actually! I realise we were unlucky as it was beautiful weather the week before, and lovely the week after as well. Typical! Upon arrival, we picked up our car rental, which was a nightmare in itself and we had to wait 2 hours in a queue at the airport. We booked with Goldcar and I won’t be recommending them- I probably should have checked the reviews out before-hand! We drove to the ferry terminal- about a 45 minute car journey to Cirkewwa and boarded the ferry to Gozo, which took 20 minutes. Gozo was beautiful and we had this amazing Airbnb with a pool. Mike’s parents were staying with us for a couple of nights and were arriving the day after, and it was big enough for the 5 of us. We stopped off at Lidl to pick up some groceries to last us for the next few days. Because of the long wait at the airport, our time was completely off at this point and it was past Penny’s usual bedtime so she was WIRED and so cranky!! Still, we arrived and she went straight to bed whilst we stayed up for a little longer toasting ourselves over a beer for having made it in one piece and without a murder! The next couple of days was spent venturing to Ramla Bay, which was a lovely sandy beach and we climbed up a massive hill, that looked easier than it actually was, to see sweeping views of the rugged coast-line. There was also an ice-cream stand that served one of the best ice-creams I’ve ever tasted. We also explored Victoria in Gozo; a lovely old town with winding alleys and the beautiful Citadel that we were able to wander around for free. Luckily, our 2 days in Gozo were full of sunshine so we definitely made the most of it. We got up early to get the ferry back to Malta and move accommodation. We had read that this would probably be the last sunny day for a bit, so even though it was a bit of a mission to pack up and move Airbnbs, we really wanted to visit Comino island and the Blue Lagoon. Apparently so did the rest of the tourists in Malta! We got a fantastic boat journey from Cirkewwa to Comino island and climbed up away from the tourists, burger stands and pumping music, and sat on the rocks sunning ourselves for a couple of hours. That evening, we sat on our balcony with a stunning sunset, Penny fast asleep after a busy day out on the sea, and we couldn’t believe the weather was going to turn the next day. But my God it did! The rain bucketed down from about 7am the next morning and didn’t stop for the entire day. I decided we should just simply dress for the weather and head out. Mike disagreed so we compromised and tried to visit the National Aquarium. The traffic was horrific and a 20 minute journey turned in to about 45 minutes. We spent about 10 minutes sat in the car-park waiting for the rain to weaken a bit but it didn’t so we jumped out and ran. However, we hadn’t banked on the fact that everyone else would also be visiting! (It was number 1 on TripAdvisor’s list of things to do in Malta when it rains.) The queue was enormous so we gave up and drove home again! An epic fail there. The rest of the day was spent entertaining Penny and watching TV! For our last two days, we explored Valletta and Mdina. Luckily it wasn’t raining quite so bad. Both cities were beautiful with wonderful view points and places to stop and have a drink and a bite to eat. Parking was a bit of an issue and we definitely should have left much earlier than we did (easier said than done with a 4 month old baby) but there were buses that went to both cities regularly. Whilst we brought the travel buggy with us, the baby carrier was much easier to use in Valletta on the cobbled streets and steps. Mdina would have been better for buggies and we saw a number of them, but we brought the carrier that day and it was fine. Things we did well:
Things we didn’t do so well:
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